Originally Posted by
bluebird2
Here is more proof that Alt was claiming the 2.5+ buck would be bigger.
If he was just referring to the effects of bucks living one year longer due to ARs ,he wouldn't have said the bucks would likely be larger, "in the long term." Instead, the more and larger buck would be seen in the second year of ARs.
Of course you've left out something very important.....CONTEXT
Gary Alt definitely overstepped his bounds with his speeches at times but in the meetings I attended, the "long term" was explained as uncharted territory. Alt flat out admitted that we wouldnt know all the long term effects till time showed us. He did talk about the possibilities for a buck who learned to survive one year being better able to survive past 2.5. The number of 3.5+ bucks has not changed as much as we all hoped and as much as Alt either believed or wanted us to believe. That does not translate to a claim that the average buck of any given age class would be bigger.
Thats how the "more and bigger bucks" was explained in the meetings I attended. No, it hasnt lived up to our highest hopes but I notice that you avoid the fact that that Alt said hundreds of times that this was uncharted territory and that mistakes would undoubtedly be made. Whats not a mistake is that there was never a promise that bucks of the same age class would be bigger after AR and that whole thing is nothing more than a lie and distortion.
As an example of mistakes Alt even cited some big mistakes that had already been made IE: the one year (around 2000/2001) that doe season opened on the last Saturday of the traditional "buck" season and resulted in more than doubling the traditional buck kill on that day.
Personally, I'm glad he's gone, but thats the CONTEXT of the "more and bigger bucks" statement in the meetings I attended