I think we don't have to look too far back though to remember a time when a "shooter" was the first 3 inch unicorn in many areas. I sincerely dont think many PA hunters miss that.
A 3" spike is still a shooter for juniors and active military and may I remind you that PA hunters harvested 52K 2.5+ buck in 2002, even though not one of those buck were the result of ARs. Furthermore , ARs only produced a harvest of 48K 2.5+ buck in 2007 and 58.5 K in 2008, so ARs have not resulted in a significant increase in the number of 2.5 + buck harvested. Remember,also that over 50% of the 2.5+ buck harvested had less than 8 pts. and at least 20 % of the the 2.5+ buck weren't AR legal.