I agree and have seen things turn around here in Missouri. We have had an antler point restriction of 4 points on at least one side in my county since 2005. We saw many more 8point+ bucks in 2006 and every year after that. Now everyone has a chance at an 8pointer, they are everywhere! There are more, and larger bucks to shoot all over the place, and a much greater oportunity to kill a really big buck. I'm not sure what the average class of shootable, small,(minimum legal) bucks is, but my bet would be about 120 inches for the little bucks. That pushes a good medium size buck up around 150, and big bucks are 155+.
Another + is that people have to slow down and take a good look at the deer before shooting, which should make us all safer. Counting points is a bit more difficult than just identifying a deer and snap shooting. The people who shot small bucks are meat hunters and need to be shooting only does anyway, and the people who want a good buck can have one. Now, the next step should be, if hunters don't step up and kill does for management reasons, to impose an earn a buck program.
People will hate me for this, but I think they need a doe harvest early on in Sept. for does. And if residents don't kill one or more does for consevation/herd management purposes, then they can't buy a buck tag for the Nov. rut hunt, unless they pay a penalty equal to the Non-Resident fee of $225. I think this would come closer to accomplishing the goals of the MDC, by forcing guys who think shooting a doe is for pussies to actually help out with consevation, by either shooting does or paying cash. I also think Non-Residents should earn their buck for the following seasons, or possibly earn a second buck in the muzzleloader season by killing two does and paying an additional $100.