Would you mind backing up your opinion with some facts?
Clearly you suffer from "selective reading" when it comes to my posts. Please return to page 5 and find the excerpts from Jason Sanvely's article on Ozoga's research. Here's the findings:
the study demonstrated that even with unlimited access to high quality feeds, social stress caused by overpopulation can have profound negative effects on a deer herd. At very high densities, the resulting social disorder increases competition for available food, increases energy expenditure, decreases fawn survival, decreases antler growth in bucks, and reduces the overall health of the herd."
What areas of the state have produced the most big racked bucks over the last 20 years? Is it the NC counties where the herd has been under control and the B/D ratio has been around 1:2, or is it the areas in the SW and SE where the PGC has not been able to control the herd and where we have the highest deer densities in the state?
I'm not sure. Even if we knew which areas the biggest bucks were coming from it would be impossible to pinpoint which factor was responsible. In NC they may have less stress but they also have less nutrition. Whereas, in SE and SW they have more stress and more nutrition.
The simple fact is that even when we had 1.6 M deer, the bucks were not subject to enough stress to effect breeding rates, productivity, recruitment , the breeding window or rack sizes.
Would you mind backing up your opinion with some facts?