The big boys didn't wait until rifle season to get shot in our area. The biggest buck that was taken was an average 8 pt. Our group only saw one small 4pt. and the neighbor hunted 11 days and only saw one deer. Herd reduction in our area has totally offset any positive effect ARs may have had if the herd had not been reduced so dramatically.The local paper didn't even have an article on the successful hunters after the first week and there wasn't anything in this Sundays sports section.
But, my 13 yr. old niece harvested a doe someone else crippled on the last drive in the last hour of the season,so that made our group a bunch of happy campers.