So as not to hijack the thread on how important are antlers, I am starting a new thread.

Unless very carefully done, as a general rule, most antler restrictions actually do more harm than good. In most states, the idea of an AR is to produce more larger bucks-advance the age class one year from 18 months to 30 months. Most states use a simple, faulty point count to do so. Here is what it does.

It may advance a spike or button to a six or eight point and then it gets killed. But it also gets the really superlative 18-month old, six or even eight point buck killed and those are exactly the ones you want to have breeding and eventually producing the best antlers for your area.

One AR that does some good is a combnation of spread and points. Eight points coupled with a 16" spread will move 75% of your 2.5-yr. olds to 3.5. usually at that age, they need no protection. That AR, if done on a statewide or region basis also produces a lot of poaching or deer going unreported when killed. Hard to measure spread on the run.

Age is what you should use to select what does and what does not get killed. Unfortunately 99.9% of all deer hunters are unable to age a deer by body type in a few brief seconds (including me).

So in the longrun, an antler restriction is self defeating.

Before any type of restriction is imposed, it must first be deemed bilogically sound and needed. Very few are. There is no biological basis for killing the best of your young deer. And, except in tightly controlled environments, 99.9% of the hunters would not know a cull buck one bit them in the tochus. Additionaly, except in those tightly controlled environments, nothing you do is going to alter the gene pool, state or region wide one bit. That is Ma Natures job. This is not like raising cattle except when it is.

It has been proven over the years that hunters are the very worst deer managers. And saying that has cost me a couple consulting jobs. However, it is true. Most deer hunters could not tell you their buck/doe ratio if they had to. They can only tell you what they see, not what they have.

So you bring a professional in and he tells you to simply kill as many does as you do bucks and shoot nothing that isn't out past his ears and they say he is crazy.

Unfortunately, most of us are.