FroMan,
I think you are absolutely correct. And there are some deer biologists that agree with you. But you dont need a biologist to know that the three-point rule--if left in place long term--eventually harms the buck gene pool. When hunters are compelled to harvest bucks with a minimum of 6 points, the majority of the 6 and 8 point bucks harvested are going to be the young dumb ones...and the young bucks that have already developed nice racks are the genetically superior bucks (at least superior for antlers). This takes these bucks out of the gene pool early. At the same time, tens of thousands of hunters that would be just as happy harvesting the first spike they saw are forced to wait for a bigger, but still likely young, buck. Add to this the prohibition to take does in much of the state this season and you have EVEN MORE pressure on the young, quality bucks. Another thing we all know happens too often is hunters shooting illegal bucks and just leaving them dead in the woods. Some of the best marksmen we all know suddenly started coming back to camp saying they had missed as soon as that 3 point rule went into effect. What to do? I dont know...but it seems to me that a " pulsed" system would be better.... maybe every third year its " spikes only" or maybe you make ALL bucks off limits once every 3 years. Or maybe if the 3 point rule was done just once every 3 years. I dont know, but we have to do something different.