Though I much prefer dragging a smallish buck up a mountain than a big bruiser, I'm more concerned about the lack of quality antlered bucks on public hunting land here in Maryland.

Even though Maryland has certain antlered restrictions on harvesting whitetail bucks, it'll never be enough, as long as the Maryland DNR is in cahoots with the automobile insurance industry; that wants the deer herds annihilated because of deer/automobile collisions.

The way the Maryland DNR pursues with this ongoing devious trade-off with the automobile insurance industry....is that they schedule early muzzleloader seasons before the deer even have a chance to breed. I'm okay with early archery seasons...but with muzzleloaders --- unh-unh.