In heavily hunted regions, where pressure is intense on bucks (like Pa and NJ), you get no net gains in mature (3.5 yr old+) from AR's, and if BB are not carefully protected, you get a net loss after a few years. That is the reality of antler restrictions in some places.
Could be that we will end up with no net gain in 3.5 and the BB kill is also a concern. The bottom line is that we also need a culture change. We need to get rid of the "it's just a spike but at least I didn't have to settle for a doe" mentality. We also need to encourage voluntary passing of BB's. Hopefully, as time goes by more hunters will buy into the mindset of letting immature bucks and BB's walk in order to wait for a more mature buck. In the meantime, shooting a doe, hopefully a mature doe, helps keep the herd in balance and puts venison in the freezer. The positive results we've seen in such a short time have changed attitudes among many hunters I've talked to.
Lets face it, there will always be some that can't accept any change at all. The Unified crowd has been telling us that the sky is falling for many years now and yet the herd keeps increasing. I find it really curious that some of that crowd b!tches up a storm about the BB kill but admits to intentionally killing bunches of em. Sounds to me like sour grapes from hunters without the commitment or talent it takes to shoot a mature deer be it male OR female.
Here's just one example:
I will be satisfied to hunt for doe and BB and leave the big bucks to the trophy hunters who want to spent the time and effort to harvest a trophy.
Not a statement I'd normally criticize except that it comes from someone who says the antlerless kill in general and especially BB kill is way too high .
I'd call that being a hypocrite, plain and simple[:'(]