I see what you are saying in part but just because the total buck harvest went down 20% doesn't mean there are 20% fewer bucks in the woods. Most of the decline in harvest can also be attributed to the fact that all the weekend warriors who usually hunt the first saturday and drop a dink are not putting in the time to take a larger buck. It used to be that joe blow could walk out opening day and shoot the first 3" spike that walked by. Now over the past 3 years this same guy goes out, sees his usual 3" spike but now lets it walk. That buck is still in the woods but is not counted in the harvest numbers. If they allowed spikes and above again you would probably see the harvest numbers go back to where they were 3 years ago. Does this mean that the deer bred like crazy last year and produced vast amounts of buck to get the harvest numbers back up? No probably not. So basically, the bucks are still there, we're just not allowed to shoot everything that walks by us. IMHO