Restricting the antler size of bucks does nothing to reduce the herd....the opposite is true. HR is what many are up in arms about and frankly I think they're just greedy and need to adapt.
For the first time in a long time you are right. AR does nothing to reduce the herd and in fact , it is responsible for the increase in the OW herd . In 2001 the PGC said that a harvest of 284 K anterless deer reduced the OWDD by 8% . But , in 2002 we harvested 352K anterless deer but only 165 K buck and the OW herd increased by 1.6%. So the reduced buck harvest due to AR, offset the increased anterless harvest and the herd increased instead of decreasing as Alt predicted. In 2003 we had the second highest anterless harvest, but the buck harvest declined even more and the PGC said the herd remained stable. But, if we had havested 203K buck as we did in 2001., the OW herd would have been reduced by 61 K.
Therefore , IMHO it is those that support AR that are greedy and have little concern for protecting the habitat and are only concerned with harvesting bucks with larger antlers.