Antler restrictions work to the extent that the do allow more 1.5 buck to survive , but there has never been a study that showed more older buck were required to have a healthy herd. In fact, 50 years of harvesting 80% of our 1.5 bucks has produced no documented negative effects on our herd. After just one year of AR the PGC was bragging about the big buck our herd was producing. AR made the rack hunters happy,but let the average Joe less than pleased and produced lower buck harvests and created a split in the hunting community,while accomplishing little.

I agree . But, Alt has to do more to promote hunting and hunters as the solution to the problem. Instead ,while talking at conferences, he denigrates hunters and paints us as the problem that prevented the PGC from controlling the herd . He actually said in an iterview that hunters have prevented the PGC from harvesting enough anterless deer ,even though we have been buying and using as many anterless tags as they issue for years. Instead of elevating hunters he makes jokes about our ineptitude and references the study that says most hunters don't walk more than a third of a mile from their car and that is why they don't see deer. But, then he turns around and says hunters are to efficient at harvesting buck and we need AR to protect more buck. When Alt puts down hunters he is not helping to encourage landowners to allow more acces ,and in fact ,it would have the opposite effect.

Thanks for acknowledging that my suggestions have some merit . I post here not to bash Alt and the PGC ,but to provide the other side of the issues which you don't get in most articles by our outdoor writers who reguritat what Alt tells them without asking the hard questions.