Lastly - as far as immature bucks doing the breeding - Studies show - that even in a very unbalanced herd - most does are still bred by the Dominant, local buck(s) as determined by the social structuring in August/Sept. Do some of the immature deer do the breeding? YES - but it is not Nature's way. The only way immature will ever do most of the breeding - is if there are no dominant, older bucks around.
That is right....and even a yearling can be a "dominant buck" depending on the local deer population.
AR here in NY won't decrease your herd numbers.
Here in NY we don't have too many hunters. We may have too many hunters that hunt public land or even the land that is private and over hunted but we don't have too many. Look at the land that is not hunted because of.....the excuses..the terrain is too difficult, there aren't many deer there so I'm not going to waste my time...etc ...
The total numbers of gun hunters here in NY is what 630,000? for how much land? How many are successful? Remember, some aren't successful because they smell like a breakfast as they walk through the woods. This is an entirely differrent topic.
FH, managing for quanity....??? If you look at the CTF recommendations here in NY the TF's have recommended that the DEC allow a larger amount of deer be harvested than historically has happened. That means that the CTF and the people associated with them want a smaller deer here. The DEC has been trying to reduce the deer herd. There is plenty of evidence to show such as well.
AR is on its way.