bluebird2

That simply is not true. Totally eliminating late breeding would not produce bigger buck than ever before. They would still be just average 1.5 buck.

FiveMiler

Ahhhhh! The old "accuse them of being USP" mantra when you can't answer the question. That's OK though. Since you can't, perhaps Denny can answer the question.

BTBowhunter

Funny how you only quoted one line from the post. You have no answer to the rest of the post because it was accurate and you can't dispute it. No scientific evidence exists that herd health or breeding rates have changed either way since AR/HR.

Alsoundisputable is the fact thatwhile many hunters, including those that supported HR at first,have expressed concern over the lower doe numbers now observed in many areas, the vast majority of hunters, including many of those that opposed AR,now agree that the average quality of our bucks has been substantially upgraded.

bowtruck

i cannot believe that ppl if they hunt drive or leave their house dont think quality has went up i see morenice buck betterthen ever before maybe before you saw 3 spikes instead of 1 8pt maybe but maybe the older buck hide better to

bluebird2

Thank you for admitting that you are not ignoring my posts as you claimed you were. You wouldn't have cited the embryos /doe if you hadn't seen the stats I posted. but the facts are the number of embryos /doe decreased from 1.64/embryos/doe in 2002 to 1.53 embryos/doe in 2006. Breeding rates declined from 92% in 2003 to 89% in 2006. Those are very significant decreases when you consider the fact that both breeding rates and productivity were predicted to increase.

Coalcracker

I see three spikes as threepossibilities to make three hunters happy. One eight pointer as a possibilty to make one hunter happy. What can be so bad about havingthree spikes, unless your a trophy hunter.

Coalcracker

Sounds like another theory that two negatives make a positive

BTBowhunter

Makes sense.

The part you left out is that those three spikes now are allowed to grow up under AR and then they can make three hunters happy. In the meantime, they probably are seen by several more hunters while they grow up and virtually every hunter I know enjoys seeing deer. So there is actually more potential for more hunters to enjoy those three deer if we simply let them grow up.

bowtruck

well said btb

livbucks

I didn't see a single unhappy hunter in that photo contest website.

I enjoy having those little bucks around and shooting them would do nothing for me. I'd rather pass on them and let a young hunter score or take the chance on him growing into my interest.