To get a much better understanding as to "why" we sometimes see more top-end antlered bucks coming out of places like the Cherokee National Forest and other poor-soil, poor-habitat areas of East TN,
study up on hunters' collectively "high grading" (removing or killing off)
the very best antlered younger bucks (commonly at the ages of 1 1/2 to 3 1/2)
Rugged, remote terrain, such as much of the Cherokee simply does not experience as much deer hunting (say as the higher-quality habitat of West TN).
With less hunting, comes less hunter antler high-grading.
Also, many of this subset of deer hunters (in remote areas of East TN) are actually deer hunting for reasons that may be greater than pursuing a "trophy" buck. Their goals are often as much about wilderness adventure, and they are happy with "any" buck, rather than selecting a particular young one with above average antlers (for its age).
Their deer harvests therefore can actually just be more "random", not specifically targeting a particular high-scoring young buck. Thus, more of the young bucks with better antler genetics survive to maturity under these circumstances.
What this means is that a higher percentage of the best antler genetics (in the young bucks) may be allowed to reach maturity (age 5 1/2 to 7 1/2) where fully mature bucks tend to "express" more of their genetic potential. About the only way this typically happens is with either much less or zero deer hunting at all.
In most of TN, we actually see just the opposite, in that our very best antlered young bucks rarely survive past 3 1/2 yrs of age, and in fact, most are dead by a hunter's bullet by the time they could reach 2 1/2. In essence, the "best stock" is killed off too soon (for growing high-scoring antlers), while the "worst stock" is given a free pass to live to maturity.
Perhaps even more ironic, most "antler restrictions" whereby only the bucks with say "8 or 9 points" become legal bucks, those very antler restrictions only make the antler high-grading WORSE for those very top-end antlered 2 1/2 & 3 1/2-yr-old bucks.
We see this with both QDM & "Trophy" buck "management". Yes, 1 1/2's and some 2 1/2's get protected, but it's mainly the ones with below average antlers for their age given a pass. Top-end 3 1/2's are simply more likely to be killed by a hunter under most QDM & "Trophy" buck management programs across TN.
Most antler restrictions do in fact help create more 3 1/2 & older bucks in a local herd, but those bucks surviving to 3 1/2 & older tend to be mainly the ones with
way below average antler genetics.
The shear number of mature bucks to work with and the bell-curve distribution. Hunters on the King Ranch kill only one buck per 1,200 acres (and that includes smaller "management bucks").
The King Ranch, compared to most of TN, has a very low buck kill, and most uniquely differently than most of TN, the King Ranch actually highly protects those young bucks with the best antler genetics, until those bucks are fully mature enough to "express" their superior potential.
Most places deer hunted (in TN) are experiencing exactly the opposite of what the King Ranch is doing.
To effectively off-set a high degree of hunters' antler-high-grading, an extraordinary acreage is typically needed in TN. In fact, I know of no such acreage large enough in TN (that allows deer hunting coinciding or surrounded with TN's statewide seasons). Even the 20,000-acre Ames' Plantation has proven to not have enough acreage to do this. Although Ames' was never doing things anything like the King Ranch.
Guess there are a lot more options when one can privately control a contiguous land mass of over 800,000 acres. That's a land mass approximately the size of the entire State of Rhode Island. One buck per 1200 acres allowed to be killed, and either the younger below averaged antlered, or the really mature survivors, among which,
ONLY the top-end antlered were "allowed" to survive.
Seeing how relatively few B&C class bucks can be produced at the King Ranch, helps one to appreciate just how few bucks born even have the genetical
POTENTIAL to grow antlers that large (at least in wild, free-roaming deer herds).
