AT Hiker":37vsleaj said:
I guess in my simple mind I cannot comprehend the antler restrictions having a negative effect, Im not doubting they do, I just dont get it.
It doesn't harm age structure AT Hiker, it improves it. But the harm is done by high-grading the yearling buck population. It isn't true with absolutely every yearling buck, but ON AVERAGE, the largest antlered yearling bucks end up being the largest antlered mature bucks. If you kill off the largest yearling bucks, in a couple of years you will see the average antler size of older bucks get smaller, because so many of the mature bucks that
would have had large antlers at maturity get killed as yearlings--
the age when bucks are most susceptible to harvest. I don't remember the exact number, but I believe MS saw a decline of around 18 gross inches on mature bucks in the areas where high-grading took the biggest toll. That's a HUGE decline.
And interestingly, the areas where high-grading takes the biggest toll is in the areas with the best habitat. In high-quality habitat areas, food resources are good enough that "genetic potential" can begin to be displayed even as a yearling, hence the top genetic bucks grow antlers that get them killed as yearlings. In poor habitat areas, antler restrictions actually work much better, because few if any yearlings have the food resources to actually grow antlers large enough to qualify for harvest.