That article was scrutinized and digested long ago and it is not real "science" - AND it is more about deer politics then anything.

That article and what you, CNC and others make the basic mistake of using/adopting/adhering to a false straw man argument.
Specifically an all or nothing argument.

Here is the false straw man: you cannot eliminate a bad antler trait from a free range deer herd.

That is a false illogical argument because NO ONE claims that a bad antler trait can be 100% eliminated.

No one ever made that claim.
No one claims 100%.

And the flip side unspoken claim flowing from the first false straw man argument is that culling has a zero percent affect, which is also false.

As a matter of common sense, and I mean common math sense, as in 1 + 1 = 2 and 2 - 1 = 1, the LESS you have of a bearer of
a genetic trait, whatever it is, the less there is of it and the less it will be expressed.

So you CAN visibly REDUCE the prevalence of a genetic trait and therefore its expression.

How much?
Who knows, but this is not a 100% vs. 0% thing.
And that is the crux of the disagreement here - lack of understanding of basic math, the false straw man of 100%, and deer politics.

********

Timbercruiser, for example, shot the heck out of SOOS for years and saw a MAJOR REDUCTION over time.
I did the same thing and had the same result.
Countless others around the State and South have also reported the same result.
And I am just using SOOS here as an example, it could apply to any substantially inferior abnormal antler trait.


We know Mississippi created an antler restriction rule that quickly led to disastrous high grading and messed the herd up in just a few years.

What I am saying is that while nothing is ever going to be 100% outside the big pen, there are things that can be done.
There can be a visible and measurable affect.

We have had 50 years of high grading in Alabama.
What we need is a new version of QDM that involves low grading, do that for the next 10 years and see what happens.
If high grading hurts then low grading certainly can't hurt.