Let me also add that not all areas of TN are equal. For some unknown reason, some counties are doing great in the way of harvested buck age structure while some are doing terrible (no improvements from the past). And these good and bad counties are scattered all over the state, sometimes directly adjacent. Talking to local wildlife officers, many of them believe the difference is simple localized attitudes. Hunters in some counties care about older bucks while hunters in other counties don't.

In the "bad" county circumstances, I would have no problem with the wildlife agency attempting further means to reduce buck harvests, such as a 1 buck limit. But first I would want to see the local hunters support that idea. If they are happy killing forkhorns every year, so be it. And I would always support a lower buck limit before an antler restriction, even if that means a buck quota system. In many parts of TN, an antler restriction won't work biologically. Like the better habitat areas of Mississippi found out, an antler restriction can cause long-term problems where yearling buck antler development can be highly variable.