Steve...
It is my opinion that saying shifting the season so that there is a break in December and then the season will end in February will result in more bucks being killed and more mature bucks being killed is an overstatement. I realize that you said "could" to each of the social and biological issues but in your discussion you failed to include that the opposites "could" also occur.
A few possiblilites are that
1) As hunters are able to hunt into February they will be more comfortable passing a marginal buck in late January as they will not percieve that the marginal buck may be their only chance at a "shooter" for the year.
2) Hunters who are now dissatisfied that they are not getting to hunt into February will be more likely to work at habitat improvement, improving age structure, and other management techniques if they feel like their investment is more likly to pay dividends..
As I am sure you are aware...humans are the most unpredictable animals. To almost any action involving human behavior, there are unintended and unpredicted consequences. To say that shifting the season later will result in a change in age structure or buck harvest is an overstatement unless there is research out there to provide confimation. If there is research on this situation, I'd be interested in reading it. It the research is there though...you probably would have left out the word "could".
