Brock made a great comment that before baiting and cell cameras, “good potential” young deer and “poor potential” young deer were killed at the same rate. Now a higher percentage of “good potential” young deer are targeted, which basically high grades your herd over time. It has a negative cumulative effect. He can clarify if I misstated.
That’s 100% correct. I see it all the time. The very best (highest scoring) middle aged deer are selected to kill and the lower end of the bell curve is selected to walk. That puts the lower scoring deer in the upper age classes, while the higher scoring deer are being removed between 2-4 years of age across the board. I see very large acreages losing near 100% of 2-3 year olds on the upper end of the bell curve every single year. They don’t lack mature deer. But they certainly lack the better mature deer. That ALL changed with legalized baiting on small properties and cameras. Selective harvest over random harvest.
