I completely agree with you. Diehard and more skilled trophy hunters take a serious toll on trophy areas. I believe this is why the Paunsaugunt here in Utah went downhill.
Lots of guys with buddies along to help gradually killed a larger portion of top end bucks in the unit compared to prior years.
I think that is exactly what has happened in Wyoming and could happen in Colorado. The premium units in Colorado are attracting more "Trophy Deer Hunters" than ever before. Just a few years ago, I ran into many Eastern elk hunters holding deer tags in the unit. Most really didn't care about super bucks, just wanted to kill a good 4-point.
In the future, I think more trophy hunters will be in the draw for those units, which will mean more will draw, and more of the super bucks will be killed.
What can be done? That's the million dollar question! Utah cut Paunsaugunt tags, that's helped some. I think Wyoming will need to eventually make residents pick a region, or maybe shorten the hunt.
Limiting tags and shuffling season dates to make the harvest of trophy game a little less is about all I can see that can be done.
The problem is, most hunters and game biologists could careless how big bucks are, they just want a solid buck to doe and doe to fawn ratio.
Brian Latturner
MonsterMuleys.com