^^^^^ Co-op was out of necessity around our mountain. We got to the point where all camps were seeing so few deer - and you hardly heard any shots anymore - that it was either cool the triggers and make a plan …......…. or not see deer. I stopped at a few camps and shot the sh*t with them and we were all in the same boat. One camp said they were voluntarily letting does walk for a couple years. Our camp adopted " no does " for a few years and started to see more fawns. Word spread among some other camps and beside laying off the does, most camps started to plant food plots ……….. big-time. Timbering, replanting seedlings, caging stumps, planting fruit trees …….... it all started to add up. A few of the "blood-thirsty" guys in our camp started to pass on smaller bucks too.
For context, when I first started hunting, Dad & I would count shots on opening day ( buck season ). It was nothing to hear between 50 and 70 shots every year on the opener. At our low point, I was hearing only 5 to 10 shots all day on the opener, counting distant shots.
Everything we do to improve things will pay off. We may not get run over by a herd of B & C bucks, but hunting does get better. Seeing a 140" walking our plots is worth the effort.