Thread: Balloted/permitted hunting blocks

Had a robust discussion with a few locals here about the merits or lack thereof of balloted or permitted hunting blocks and was wondering what the consensus is among those on here.
We live against the blue mountains which are balloted year round and are known of course for the blue mountains fallow herd.
The population in general is healthy and self sustaining, in fact sometimes the numbers do swell and some culling happens particularly on private land surrounding the blocks. There are some good bucks getting about but again most of these are on the edge country on private land which brings me to my gripe with the ballot system.
Whilst I can only speculate that a ballot is a fair way of giving everyone a crack at hunting the area I can't help but think it's actually detrimental to the quality of the bucks that come off the public land. There is a core group of local-ish hunters that put in for the ballots every month but there is also an equally as large or probably larger group of people that put in for the ballot that will travel from afar to hunt their block if successful. All too often on the changeover days you will see utes in Tapanui with young bucks on the back that have been shot well before their prime and I can't help but think the "exclusivity" of obtaining a block leads to a mentality of having to shoot anything you see, especially if you have put in for a block month after month and/or have traveled a fair distance to get there. This is especially prevalent about this time of year when I think a lot of hunters have antlers on the brain and are hoping to get something on the ground before the rut.
I have been down here for a few years now and you just don't hear about decent mature bucks coming off the public estate, it's not that the genes aren't there, it can only be that they get cleaned up before having a chance to reach maturity.
I can't help but think that a "free for all" system would probably lead to an initial rush of hunters before settling down due to the lack of exclusivity or pressure to take an animal because you don't know when you'll get a crack again. The same is seen in another local block, Leithen bush, where access is through a permit system controlled by doc, this block is known for Reds and again the surrounding land holds some very good genetics but the permit system coupled with the NZDA hut and their own ballot system seems to lead to this urgency by all who end up hunting there to shoot whatever they can and it's very seldom you will see a mature stag in the block.
What say you all?