I also think that there may be fewer screwed up/inferior antler traits in north Matthews. For example, I do not hear people talk about having a lot of SOOS bucks in north Matthews.

Although I'm familiar with Mathews, I would have a hard time distinguishing where exactly north Mathews is from south Mathews. If I was to guess what were the factors causing bigger bucks in north Mathews I would say:
1) South Mathews soil subtype changes to a slightly sandier less fertile soil
2) more timber in the south so higher population densities/ more competition for browse
3) more pressure from the heavier timbered properties. A lot of north Mathews is a mix of pastures, woods, and houses.

I also wonder this: in Texas where QDM was invented back in the 1970s all those big ranches started to try to manage their deer herds for superior antler traits. I recall that they were (and still are) trying to get deer herds where the majority of bucks grow 10 points, so these ranches would aggressively cull bucks.

Without getting into the debate about free range deer herds and antlers, does anyone know of any reports or studies on the results there? It has been going on for decades and it seems the deer study groups at the major universities and the deer magazines would have reported on this, but I don't recall ever reading anything about results there.