This is an interesting one as it almost describes exactly what I did on a local estate, and the results where not what you might expect!
I took on an estate of about 2500 acres which was mainly arable, but with one largish wood and numerous smaller ones. There were an awful lot of deer and some severe damage to replanted trees. I only had 3 weeks left of the Roe Doe season when I started and the pressure was on to get some results (from land owner and woodland manager). I hesitantly agreed to a 'shoot on sight in season' policy for the first year, purely to get the numbers back to a manageable level.
Now.... this is what I would describe as 'good ground', and the larger wood is an absolute magnet for deer. There are a good amount of deer in the general area (Roe, Muntjac, Fallow, and some transient Red) and most surrounding areas have deer management in hand.
After the first year, I reviewed the figures, and the results were quite surprising!
As well as reducing the numbers on the estate considerably, the animals culled formed almost a perfect cull plan with regards to sex ratio and age class banding. Obviously, a good cull plan should replicate what would happen if we still had natural predation, with the cull consisting of mainly young animals with some old and the odd mature one, i.e. survival of the fittest and strongest!
My theory is, that decent mature animals don't get to that stage of life by being weak or stupid! I was never going to shoot them all out either. By shooting what I saw first and easiest, I was pretty much doing the job of a natural predator!
Anyway, recent changes to the estate, grant schemes and FC demands have meant that I have continued with this policy for a few years. (Although i admit to having left one or two really nice animals that I couldn't justify shooting
). The estate now has an acceptable low level of deer. Those remaining are very good quality, with Roe triplets common. We get some immigration for sure as well as recruitment from our own stock. I was as surprised by these results, but I am now of the opinion that it appears to work in this particular area. The people I work for are happy, the deer population is at an acceptable level and thriving. I am therefore happy, and it ain't broke so there is no need to fix it!
I'm not suggesting that this policy will work everywhere, but I certainly wouldn't rubbish the OP's post without considering all the factors.
MS