Quality Deer Mgmnt

[orchard frank]

Like to hear opinions on this subject. I am generally not in favor of these programs. First and foremost I do not like someone else to define what is "Quality" and what is not for me. I think these programs favor private land holders over public. It so happens that I now have great hunting right out my back door, but for 40 yrs I was a working stiff that had limited time off and could not dedicate the time necessary for scouting, baiting etc. If I had 4-5 days off and came home with a spike or forkie, great. Would have been happy with antlerless too, but in Mich, private land holders are favored over public. Other reasons: difficult to count points in woods low light etc, could lead to deer being left behind. Proponents always seem to have alot of somewhat vague data, but I haven't heard of a provable success in public areas. Poaching, car/deer accidents, and other factors are not impacted by regulations. I respect the people who favor these programs, believe they are sincere and interested in improving deer balance and health, I'm just not convinced this is the way. If the majority of license holders agreed, they would not need legislation. It is not the same as size limits, there is no catch and release.

[Kolslaw]

Frank,

I agree whole heartidly, I live in Western N.Y. where they havn't started any such program yet, but they have in Pennsylvania which is a short distance from where I live and hunt. So I have heard alot of feedback from those hunters. They all believe that more people will leave deer in the woods vs. paying a fine. It is hard enough to be able to get a quality shot during Shotgun or rifle season with deer running from point A to point b let alone making sure they have 3 points on one side ore not. I heard that they enstated a program in New Jersey that you have to harvest a doe before getting a buck tag, and for the true believer in game managment it doesn't sound too bad. It controls the population while giving a more equal percentage of buck vs. doe.

[Suzuki]

If I owned a large enough piece of land I would practice it for myself but I would never want to force it on the public.

[eyeranger]

I for 1 can say that i am in favor of point restrictions i live in northwestern pa. Now dont get me wrong when they first came out with this restriction i thought this is know how going to work! But in the last year the size of bucks have increased.

[sevenmmm]

I have hunted in your area (UP of Michigan) for many seasons and have passed on a great many smaller bucks, for the chance at filling my tag with a bragger.

'Cept I have never ever seen one UP there.

Sometimes do regret this. As the years go by, it seems ever more silly to have wasted my tag for nothing.

[orchard frank]

Actually, Sevenmmm, I've been passing them up for the last couple years too, just would not like someone telling me I HAD to. My wife started hunting deer 3 yrs ago,goes off her rocker excited about a spike 2 yrs ago and a 4pt last year. No one can tell me that isn't a quality experience. By the way, got 3 from 27-29" and 4 eaters tonite on LBDN.

[Sportdog]

I have hunted deer during time periods where any deer was a great deer and now am hunting "the good old days are today" where anything less than a 2 1/2 year old eight point won't get a second look. Here in Michigan we passed a proposal to leave game management to the professionals, the DNR, and out of the hands of emotional management. No, I don't always agree with some of the policies and game laws but for the overall good I say leave it in the hands of the men and women who do this stuff for a living. Input from groups and individuals, great. Let's just not go overboard on this issue. Let's move slow and easy and not mess up what we now have. Just my thoughts. This post should have been posted as a response to the original, sorry.

[sevenmmm]

Nice.

It would be hard to find an area as good as the UP for the tandem of whitetails and walleyes!

[SingleShot]

I have a good friend that runs a cranberry marsh here in wis. He runs QDM and we are ok by that, we follow his rules. In the past 8 years I can see the result of it. His neighbors may or may not practice it and I'm sure the public land boardering it doesn't. I quess what I'm trying to say is, the concept works! For me personaly I will pass on small bucks but I wont criticise those that don't, it's personal choice. But give this some thought, I've shot does bigger than some small bucks. If doe tags are avaliable, then why not let the smaller bucks get bigger?

JK

[walleyeduran]

QDM has been practice in our area for the last 10 years. It works, passing up the 11/2 and smaller 21/2 year old bucks does give you a much better chance at a larger animal. The only problem I have found with QDM is that the hunting for "trophy" bucks got so good that my uncle leased his land out to the highest bidder and I am back to hunting public lands.

[Trophy]

For QDM to work in the general public hunting areas it is a long shot at best. Small farms of 20-40 acres may see some results but not what you would consider significant. It takes hundreds to thousands of acres to make a big improvement in the Trophy potential of an area. As an example I will use The Pike County Illinois area. This area has become a mecca for Trophy hunters. The main reason behind the success of the trophy potential there is the outfitters who leased the land and control for the most part how much pressure an area gets, and the quality of deer allowed to be taken. They also practice Doe reduction, and cull inferior Bucks. They have improved the gene pool in this area by trying to ensure that does are bred by quality, mature bucks. For me I get as much a thrill at running an arrow through a mature doe, as I do an average buck.


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Trophy

[Gary Korsgaden]

Please read my post "Private Land Mangement" good infomation.