I saw a lot of guys posting on the QDM poll post that they don't have enough land for QDM to be successful, how much land, in y'all's opinion, does one need to have in order to practice and reap the benefits of QDM?
1000 acres i think at least but you could get better deer on 200 acres. when i talk about QDM its all out food plotting, making bedding areas and being able to pass up 3 and 4 1/2 year olds and on 200 acres you wouldnt be able to do this but you can benefit with any acreage
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I agree with Mcbee, it can't hurt to do itanywhere. My family has 300 acres and we have been trying to manage it but when the neighbors are shooting the deer that you are letting walk it gets frustrating but we continue to do it and we do see better deer because of it, just not to the point you would on a much larger place that hold most of the deer you hunt. On our little ranch a lot of the deer just pass through the place, where as on a larger place you will have more deer that call that home. IMO
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the size of the land means nothing to me, for instance: everyone around where i hunt shoots anything that moves, meaning the little bucks get picked out very well. i have one piece of land in the middle of all that where all the deer can come to be safe, i only shoot 2-3 deer per year out there in archery and 90% of the woods (bedding area) never gets touched by me. we consistantly see 140"+ deer every year cause the fact that all the smarter bigger bucks come to our piece to survive the onslaught of rifle season. another instance is one piece i have is only50 acres and only10 acres of bedding ground, i never hunt the piece till pre-rut. the neighbors lease the next property over but they never shoot big bucks. i hunted the land only 2 days this year and shot a 14 pt double main beam, and saw 3 other bucks over 140" walking to my bedding area at around 8:30 on both days. the other guys simply pressure their land too much and all the bucks know that my small piece of land is void of any human activity.
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I dont think that lack of proeprty is an excuse not to practice QDM, its just an excuse lazy people use to shoot young bucks because they are frustrated. If
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ORIGINAL: DropTine249
No, it has very little to do with how MUCH land you have.
It is more about WHAT your land has and what is around your land: hunting pressure, woods, food, etc.
If your property has cover, water, year round browse/food...you should be practicing QDM, because you are going to be holding deer and offering deer a destination.
If your land does not offer said commodities, then either workyour property in order to establish said commodities ortalk with the land owners of the surrounding properties and expand the QDM "zone".
No matter how many acres you have, the bucks dont recognize property boundries, so if part of their core area includes your land, then that 2.5yo buck you let walk, may in fact cros your lane next season.
I dont think that lack of proeprty is an excuse not to practice QDM, its just an excuse lazy people use to shoot young bucks because they are frustrated. If you let a young one walk, then at least you know he still has a chance. Once you stick him, its over.
However, the general concensus is that 300acres is the bare-minimum for QDM, because a property of that size will include a larger portion of the core area of a given buck.
I hunt many of properties and thousands of acres in NJ. However, some are as small as 15 acres, others as large as 800-1000. No matter the property, my hutning partners and I do our best to establish everything we can to hold deer on our land, from off season feeders, food plots, 80% damning of small streams to make watering holes, "helping" along thickets to become better bedding for more deer.
Tell me that doesnt work ? When talking with hunters on surrounding properties, over the past few years, they claim to have seen less and less deer. Now, I am new to hunting, but my friends are not and I have been helping them work proeprties for years now, including my farm and let me tell you..give the deer food, security cover and a "safe area" on your farm and your grandmother will make you pay for all of the flowers that get chewed up from the extra deer [:@].
So, do your best with what you have and always try, in some way, to practice QDM, because you never know when that 2.5yo you let walk will come by your stand with a 180" rack !
Good post.
Remember a large of QDM is creating Quality habitiat. So, IMO, you can/could succesfully practice QDM on as little as 40 acres or so. Will you see immediate results? Hardly, I truly believe that it takes 5 good years of QDM practice for you to reap the wide range of benefits that pure QDM can produce. So if you truly devote yourself to QDM, creating food plots, sanctuaries, bedding/areas, adding other food sources (Fruit producers, honeysuckle, fertilizing your oaks and other browse) select cuts, prescribed burns, all of that then you can reap the benefits. QDM is a marathon, not a short sprint.
How much land for QDM?
