JKlein, I hunt northern MN and have owned land up there for decades. I have to say that the main problem practicing QDM in the northern pine forest is the vast amount of public land and the equally vast number of hunters. Passing on a young buck to let him grow up doesn't much help when the 10 guys over the next ridge will gladly take him to fill their freezer. Now if you owned a nice chunk of land where you could truely manage a herd and the hunting pressure, I think you could practice QDM, but such large tracts of private land just aren't easy to find. In addition to hunting pressure, there is an active wolf population that takes a lot of deer and some really brutal winters that disproportionately impacts bucks exhausted from the rut. Remember the late 90's?

Another reason is economics. While I am sure most hunters would love to shoot a bruiser and let the spikes pass, I think the reason a lot of people shoot inferior deer is to put food in the freezer.

I agree with Deerslayer Still... there are a lot of little deer heading to area code 612.

Personally, I love to shoot a nice buck once in while, but if I have to take a deer with my rifle, I prefer if it is a nice middlin' size doe. Now if I could just make sure I get that antlerless permit <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

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SuperX