Cajun,you make some good points.Maine is trying to get its herd to a more marketable level.Our winters and forest management along with predation are our largest hurdles.Adult, mature all rutted out bucks, are the ones who die in a severe winter.They need more nourishment to keep warm not to mention the need to replenish their bodies after rutting.They are most vunerable to coyotes.

The management issue Maine faces now is the overabundance of deer in the urban areas.Next year we are going to have an unlimited amount of doe tags in certain areas,bow only.Towns are coming forward applying for permission to enter the program.

Northern Maine is a totally different story.It is basically a working forest with very little population.Very remote and very rugged country.Saving the wintering areas is a must for the herd to survive.Estimates are a couple of deer per square mile,which is misleading because you can get into areas that hold a few times that many.A buck can meander 10-20 miles in the rut.I don't think it is the norm,however 5 miles can be.

At this point QDM is far from the minds of the people who own and manage the land.Hunters are more of a nuisance with their demands for forest management and land access.To make matters worse a Canadian Company is buying Maine land up for the sole purpose of harvesting the forest,they have no gains from QDM.

Keeping our heritage is important here in Maine.Trophy hunting is a bad word.You don't hunt to hang antlers on the wall,you hunt to feed the family,ease the bills.Personally I think it is total disrespect of the animal to simply harvest him for the size of his rack and not put him on the dinner table.Talk to most of the old timers around and they would take a doe or a spike over a tough ole swamp buck every time.

I love taking big deer and like most would love to have the big guy walk by.I no guys who have hunted their whole lives and have never had the chance to kill a trophy.Waiting years for it to happen just ain't worth it for braggin rights.