I like this subject so I will chime in on it.

Coug's, shoot what YOU want to shoot. Try your best to keep the herd healthy where you live and you can ask no more from yourself as a hunter.

Here where I hunt there are deer everywhere, lots of does and lots of bucks in every age group. I have it pretty easy in my approach to QDM. When I say QDM I mean the original intent of it and that's to keep the herds as healthy as possible. I will probably kill up to 5 does like I do pretty much every year. This is thenumber one priorityon the QDM list, there are just too may deer for this area period.

I'm not concerned in the least about the age group of the males, there are just too many so I'm pretty sure every age group is thriving. Thereforewill shoot any buck I feel like when the time is right. Some years I am after certain slammers I happen to see while scouting, others I just wait to see what comes along. Sometime it happens that a large antlered mature deer meets his demise and others it's that basket six that gets the pointy end.

Anyone who hunts in my area (or most of Illinois for that matter) who tells me to pass on smaller bucks in the name of QDM is either not in touch with the deer populations here or is hiding behind QDM in the attempt topush their true agenda and that's to grow bigger antlered deer and stack the odds in their favor for arrowing one. If that's what you want fine, but don't call it QDM and don't force me to go along with it. I would just rather kill one that Mother Nature grew and not me.