ORIGINAL: Germ
Why?? If unreal population numbers and COMPLETELY out of whack buck:doe ratio can produce tons of great bucks and supreme hunting out there then why not elsewhere??
I will give you 700,000 reasons why
Put NY population of hunters in Montana, now it's completely differnet herd to manage. A few more natural predators who are not as selective as hunters are also.
+ Hunters are tad bit more selective than NY or MI hunters. Like you pointed out, they are not shooting the first buck that comes by.
If NY went back to TDM, for sure the population would go up. TDM has proven it can and does that well
I am only guessing to[8D], that NY is a tad bit more populated than Montana, would people of NY put up with a larger herd? I do not know.
So everything I am seeing you list about why it won't work elsewhere is all about the people........not the deer. I'm not sure if I am following you correctly.........earlier I thought you were saying how great Iowa's management program was and listing other states as prime examples as well........but now you seem to be putting a lot of stock in the low number of hunters.......which is what I said earlier and I thought you didn't agree with.
What I am saying to you (and anyone else who may listen) is that from what I have seen and heard firsthand..........the mantras being chanted about the way deer should be "properly" managedare apparently questionable at best. I know of a few properties in NY thatthe guys are drilling some really great deer on and they all had one thing in common.....nothing was killed for a few years (some as many as 5). This allowed the numbers to swell (both doe and buck) and of course all the deer thatdidn't wander off and get killed became much older and bigger. The out of whack buck:doe ratio did not hurt them at all and they arecertainly not suffering anythingexcept for high taxidermy bills
Montana has a bazillion deer..........buck:doe ratio WAY out of balance.........and yet NONE of thepitfalls preached by QDM or some biologists are anywhere to be seen. The young bucks are obviously involved in the breeding.......and the old boys have got to be running 24/7 during the rut with that much tail to chase.........yet the genetics are not suffering, the young bucks look great, all the deer look healthy and the old bucks are not so overly stressed that they are in danger. It has all theearmarks of a wonderfully healthy herd........something I would think every state would drool over, and every biologist and expert out there would use as a modelto work from. Why they don't is a mystery to me.
Not to mention that these animals are just one of many that are THRIVING under the same conditions. Pronghorn, mule deer, elk, moose, bear, turkey............they have somethinggood going out there, so why all these people seem to want to do the opposite to manage their own herdsjust seems dumb.