RE: QDM, does it make Bucks STUPID?
What's upTroy!
I've thought about this some. I'm not sure that the Texas experience equates with many areas.
It isn't a lack of hunting pressure in SW Texas. It's that they feed the animals at set feeders and hunters constantly hunt the same stands, and those same hunters pass on hundreds of deer.
So obviously the high number of human encounters with no negative side effects produces a lower level of caution and urge to flight.
To me this gets confused with low pressure areas being easy to hunt. We have a few areas on our property that are close to asanctuary and not really hunted. Since there is no human intrusion, if you slip up even a little, the deer go crazy. They don't expect human scent or any signs of humans and when they encounter it they go onsuper high alert.
All the above crap tosay that it is not always correct toassume that low pressure areas are always easy to hunt. I do however think that a high pressure area where the huntersconsistently pass all young bucks (engages in QDM) will be much more likely to produce less skittish(or stupid)bucks.