hey guys, just your favorite anti-qdmer here. now, i don' t claim to be an expert, but i have been doing my homework about qdm, because the issue has been coming up lately here in vt, so i have been getting tons of info, for and against qdm, from many leading biologist' s around the country, so this is where i am pulling in the numbers and facts from.. first off, if you wish to have qdm, PRIVATELY, well hey, so be it, go for it, and this is what it sounds like dan wants. now having said this, according to what i have in front of me, dan, out of the 50ish deer that you have seen, assuming that your doe reproductive rate is 1 adult doe carrying twin fawns, you have actually seen: 2 adult bucks, 16 ADULT doe, 16 button bucks, and 16 fawn does, if my math came out right. that isn' t how we think of deer as hunters when we see flags going off in the woods, but i believe i am pretty close, so you actually have a lot more bucks around then you may think, but don' t ask me where they go to on you during hunting season. perhaps there is a lot more poaching and winter kill going on around you than people know. now also, i have reports from at least a dozen state biologists, including some involved in the qdm and qdma effort, and they all pretty much agree, having a ratio of 2 ADULT doe to 1 ADULT buck would be much more desirable from a management stand point. as for whether or not a herd can exceed a 4-1 ratio, according to charles ruth, south carolina deer project supervisor, and also according to w. matt knox, deer program supervisor from
virginia, it can never mathematically happen. word for word, from mr. knox " .. if you average a fawn per yearling and adult doe recruitment into a deer herd and kill every antlered male in the population, then the adult sex ratio can never get worse than 2:3:1. trust me, i have checked the math and logic. the reason for this is that in these populations, reproduction is fairly high anda large segment of the population (30-40%) in any given year is fawns. these fawns have an approximate 50-50sex ratio (or potentiallymore males, 50-55%), so the large number of buck fawns constatnly " rebalance" the sex ratio. as long as this " in-flow" of buck fawns is maintained sex ratios stay fairly balanced. THE ONLY WAY SEX RATIOS CAN BECOME SEVERELY IMBALANCED IS IF REPRODUCTION/RECRUITMENT IS LOW AND BUCK MORTALITY IS HIGH" end quote. now, according to mike tonkovich, wildlife research biologist from ohio, he and others in the field say to do what you and others have already mentioned, if you want to improve your ADULT sex ratio, you just have to lower the harvest rate on bucks and increase the does. i know your situation regarding limited doe harvest, we here in vt have to apply for a limited draw for a doe also. so anyway, i guess what i am trying to say is try to find out what is happening to all your buck fawns, for statrers, limit you buck kill as much as you can, and try to shoot a few more does, that is how you will get what you are trying to achieve, imho.