To each his own. I set the bar higher than most, lower than some. That's my perogative. Kill what you want respect what you kill. If anything, threads like this sure do separate the guys I would enjoy hunting with from the guys I would never hunt with.

I am anunapoligetic trophy hunter, but I have much respect for those hunters who take a doe, cow or ewe most years instead of an imature male animal. I cant tell you how many times I've met hunters who kill the first legal animal they see every year, and have the gall to wonder where all the trophy's went.
When I was a young boy, I couldn't catch a fish. By the time I hit my teens, I had figured it all out, and caught and kept thousands of trout.
Now at 50 I practise catch and release with a fly rod, but am starting to think that I should eat what I catch and only catch what I eat. We definately change as we grow and learn.
So now I love to hunt and but take little game., if a mature animal presents itself I will probably take it. But then maybe not if it is too early in the hunt. Calling a big bull into range for someone else is as much fun as hunting for myself. Having fun is the best part and hopefully teaching your kids to respect the outdoors is part of the hunt.
Happy Hunting

I wonder if all the guys preaching here practice what they preach in every aspect of hunting and fishing..........or is it just when headgear is involved??

Do you all only shoot the biggest, most mature turkey in the woods and encourage all others to pass on anything but??

Do you only shoot the oldest and most wise squirrel in the area and tell everyone else that shoots younger squirrels that they aren't really "hunting"

Do you only catch the biggest, oldest fish in the pond, stream, lake or ocean??

When rabbit hunting do you pass on anything that isn't a "mature" rabbit and just let your dog run and run and run until he finds you a "mature" rabbit?? Do you also encourage everyone else to only hunt "mature" rabbits??

On a pheasant hunt do you hold off on the trigger when a bird takes off to examine him and be sure he is "mature" enough for you to shoot??.........and tell everyone else to do the same??

When duck or goose hunting do you sit in your blind and let flock after flock and bird after bird go by or just land and sit by your decoys until you see a bird that is "mature" enough for you to shoot??...........imposing the same rules on everyone else of course.

Anyone who traps or kills predators...........do you wait and let yote after yote go by until you get that special "mature" one to come into range??........do you only set traps that will catch the wise old animals of the woods??........and do you press others to do the same??


Same thing right??...........if not, please explain how.


If older deer didn't grow bigger antlers you would NEVER hear a peep out of anyone about QDM this or "mature" that.............all the noble herd health, genetics, and ratio BS would not even be an issue.........because no one would plop down thousands of dollars for an ego trip if they couldn't bring something home to show everyone else how great they are.

All this "mature" BS and "challenge" garbage is so laughable...............without the headgear it all goes down the drain. How many guys do you see every year talking about "mature" does??........almost none.....even though they are harder to kill then a lot of the bucks taken every year. So much for the "challenge" theory

You're right on Atlas! My thoughts exactly

Heres a question for all you advokates of QDM. Say you get one buck tag. A 180 pound mature 6 point walks within 20 yards. He is definitly a mature deer, but he has a basket rack. Do you shoot? Or do you wait for a larger racked mature buck.

And beleive it or not, the majority of mature bucks in most areas do NOT have great headgear. So do you shoot these deer also because they are mature, or do you continue holding out for the deer that will break that score your wishing to acheive.

Heres my take. If you shoot this deer, then yes, you truely care about the herd and are practicing QDM.More power to you. If you let him pass because his antlers arent big enough, then you are a trophy hunter pure and simple. Dont care about the herd, just about getting a buck bigger than your friends. After all, its quality DEER management. Not Quality bucks growing super huge antlers management. And that mature basket rack 6 point is a quality deer in my eyes, and one that I'll gladly take and take pictures and post about it. JMHO.

It all depends on which public hunting area I hunt. If it is the smaller more pressured area I will take a doe first and a smaller buck second if the oppurtunity arises. But in the larger areas in the southeast part of my state I definitely pratice QDM and go for the larger more mature deer because I know that in this area there are big bruisers and I have to be patient to get one.

It makes me mad that every year( for about 10 years)a group of guys come down and hunt a neighbors piece of land. Every year all they shoot is little spikes. Then they complain that they never shoot a big buck. How much brains does it take to figure that out. I will always shoot a doe before i ever even think about shooting a spike.

What about the little buck that would have likely have been born in the spring had you not killed his mother? That's a button that won't be there next fall and a 1 1/2 year old the year after that etc that has surely been eliminated. Just curious...

Okay, I am a wildlife biologist, even have the little white piece of paper to prove it. I do not intend on being combatative, and on the QDM issue all I can say is that there are times and places for it, as well as times and places it will probably never work. The good news is that you are held by no laws except the laws of the state in which you reside and can be free to participate or not. You are bound by the traditions and ethics you believe in and that is good enough for me, NO MATTER WHICH SIDE YOU ARE ON.

I do however, have to take issue with the whole "manage deer like trout or pheasant" outlook. Different species have widely variable habitat, forage, and population balance needs. Their reproductive strategies are highly variable to say the least and cannot be managed in remotely the same ways. Doves, for example, have an approximately 80% mortality rate for fledgelings (1rst year) whether they are hunted or not. Bag limits are set to keep the population levels within reason. There are no cock/hen regulations because no one can tell in the air which is which and harvest is random, thereby keeping the population balanced. In predator control most often it is the younger "juvenile delinquents" that are causing stock depredations and so forth. If you shoot out the mature predators that are keeping the juveniles in check in a particular "territory" then often the juveniles go out of control and your depredation problems worsen.

The problem with deer management can be related back to the dove example. If the harvest was random across the board AND ALWAYS HAD BEEN then populations would be in balance. There would be no issue. That is how natural predation works. The old, the young, the sick. No gender bias, taken off both ends of the age structure. We changed all that with years of intensive predator control coupled with "you don't shoot nannies", and "hold out for the big one" among other things. The thing is, everyone is part of the deer herd management effort whether they like it or not. I hear alot about hunting natural deer herds. Hell, there hasn't been a natural deer herd in North America for 150 years... Chances are they were transplanted back in by your local state dept after they were nearly wiped out by market hunting in the late 1800/early 1900s. Once again, I am not trying to fan flames here, but a question was asked (at least sort of) and I am trying to give a valid answer. I apologize in advance if I have offended anyone, but its life as I see it, you may have different glasses...

Well I think...ooops... king of the hill is on