Ok, here's my deal. My brothers & I own a small piece of land, 75acres. 3 sides are bordered by 1,000 acres of public land. The 4th side is bordered by 1,200 acres of private land owned by a small hunting club of 12 members. Down below us is 3 camps who are limited to hunting the public land. The 3 camps & hunting club also have some bowhunters. We bowhunt our 75acres mostly, gun hunt once that opens. We don't do deer drives at all. We have food plots, mineral licks. 1 camp, and the hunting club do the same. We also hunt the public land as well. We only see a few hunters during archery season, but come gun season the public land is loaded with hunters the first wknd. Lots of shooting, spooks all the deer, deer drives being done. But it appears alot more shooting than deer actually taken. I've driven around the public land with snow on the ground, and only seen where a couple of deer were dragged out after hearing 100's of shots. Its weird.
Now here's the deal.1 the newer camps down below stopped by asking if we'd be interesting in letting all smaller bucks go, and only harvest big bucks. He claims the other 2 camps have agreed to try it. I personally tried this myself for 3yrs, and didn't notice much difference. But my brothers shot whatever then. I've never asked or told them what can or can't shoot. So were now thinking of agreeing to this big bucks only. But I told the new camp owner it could be a waste of time with all the public land hunters shooting whatever. Our efforts could just put the nice bucks in their laps, and also draw in more hunters to the public land. We still see a few nice bucks every year the way it is now.
So do you think the effort could be worth it, or a big waste of time? I'm all for it, if my brothers want to try it.

I would say yes.

You mentioned having mineral licks and food plots. It sounds like you are into management already. Why would you do all this without practicing some sort of management restrictions?

Are you in NY? Mineral licks are illegal. FWIW.

It would seem that your land and the other camp (almost 1300 acres)would become a refuge for deer during firearm season. You guys have food plots, licks and etc. and you don't do drives. Just make sure you restirct yourselves to mature deer over 2.5 yrs. old. It will take some time before you see any change in buck development 3- 4yrs. minimum. But if you guys keep it like you have it and keep the area quiet, deer should move to your area.

My buddies shoot any thing that walks with a bow. I personally only shoot a buck if i am going to mount it, but i do kill up to 10 does a year with my bow and that is only because we need it, we have a 11 to 1 doe to buck ratio. My buddies are starting to slowly come around to the idea of letting the smaller bucks walk mostly because they see what kind of bucks i take and how much crap i give them for shooting the little ones.

For the method of passing on young bucks in order let them grow up to work, everyone in a large area(not just 1 property) has to be in on it. If one guy out of 12 in a square mile passes young deer so they will grow up, and everybody else will shoot almost anything, he's not doing himself any good.

I'm not a big let 'em grow kind of guy, but I do pass on a lot of young deer. Mainly just to take my chances on something bigger coming by. Where I hunt I'm kind of the guy in paragraph #1. But that's not to say I wouldn't shoot one of those same deer I passed on at another time of the season. Depends on the mood I'm in.I don't want to put a lot of self-imposed rules on myself when it comes to recreation.

I know a guy who owns several miles of IL river frontage, and has set some basic rules on the guys hunting it. Thet work pretty hard at passing young bucks, shooting does, etc., and he has said they are just now starting to see very good results, and they've been at it for 8 years...

in your situation, as long as everyone is on board, go for it.

If you have guys around you that are willing to do so then I would say go for it if you would like to shoot some bigger bucks. If you are content on shooting what ever then it may not be your thing.

The one property I hunt near Oneonta, NYis in a similar situation. It is surrounded by 1800 acres of public land. We have 160 acres there. We are 6 years into QDM and are taking as many does as we can, and have probably 5 acres of food plots (7 plots total) and just this year we are really seeing the difference there with encounters of 4 different bucks in the 3.5 year old class so far this year. Honestly this year we are seeing more 1.5 year old or better bucks than we are seeing 1.5 years old or older does. It takes a while though.

Yes its worth it. One thing to remember, when you pass up young bucks and go for older ones, you have to change the way you hunt. If you continue to huntwith an"any" buckmentality, you won't have as much success at the big ones.
But again, every little bit helps with passing on younger bucks to let them get old.

They can't grow if you don't let them go. Why not make it a policy that anyone that shoots a buck has to spend the money at the taxidermist for mounting it?

Restrictions only work when everybody is following them , and the folks hunting the public ground surrounding you will never do that . Let the hunt club do what they want on their own land and you do what you want on yours , that's what private ownership is all about .