RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

Hard to say. It belongs to the county (majority of it)....and it has since my wife was a child (she's 41). It's part of a parks system (about 25 acres of the 270, there is cleared). The rest is 2 private farms that have been private farms since my father in law bought his home (when my wife was a little girl, also).

If the county does something with this land......I'll buy or lease land. Right now....it's like having a brother with a pool ;).

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

This simplifies to an optimist and a pessimist deal.
QDMers(optimists) look to try and make the best of the situation dealt.
Anti QDMers(pessimists) come up with every lame idea why it won't work and are angry at the world for the situation that is dealt.

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

Sounds like with luck like yours I'd be buying power ball tickets. Have a good one.
jim

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

And I've seen $10M deals executed on a handshake.

Don't pretend to know MY circumstances. My landowner despises hunting. he's never killed an animal in his life....and he's a retired electrical engineer.He has a relationship with me. I'm a good steward of his land.....and he recognizes the fact that we're friends. If he needed the money....he'd have taken the money I offer to pay him for the priviledge of hunting his property. I tell everyone....he don't have a CLUE what I'd be willing to pay ;). If the time arises when he thinks about selling it.....we've already talked about that possibility.

Your scenario may play out in others' circumstances, but I'm betting there are PLENTY of people who have circumstances just like me. Rob/PA is one of them.

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

Thanks, Jim. And my brother DOES have that pool.;)

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

Overall I think QDM is a good thing and would like to see more hunters practice it but do not get carried away with it. About 4 years ago I decided to make a commitment to killing bigger bucks and I tried to push my views onto my son. Luckily I finally realized I was taking the fun out of it for him and told him to whack whatever makes him happy.

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

"Game Commission, can I help you?"

"QDM is stupid. Yayyyy!"

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

LOL!

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

Like others have said, its not about less deer for every area. It varies.

Maybe if I give you the situations in the 2 main areas I hunt you will be able to understand what a quality herd is.

#1 My family owns 480 acres in WI. While I was growing upI was taught that more deer is better. We didn't shoot many does, our DNR didn't give out many tags then. But we did shoot nearly every buck we saw. As the '90s went by the deer population started growing rapidly on our land. By the late '90s we would see many does and very few bucks.

HMMMMMM, our buck to doe ratio was getting out of wack and I started seeing the light of a quality deer herd. It wasn't about more deer, it was about being able to support the deer we could. We couldn't. The deer were getting smaller bodies and we started seeing a lot of very small fawns. (I hope I don't have to explain that one)

We had two options as hunters and game managers.1. continuedown our misguided path. 2. start to care about the game we hunted.

We chose the latter and started shooting more does and a lot less bucks. Since 2001 I have only shot 2bucks in WI and 12 does.My family has done the same.Last year onour trail cameraswe finally saw the buck to doe ratio nearing 2:1.

It wasn't about hunting for this year, it was about quality hunting into the next decade. And I'm not talking about rack size, though it is nice. ;)


#2 Canada. I have about 200sq miles that I am able to hunt up here. Within that there is an area that is about 40sq miles that no one was ever able to hunt until 2004. Since then it has only been my family and I hunting there. No one else.

This is an area that has no ag fields for over 100 miles and is completely untouched by man. Heck, most of these deer probably never saw a person until we hunted them.

The buck to doe ratio there is probably 1.5:1. Completely natural,no one has been able to screw it up by years of poor management and shooting only bucks. QDM in its purest form, if you will.


I will admit, I have been very fortunate to see a deer herd like very few have. Completely natural and wild. And I have seen the other side of the coin, a deer herd out of control and out of wack, beacuse of poor management. That's why I have to laugh when people continue to argue with the principals of QDM. They are uninformed and severly misguided from generations of poor game managers.



I forgot to add, its not JUST about the horns. ;)

RE: QDMA What don't you like
 

And likewise, bro, you said it yourself, your situation is pretty unique. There's a big world outside your little neck of the woods, and it gets pretty darn mean in places. I'm unfortunate in that I live in one of the mean places. I know dozens of hunters that have lost long term leases and even had close friendships destroyed because they weren't able to come up with as much money as someone else offered.

Underneath the coat of whitewash, QDM has a really ugly underbelly.