RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

Don't get me wrong, I love hunting just for even the chance of seeing nice buck and am even thankful for just the being out there. Any close encounter is special.

BigJ... didnt mean to step on your toes there, I guess im maybe a bit misunderstood... not exactly sure what u were saying on your soap box. We have actually for our area, as far as doe population, a fairly healthy herd. Our area just has trouble allowing bucks get older than 2. Its hard to explain it on screen. I dont want to sound like an antler addict who doesnt care about anything but big bucks. "it's not the size of the deer but the size of the hunt"

It wouldnt bother me if only 1 or two young bucks were shot but when they stack up five or six year after year or shoot one little one then shoot another and use someone elses tag, i get angry, because obviously they are out just to say they are killing bucks.

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

Beagle001,

You're not "stepping on my toes" it's all good....

I just wanted to point out what I've heard for the last few years and that's people talking about QDM when all they are after is trying to boost the amount of large antlered deer on the property they hunt. If that's what is wanted I say go for it. It's not what I would do but I have no problem with it. But call it for what it is TDM and not QDM.

If your herd is healthy then I can almost gaurantee you have big mature bucks there, they may not be as numbered as you like but they are there. I feel it would be far more satisfying and rewarding to actually find, hunt and killthe ones that are there than to try to produce more.

If there are truely none to be found (there are some placeslike this) then that area is indeed in need of QDM. Passing on the younger bucks and taking doesin order to boost the overallpopulation of bucks will as a by-product produce more big antlered deer as time goes by,but more importantly, more bucks in general creating a balanced and healthy herd. Maybe you will get more headway telling the others you hunt with that?

Some states implement thiswith antler restrictions or "earn a buck" programs. The programs help toboost the overall male deer populations and bring down the doe populations (where needed) yet without forcing hunters to shoot only 140inand larger deer.

There is a piece of property I have hunted for many years that is just crawling with deer. I will take an average of 3-5 does out each year and usually only kill one buck. I ask the same for the others who hunt there. This helps with the over population problem we face. I do not on the other hand ever tell them what size buck to shoot as I could care less. If it makes them happy, then I'm happy.

Afterall that's what it's all about isn't it?

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

It 's a nice thought, but as long as it is legal, i'm not going to pass a buck up so someone else can kill it. That 's most people's mentality also, QDM has not caught on in my club.

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

Why am I telling you abou passing up deer,because you said that 99.9% can't control themselves, and I am just an average hunter, with just a few oppurtunities a year, and most people I know hunt like me or can be more selective, which would be a mighty big stretch to say that we only make up .01% of all hunters. There are some as you described but the percentages are much smaller than your exagerrated statement. My whole point is that people wanting to dictate to others how they should hunt, who are doing nothing that isoutside the law, is going too far. Educate, encourage, have yoru say,but when you hear of people getting , in their ownwords, physically ill, angry, upset, etc.,it is going too far. Find like minds and work within your own perameters on your own lease, club, or land. Allow others to hunt as they wish, as long as it isn't illegal or detrimental to hunting. I like to work out, eat healthy, etc., but I don't go to McDonald's and argue with people about why they shouldn't be eating a double cheeseburger and fries! I , if given the oppurtunity, and by example, will certainly encourage them to take better care of themselves, but I 'm not going to get angry with them and lose friends or sleep over it..

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

If you're anywhere nera Portage Wi,then you do have big bucks around,8's , 10's with measurements of 120" and up. You just don't see em that much. They're like vampires.
The only way you'll see big deer consistantly is to manage the herd and this means tall, fences. Don't expect to see monster bucks like those on TV. These are professionally managed herds. Even if they don't have a high fence,they plant late season food plots to attract deer from adjacent properties.
BTW, I hunt between Portage and the Dells,and see a monster buck at least once a year, but it's usually only right ad dusk and not until late Oct or Nov.
The big bucks are there,just not that many of them.

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

I don't know the full situation of what's going on with this piece of property. Don't really care. It's up to the landowners to decide what to do about it, or about someone who's trying to stir up trouble. But what manuman posted about QDM in general pretty much coincides with my view of it.

What most QDM fanatics don't seem to understand is there are a whole bunch of people who actually have a life outside of deer hunting. Who don't spend each and every spare waking moment sitting in a treestand, or scouting or planting food plots, pouring over photo dosiers from multiple trail cams or slobbering over whitetail hunting magazines. These people might get only one or two chances to get away from job and family commitments to go hunting every season. Wouldn't you say this describes the vast majority of hunters?

Most of these folks hunt legally and ethically, go out and do their very best with their limited opportunities to get within range of a deer. Who the heck are you to dictate to them they can't take a legal animal, probably the only one they'll have a chance at this season, simply because that deer won't pass YOUR minimum maturity standards?

When that guy takes that small basket buck, instead of shaking his hand and congratulating a fellow hunter on his good fortune, you act like he's just raped your grandmother. And in the next breath you wonder why hunter numbers are declining. It's called elitisim, fellas.

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

That just about clears that up now don't it.

I just don't see why you guys can not be happy about another hunters success.
If its your land stand up and speak your mind before the season starts, if its not your land sit down and shut up or find another place to hunt where people feel as you do.
Just quit sniveling about what others shoot.

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

Well said Arthur.I couldn't agree with you more.

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

This is easily solved. Create a serum that makes younger deer taste terrible. No one would shoot the younger deer then.

Good luck on your mission.

Tom

RE: How To Get Others To Let Small Bucks Go
 

I will agree with that statement 100%. The elitisim you talk about is on both side of the fences. Funny thing is I have never once justified anything I have shot. From my first doe fawn to my many basket racks to what I shoot now.Yes I have herd the same things others have said. I just knew what I shot at the time was right for me.Are there guys who beat up others for shooting basket racks, yep. Are there guys who beat up trophy hunters andclaim we are runing the"hertiage" of hunting, yep.

So I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Don't throw stones from glass houses:D