So what recipe are you using for cooking horn?
I'd love to hear it. I have quite a few pounds of it piled around the horse barn.
It seems a 2yo buck is perfect for eating, regardless of the rack size.
Trophy Hunters vs Will Hunt for Food...

700 acres? that aint nuthin to a deer..thats from the master bath to the master bedroom!!!

i would recommend y'all didn't hunt opening day..let the fire works go off else where..the deer will know where the safe area (no shots going off) is and will camp at your house...only success i had..i only have 40 acres with those huntin club guys all round us!!!!and i know they take illegal deer ALL THE TIME!!!i think they should have ta hire a game warden to be on site!!


well kevin is right, the neighbors definitely aren't in the wrong...

just get with the presidents of the clubs as mentioned, get ready for next year..it is possible they will say no because alot of guys out there dont think bigger deer exist...so they will quit their lease and the prez's dont want that!!!

The ultimate irony would be if some of the neighboring properties have even higher harvest standards and so think that you are part of the problem too for shooting bucks that they consider too young/small.

Thank you.

The reality of this situation is that people can shoot whatever they want. I just watched "Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild" and I love that guy... He shot a 4 point, and 2 does, one was really small.. But what was awesome about that? He had fun doing it.

But anyways, good luck with your situation and hopefully you get things straightned out. :D

I was thinking the same thing, I have 20 acre to hunt on, the neighbors on ALL sides, unload all 5 rounds on anything they see that is brown.
He has 700!

Its so much more fun to just hunt for meat though!!:)[/QUOTE]

I might go crazy just huntin bucks. Meat huntin (as long as there a descent size) is a great way to spend the day...

I have been practicing QDM actively for more than 10 years. It has not worked. This year I have 1 nice buck in the area, if he has survived the gun season, and have only seen one other 2 1/2 year old 8 point the entire bow and gun season. I do have a bazillion does that none of the surrounding hunters are willing to shoot but me. I won't give up the QDM principals though in hopes that one really nice buck will make it some year before I die.

In your situation if you are trying to practice QDM on your 700 acres and you are surrounded by other hunting clubs the first step in setting rules would be to get everyone surrounding your area on this. I have 600 acres and im surrounded by big game ranches that are all low fenced. About two months before deer season the president from all of these ranches hold a meeting. They came to me to talk about what i was shooting and explain what they were shooting. I follow by theyre rules and it has worked out great. In my situation i went from trying to manage 600 acres to helping manage about 10000 acres with a group of my neighbors. It has really worked out nice and if it wasnt for these meetings i dont think my place would be near as good as it is now. In can let a nice young buck go and not worry about it being killed the next afternoon or even that year.

Thanks for all the responses. Let me start out by saying this. This is a new club and the rules were written after we all joined. We also talked with 2 of the neighboring clubs and they said oh we only shoot big deer. I asked what they ment by big deer and they said well you know nice big 8's or better. We all thought we were on the same page, but to them a big eight is not what it is to us. Now 2 of the guys only hunt big deer and have killed big deer on the other club, the rest just hunt nice deer.

To the guy that said I was whining, I am not. I am just trying to get ideas, or opinions on what to do in my situation. I dont have a problem with our rules, but its hard when you pour money into something and then it benefits others. I am not mad at the other club for shooting deer. I am frustrated at the fact that they said one thing about what they shoot and did another. I have some nice deer on cam, but have not seen them. Some of the decent deer that I have on cam have been shot by the other clubs. I have about 17 diff bucks 2.5 old or better and about 20 little guys. Now of the 17 I have on cam 2 where shot by our club, The half rack we did not have on cam, and 3 where shot by the other club. There were also 2 deer that I have seen and passed that were shot by the other club, but I did not have them on cam.

In all advice and wisdom is what I was looking for, not all the bs. To the people who have access to all the LARGE areas of land to hunt good for you, but we dont have that luxury. I also know you can do it on small tracts of land as long as those suround it do it too. We have only killed 3 bucks on our club this year. A nice 3.5 8 pointer with 2 kickers, A decent 7 pointer in bow season "first buck with a bow for him", and a woman shot her first ever buck a half rack 10 pointer. We have also only killed on doe. Our buck to doe ratio is like 3 bucks to 1 doe.

Ive been on my place for 7 years and have passed many young deer. I have culled out 3 deer and shot one mature 140 class buck. My neighbors are on the same plan. We are in a 3 buck county and for the past 5 years we have maybe killed 1 to 2 bucks a year including the cull bucks. I have seen major improvments on my land over the past three years. All it takes are a few good hunters to be on the same page. When it all started the rule was you shoot it you mount it and since we have gone to killing mature bucks and cull bucks it has been a huge difference. I personally hate to see a good 2 year old buck laying on the ground. Let the good bucks breed and grow. Take them when theyre big and old. Ive seen deer on my land grow year after year and i have my eyes on one. I have his sheds from his 2nd 3rd and hopefully ill get him this year which will be his fourth. That would be a good story behind the kill in my book.