man this is frustrating, letem walk and the neighbors shhot them.
 

We hunt 700 acres in a good qdm county This is the first year we have had this lease. We are surounded by other hunting clubs. we have 700, to the west is a 1300 club, to the south is 450, to the west is 565 and on north is 150. There are also other clubs too.

We have rules that say 15in spread, 18in main beams, 8 point or better. This is the first year in the last 3 years that I have had a good place to hunt with lots of deer. Its also the first year for me to see bucks and let them walk cause I know I have bigger or camera. Im talking about good 2.5 year old deer and some 3.5 year old deer that we are letting walk.

Well Out of the 5 good bucks I have seen and let walk 3 of them have been shot by our neighbors to the west and they have shot 6 other bucks as well. Now this does not include what the other clubs have shot because I dont talk to them much. Im not mad at them for shooting, but I am begining to think that our rules are not going to work if others around us are not doing the same. They have rules that say 8 point minimum or you shoot it, you mount it.

So my question is this..... are we going aiming to high for the first year? and are just wasting our time with this because others are not going to do the same..?

any opinions from others ?

Is it possible to get all of the club presidents together. This could be done as rules are being established for the next year. That's the only way that all clubs can play by the same rules. Good luck.

Your club can set the rules they want, but if surrounding properties are not exercising the same standards, you're SOL. Sounds like you'll either have to get together with the other clubs to come to some sort of standard, but this won't seem fair to many or lower your standards and live with that.

We don't have those issues here where I'm at, so the talk about what you say is strange to me. We do have hunters that propose hunting leases to property owners that is on the rise though.

iSnipe

I was not the one who set the rules.. If it were my club it would be an 8 point or better rule or you shoot it you mount it. I mean if you shot a mature 7 pointer then its ok too, but you get the idea.

I have hunted in ny, nj, and ga. In ga its a different ball game for sure. The guys I hunt with were just trying to set rules for a nice qdm club. I just wish they would have set the standards a little lower so to speak. 700 acres is a lot, and you could manage it well, but it also depends on how its layed out. Our property is a narrow tract of land. Its 2.1 miles long, but at its widest point is less than 1/2 mile. I think this is a lot of the reason "our" deer are traveling to neighboring property. Plus they have more hardwood fingers and bottoms than us. Our property is 75% planted pine from 10 years old to 20 years old.

I have some bucks on cam and the guy in the club next to us has the same one on his cam about 1/2 mile away as the crow flies.

I just hope I get a shot at a decent buck this year that meets "our" rules. I have some good ones on cam, but of course they are all at night :) even during the rut they were at night...

You can make up in numbers what you lack in skill.

To put a twist on that, since we're not questioning or talking skill, you can lean the balance of opportunities to your advantage by hunting more than the others, if you have the time. Sometimes it just takes clocking some butt hours in to be successful. Work with what you got now and while you're out there, think of some ideas to spread to everyone else about being a whole QDM team with the rest of the clubs.

Good luck,

iSnipe

You didn't make up the rules but you knew them when you signed up. So that is that.

As to any expectations of neighboring clubs following or even respecting your clubs rules well that's just silly. They can do what they want on their property as long as it's legal.

Now to the question of is your "QDM" management program going to be successful? No not really. There is just no way to hold the deer you would like to stick around on just 700 acres. They are going to roam and they are going to roam on and thru the neighboring clubs.

But don't look at the cup as half empty. Look at it as half full! The neighboring clubs do have some sort of "QDM" in place, just not the same as yours.

What is the role of harvesting does in your "QDM"? What are your clubs rules and the neighboring club's rules for harvesting does?

On the surface, it sounds like you have alot of land.
In reality, like you suggested, that can be misleading.

Many of the clubs I have joined in the past, had lots of land, but 90% of the hunters utilized 10% of it. Mainly because the food plot was where everyone hunted, etc.

Id bet if there were 20 hunters, in ALL of the land that you mentioned, that are just average hunters, with no rules, you'd never get the kind of deer you are hoping for.
Unless you were first in line of course the corn pile.

You could lay out an arial photo of the whole area, and find that one spot....waaay back there.....

Best of luck with it,

Its so much more fun to just hunt for meat though!!:)

The good news is, you know they are not seeing better deer on the neighboring land , if they are shooting your rejects. The other good news is if they are shooting deer you passed on that means they are out of tags and the big deer are still out there with you. Thats about all the good I can see in this.

You hear this all the time - "no sense in letting deer walk - the neighbors just shoot them".

Fact is, if you let them walk, they stand a far better chance of living then if you kill them.

Also selective buck harvest is only one of many parts of QDM - it is not QDM on its own.

Unless you erect a 12' fence around those 700 acres you will never actually be practicing QDM since you lack absolute control over the deer, and your neighbors have every legal right to shoot whatever they want. Quit whining.