Dan O.

vt; I agree with your ratings except driving with people. I rate it well down the list. It' s the most successful method of hunting that I' ve ever used but there was very little hunting skill involved. Of course I could still be a little mad about having 8 hunters drive through my posted property 10 minutes after opening on the first day of deer season. I' d spent months getting everything ready (just bought the property) and I' d moved into a tree stand 2 hours before opening. Up pulls 2 trucks and the next thing there' s group' s moving through the bush banging on pots. I told them to leave but they drove right past flushed a deer out of the cedars and shot it when it hopped the north fence.

Dan O.

vtbuckrulrss

hey dan, yes, that would leave a bad taste in my mouth, too. driving is how i got my first buck at 15? a nice 7, 157 on my birthday, so maybe that' s why i like it so much, at times. i don' t like it when people rely on it soley as a method of hunting, combined with sitting in the morning and at night.but i must say, it sounds like the way that my family does drives differs from the way most others conduct them.. we respect posted property, keep them strictly to our and adjacent landowners property( my family has been in the area since 1930, so we know most everyone), and NO POTS AND PANS. we walk normally through the woods, with people stategically placed at the far side of the area, and half walk, half hunt our way to the other side, quietly, and always with the wind at our backs. and never will we do it untill at least late morning, early afternoon. i guess the skill part, if you want to call it that, is knowing where the deer will go, how they will react, and where they are likely to be at that time of day. but, you hunt an area that long, you are bound to know what they are going to do. maybe we are just the exception to the rule in terms of respecting other hunters in the area, i don' t know.

Sling

vtbuckrulrss - Kind of ironic isn' t it? QDM hunters are often accused of being obsessed with antlers, yet they are more satisfied just watching bucks than the average buck-only hunter.

You seem pretty educated on the subject of QDM/biology, so I would be willing to bet you could pretty much answer your own question. More bucks generally means a better buck:doe ratios and a shorter, more intense rut. Older bucks take the breeding responsibilities off 1.5-year olds. Less fawns born late the following year (etc.). Hard to answer that question without writing a novel.

Going beyond the basic biological reasons for improving buck:doe ratios, I think QDM hunters tend to just enjoy observing bucks, even if they choose not to harvest them. When you hunt your buck population down to the point that few deer live past 1.5-years of age, deer will actually start behaving differently. You miss out on some great experiences, even though you are filling your buck tag every year. If a hunter needs to harvest a buck in order for the hunt to be satisfying, then QDM is probably not going to satisfy the needs of that hunter.

NorthJeff

One of the main problems with the exceptance of QDM is those guys that, even though they say they are just " out for the meat" , or " can' t eat the horns" , and blah, blah, blah,.....but then they just can' t stand the thought of not shooting a deer and not being able to brag about, or be known, as the " guy who always get' s his buck" . That' s why after he shoots that little buck, he refers to a button buck as a good-sized spike, or that over-sized 4-point, or one of the biggest 3-pointers he' s ever seen. They say it' s not about the size, or the fact of the kill....but it is, and the thought of not being able to keep the " streak alive" , or keep their successful status in the eyes of their buddies, just kills em.

Jeff...U.P. of Michigan

timbercruiser

In areas where there is not a QDM system in place, if the hunters in the area would just give QDM a chance for 2 or 3 years minimum I think everybody that hunts in the area would be very pleased with the results. Shoot does where there is a need and hunt the mature bucks and give the young bucks a chance.
The #1 tool that a hunter can use as a part of QDM is the half inch of trigger pull.

lunchbucket

Ask every hunter what they want/expect from the state/herd and they all want trophy bucks with lot' s of deer sightings. The problem is how to accomplish that in the shortest time. With a large herd the farmer groups and the insurance groups, not to mention the Bovine TB thing, all come into play. We suggest that the QDM, not QDMA, be applied to the lands that are available by the folks that wish to implement the program and go from there. QDM is not an exact science but a tried set of evaluations that require participation by the implementor to accomplish a set of goals.
There are many unknown variables that cannot be controlled by the implementor which must be negotiated over a period of time using subject and controlled experiments.
Ya want more deer with better stats??? Ya gotta work at it!!!
Each area requires a " tweeking" of the QDM strategies.
Loss of hunter skills? Not quite. In the past the armchair hunter did little to advance his/her knowledge of the out of doors except to do some reading. Now, with the QDM thing up and running/results being reported, we see folks out in the field all year long. This, in and of it' s self, will bring a more imtimate knowledge of the woods and the skills to be a part of the woods by virtue of environmental exposure.
There will always be folks that will argue the we didn' t go to the moon. There is nothing we can do about that...
Help me out here DanO...

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Dan O.

lunchbucket; I back you 100%, you did go to the moon. LOL I agree with you on the other comments too. My view is that sustenance hunters of the past learned a great deal about the skills of hunting deer. The generation just past, who lived in the towns and cities started to treat deer hunting as a week getaway in November. QDM and bowhunting have gotten people back into the bush for most of the year. The more time they stay involved the more ownership (stewardship) they show for wildlife and the environment. The more time that you spenddoing something the more you learn and the better you get at it. QDM has to improve hunting skills in that regard. The difference is that sustanence hunters had to kill to survive so they' re knowlege and skill sets were different from the skills of today.

Dan O.

buckmine

When I started hunting in 1980 it was in the north woods of MN. No food plots, ag fields or open meadow. I now hunt in the heart of the farmland since 1995 where prairie meets the decidous forests in Minnesota.

It is easier in the farmlands. In the northwoods we came home empty handed about five times in those 15 years. Each year in the farmland we at least had one deer.

About your question. We hunted in the northwoods but I think my family was lucky more than skilled. They cannot sit stil for an hour and they have to walk. Not stalk but walk. Us sitters were fortunate to see the deer they kicked up.

I do go up north on the third weekend of firearms and cherish what the north has to offer. When you see a deer there you are thrilled...........