Quality Deer Management?

[jemche]

ok. i want your opinions on this.

to manage the does should you take yearling does, or big mature does, or both?

1 1/2 year old spikes- some say shoot em. they will have no potential. or pass them up with hope they will grow a bigger rack?

2 1/2 year olds?- spikes? shoot em or pass em? fork horns? is there still any potential?

3 1/2- if they dont have much of a rack still. shoot or pass?

if you have tons of 7pt. genes on your farm, should these deer be shot just to increase the gene pool in hopes for 8 or 10 pts.

what do you think?

[weekender]

since you asked for opinion, I can give one, I'm no expert. does, the experts say shoot the young ones, the old ones you already have a vested interest in, but I can't or just don't want to shoot a young one, one thing is too easy to shoot knot heads for young does. I look for the biggest single dark gray doe (without yearlings) that I can.

1 1/2 spikes, let them walk, spikes mean nothing except it was probably a late fawn. I know for a fact spikes can make 3 yr old studs and this 2 1/2 9pt was a spike last year. If he makes it one or two more years, I be glad to take him then.



2 1/2 or older spike my opinion is a cull, fork horn let go another yr

3 1/2 with not much rack, probably won't be much ever

lots of 7 pts, I say let them walk

[Dave Sikorski]

I'm interested to see what folks say about does.

As far as I know, it's important to get a good ratio of does to bucks in order to have a healthy heard. That's 2:1 or 3:1.

I've heard it's good to let fawns walk but shoot the 1.5 "yearling" does and let the older "twin producing" does do their thing.

A spike will stay a spike forever ONLY if you shoot him.

There are plenty of instances where deer have shitty racks through 2.5 and blossom into beautiful 3.5 yr old deer and so on.

There's a difference between QDM and Trophy management. QDM gives you a good chance at seeing a number of mature bucks. Trophy management strives to breed a certain kind of rack...ie: Texas ranches that cull 8pts or less.

IMO in MD you're better off getting your ratio's right and letting all of your bucks live to at least 4.5 before being taken by hunters. Learn as much as you can about identifying deer age on the hoof and use restraint.

Give them some good food and a chance to show you what they're got.

That's just my own idea of QDM

-D

[Tenacious]

I also know that experts say to shoot the older mature does bc they often produce more does as the younger does will produce bucks.

[Bird Dog]

I personally don't like shooting small does b/c it could end up being a button buck and it's so hard to tell until you're up close.

I let all small, young bucks walk even the ones with screwed up racks. You never know, it could turn out to be something very unique.

Now if it's a mature buck with no size or mass, it's gotta go.

[Sea Draggin]

At the Wild Kingdom, our place in WVa. we shoot three kinds of deer:
-Does two years old and older,
-Old bucks with scrawny broken off spikes (they are usually grey faced or you can just tell they are old and the spikes are usually broken)
-buck with 8 points or more at the hunters discretion.

The QDM survey says our place has 35 deer per sq mile and can sustain 21. That means we need to take at least 14 a year.

[biebs]

Tough answer. Give me a 1000 plus of the right acres thats mine and i'll do the QDM all day long. A few hundred acres on a lease that buts up to a few other clubs, its kinda hard. We shoot all the mature does we can and let the little guys walk. Our ratios suck in terms of bucks to does, but its getting better, slowly. Im pretty positive the sourrounding farms are doing the same thing, but for a deer to get passed at 3.5 with a good rack I think would be pretty rare. We have a rule on our farm that if you shoot a buck you must get it mounted and we all use the same taxidermist. I must say we are seeing more bucks and bigger bucks than ever this year and i'm pretty confident its because that hunters have accepted a new way of thinking.

[Buckeye]

That depends on you overall goal. Older does usually have at least two fawns by taking them you IN THEARY sould reduce the numbers better.

[Sea Draggin]

That depends on you overall goal. Older does usually have at least two fawns by taking them you IN THEARY sould reduce the numbers better.

Agree 100%.

[Anders]

I hunt about 1000 acres, not together but in the same general area. There are other people who hunt around here that don't follow QDM. I figure I better leave as many scrub bucks for the other people to shoot, so they don't get my big boy. I also leave a bunch of bucks to increase competition during the rut, so I can call nice deer in.

The rule I use is:

Shoot every doe, even the small does, but don't shoot unless you know its a doe, don't take a chance, $40 fine for buttons and that money goes toward food plots.

Only shoot the buck if your going to mount it. $40 fine if you don't and that money goes towards food plots, but I probably wont invite you back again.