QDM mentality taking hold

A little bit of history. My dad was one of those guys who always felt he had to shoot a buck each fall. Didn’t matter the size of the horns or age of the deer. It just HAD to be a buck. Well, over time and showing him lots of pictures of deer from friends here on IDO he has come a long way. I’m very proud of him for making these changes, as we all know, change is never easy especially as we get older.

Dad and I were discussing our hit list yesterday. We both agree, there are are only two deer on the list that should make his rifle hit list. Otherwise we have 3 cull bucks and far too many does. Dad is going to try to get Mom the big 3×4, this is going to be tough since she typically only sits one or two nights a season.

Then the conversation turned to a beautiful 7×5 we have. That’s a 12 point for you fools from Mn & Wi. This deer definitely needs one more year to be something really, really special. I made a comment something along those lines and Dad replied “I’ll shoot him because you know the neighbors will.” I get the sentiment, but I”m a little disappointed. So he digressed a bit, I’ll continue my barrage of won’t get any bigger by shooting them this year.

We all have our relapses to the old “comfortable” way. I’m just proud he’s making progress in the right direction!

if I had a nickle every time I heard that Glad he has made it this far, my Dad was the same and is now turned around nicely too. Since his 152″ 2 years ago he has only gotten better and not regressed.

Who the he77 are all these pig neighbors that shoot small (7×5) bucks ????

I try to pass small bucks too and some bucks allot of people would shoot. But it sucks when your neighbors arnt on the same page and kill them!

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I try to pass small bucks too and some bucks allot of people would shoot. But it sucks when your neighbors aren’t on the same page and kill them!

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QDM… Dont happen by itself.. If your neighbors aren’t on the same page maybe its time to go over and have a beer and try and form a QDM cooperative.. Someone has got to get the ball rollin..

that’s why I love our 120 acres we own and the 220 we lease up near Onamia… we have all of us in the hood, practicing QDMA… in fact, we are called the Mille Lacs Whitetails. We have over 6000 conjoined acres practicing right now We are top center, the 120 (Joseph Dockendorf & etal) and the 220 Brenda Johnsons is our lease. QDMA map

It doesn’t hurt that Brooks Johnson (he is a founder of Double Bull Blinds) is recruiting new members all the time He is our neighbor and I KNOW he practices QDMA

[quoteQDM… Dont happen by itself.. If your neighbors aren’t on the same page maybe its time to go over and have a beer and try and form a QDM cooperative.. Someone has got to get the ball rollin..

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I agree. Our challenge is not the actual neighbors who live on the land next to us. He only shoots big deer, it’s his family that he can’t control. They come once a year to hunt the family land. Our neighbors to the north have also started holding out for bigger bucks so that is helping a bunch.

Our goal is to make our little spot as perfect as possible and HOPE. I can see the results. Last year we had two “shooters”. Only saw one up and comer. This year we have 2-3 shooters and 3-4 up and comers. It’s working!

We have talked to our neighbors several times, but they are old school farmers that openly admit they are in for the meat and the meat only. They shoot anything and everything on both the north and south sides. I have no problem with that, it’s their chunk of ground they can do exactly what they want. We have held tough and kept with our plan on our 240 acres for 8 years now and it is truely working. Sure the neighbors take some small bucks, but the mature ones seem to figure out our 20 acre sanctuary in the middle of the property and hide out there when the lead flies. Every year we get more and bigger bucks on cam, I like where it is headed.

Please don’t attack me for this – I don’t know the written rules – but does QDM say to let a 7×5 go or is that trophy management?

QDM is about age structure more than anything. So no they don’t say don’t shoot a 7×5, unless it’s 1.5 years old

Correct, the traditional QDM plan is about harvesting mature deer. We have taken the stance of mixing mature deer and trophy management. This particular deer appears to be 3.5 or 4.5 years old. I’d have to look it up, but I think the average age of deer in SD is 2.5-3.5 years old.

In a perfect world, we’d wait and harvest all the bucks at 5.5 to 6.5. Maybe that will happen in 15 years. For now though, I’m happy with the progress we are making.