The great Cull Buck Debate.

[buckpasser]

Wrong. Listened to several podcasts last week with some biologists and the head guys of the QDM association. It's amazing how wrong the average hunter takes the QDM ideas. I learned a lot about their actual principles that are often exactly the opposite of many folks who claim to be practicing QDM. The QDM guys were ceratainly saying there is nothing wrong at all with shooting some young bucksafter you get to the point where you have a good population and balanced ratios, or, conversely a low population where you need to save the does, or more bucks than does. The biologists said the same thing. There is just no way to have a healthy deer population if you overkill does. A lot of folks just adapt the QDM idea to their own trophy hunting/big antler ideas instead of following the actual guidelines and won't hear anything different. As Nic said, the young buck is the least important member of the herd, and the one that makes the least difference when it dies. A lot of people just refuse to hear or accept that. That doesn't mean you need to kill every young deer you see if you are trying to have more mature deer, but letting every one of them walk and shooting a doe instead isn't always the best course of action either.

Very true. Once upon a time I had enough windshield time to keep up with podcasts too, and one thing that really stuck out to me was this; The QDM plan is property specific. There are properties that should have a goal of striving to take a buck of 3.5 or older. It’s not cookie cutter as many would have you to believe, and I hope we’ve hit rock bottom and self educated ourselves about what overharvest of does gets us. The deer management plan should also have some inclusion of fun and enjoyment, which is also contrary to many wanna be “deer biologists” finger pointing soap box rants about what YOU should be shooting.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Very true. Once upon a time I had enough windshield time to keep up with podcasts too, and one thing that really stuck out to me was this; The QDM plan is property specific. There are properties that should have a goal of striving to take a buck of 3.5 or older. It’s not cookie cutter as many would have you to believe, and I hope we’ve hit rock bottom and self educated ourselves about what overharvest of does gets us. The deer management plan should also have some inclusion of fun and enjoyment, which is also contrary to many wanna be “deer biologists” finger pointing soap box rants about what YOU should be shooting.

Yep. That last sentence is one of the biggest things that seems to be overlooked. Fun. Funny, but it seems like the ultimate goal of deer hunting nowadays is to never shoot a deer. You'll hear people bragging about not shooting a buck in ten years or some such like it's a badge of honor. I say it's not very much fun to hunt for ten years and not shoot a deer when you are seeing hundreds of them. You probably need to take up golf or something. Plus, it's hard to eat them when they are still walking around.

 

[Throwback]

 

[jammeri5]

If the injury is on a front leg, it’ll affect the antler on the same side. If the injury is a back leg, it affects the antler on the opposite side. At least I think that’s right,I could be backwards ?

If you look close, you can see a spot on the back left leg. The left antler looks to be affected. He’s still alive and most of the guys stop hunting after the rut. If he can make it past thanksgiving, maybe I can get some pictures next year to see how it changes