Them woods up there have had hounds run on them for over 150 years. Our club has the same guidelines but we are to kill NO does at all. I'm kind of in the middle on this.I would much rather kill a few does than a small buck,but it's just the way it is up there.If you don't kill them ,the next guy will.Our deer have to have a forked horn which makes 0 sense at all because some of the 4 points are the same age as the spikes. I think we should just put a limit of two buck and two does in our club and that's it. But there's way to do that because so many ignore the rules and it's easy to get away with breaking them. It's almost impossible to have any type of QDM up our way and I really doubt it will ever happen in my time. I understand both of you.
Yeah I turned down a lease this year that had a No kill on does...I am not sure what mamagement practices some of these people are practicing but at least up here it is wrong not to take does.
Lease I am on is a 6 pt rule, not sure I even like that but at least they let them get 2-3 before the slaughter.
Them woods up there have had hounds run on them for over 150 years. Our club has the same guidelines but we are to kill NO does at all. I'm kind of in the middle on this.I would much rather kill a few does than a small buck,but it's just the way it is up there.If you don't kill them ,the next guy will.Our deer have to have a forked horn which makes 0 sense at all because some of the 4 points are the same age as the spikes. I think we should just put a limit of two buck and two does in our club and that's it. But there's way to do that because so many ignore the rules and it's easy to get away with breaking them. It's almost impossible to have any type of QDM up our way and I really doubt it will ever happen in my time. I understand both of you.
Bingo Skunk Ape (in bold). The leases are too large to manage intensively and are setup for dog hunters to kill alot of deer but not decmiate the population in a few years. This is what the old timers are scared of, below is a summary of the background and reasoning for this:
All the old timers that run the clubs remember the times in the 70s-mid 90s where it was a celebration to even kill a deer. It would take 3 hours of riding to even find a fresh deer track. My dad hunted here a few weeks for several years and then traveled back to Ga to run dogs... it was quite horrible in his words.
In the mid 90s most of the type II WMA was split up into the present dog hunting leases today (with the exception of Lafayette Club being split even further and San Pedro WMA staying a type II WMA). Micro management and restricting the doe harvest led to deer populations booming in most clubs.
Around 2000-2002 deer (in 3 rivers and camp misery) were heavily overpopulated and the doe tags were implemented. Some hunters disregarded shooting one doe and shot every deer they saw, reusing the tags and thinning the population. 2004-2005 No does were shot, population rose accordingly. 2006-present day 100-150 doe tags issued and have to be turned in by Nov 29. The underlying issue is you can't properly regulate a large dog club as far as deer restrictions :hammer
We can grow larger deer up our way,in fact Madison and Lafayatte Co's have recorded some monsters.I would love to see some changes but it's not gonna happen.The majority of the people who hunt up that way just don't care about QDM.There's crews up there that will kill over 50 bucks a year. Everything from spikes to good bucks.To be honest I was completely amazed at the size of the bucks I seen on a job ar Holopaw last summer,and the ones you hunt,and the ones my buddy hunts at Ileka or whatever they call it.There's no science behind the way they hunt up that way,it's just the way it is.It's true about not finding tracks up there back in the day. I hunted a lot of type 2's,even the same place I hunt now. If you found a deer track you stomped it out and set on it if you wanted to run it. My friends dad hunted up there back in the 50's and 60's and said once there was a dead doe on the sie of 19 and about 100 cars pulled up just to see it. Now the deer are so thick up there it's nothing to drive around sometimes and count 70-80 a day.I actually hit one in the ass with my truck last weekend that wouldn't get out of my way. The old timer locals up there want numbers,not quality. If I had a private patch that I know I could keep protected,damn straight it would be qdm. My son has killed a couple spike bucks,one when he was 10 and one when he was 12. I told him now he needs to start looking for something better. What really sucks is in Missouri it's Mandatory that bucks have 4 points on one side to be legal,no matter what the age of the deer. My son had a nice 6 pt he could have killed up there twice but he couldn't.I don't think that's fair especially to a kid.IMO QDM should not be forced upon anybody and it takes a lot of work and time to be done properly.
100% disagree, sounds like some BS somebody made up to be able to shoot more deer. I can show you a place that is QDM that has numerous 130" deer and is 3.5 hours south of you, actually I could show you a bunch of places like that. I disagree with what you said, but to each your own, but if your ok never shooting a deer over 3 years old and 90" then I guess that is how you feel. But don't put the statement in there that you can't grow big deer in FL, that is absolutely not true, you have to let deer get over 2.5 years old to actually start developing. QDM is a great program if implimented correctly, it has been around for years and is proven throughout the US, I really don't understand some of your statements, and don't see the science behind them, but whatever, to each his own.
FWC has our data and it can probably be found on the internet if you want to review it. We (dog hunters) see no point in trying to grow "mature" bucks to hunt, what's the point? The chase is more important than the size of the antlers.
Not all hunters care only about hunting and killing mature deer- what do you not understand about that? We hunt more in the way of our forefathers hunted and enjoy the tradition more than celebrate an antler score :rolleyes
BTW my dad and brother both hunt QDM clubs and are members of 3 rivers also. I have nothing against QDM hunting as that's all I knew in growing up and hunting exclusively in Ga and Ala but our hunting is so much more enjoyable IMO.
BTW I said you can't grow big bucks near the Fl coastline. My dad put a 130+ class buck on the wall from Jefferson Co. several years ago(it was in the Woods n Water). Him and my brother also has several more 110-120 class bucks from Madison Co. from when they hunted there. Take a look at the USDA soils maps and you will find my reasoning why you are going to have a hard time growing bigger bucks by the coast (only thing I will say about that). Our club lies mostly less than a mile from the coastline.
