I'd bet a lot of the young men there were Baptist, too.

Don't know if that's anything more than happenstance, but I do have some Mennonite friends with a large farming operation who have really embraced QDM on their Tennessee operations. And does seem all types of hunting are a part of life with many of the Mennonite and Amish heritage. I can see their "connection" to the land being a good fit with much of the original QDM ideology.

One thing I noticed at the QDMA show was a lot of the young men where Amish.

Does anyone think that the subject of deer hunting would be where its at now if it wasn't for these shows?

The questions are, where is hunting now and is that a good thing?

Now aspects of the hunting industry certainly exist that have been great for hunting in general. Many products created by the interest in hunting have made hunting more enjoyable. Innovations in warm, stay-dry clothing have been great for hunting, as have advancements in weapon technology. The increased interest in deer management has also been a very good thing.

But the current "monster buck crazy"--fueled primarily by hunting shows--is a very bad thing. This has created a system where the the value of a deer is based solely on its antler score. That's a very bad thing for hunting.