Measures of QDM "success"

[Tenbears]

I too, totally aggree with Cman.

From a scientific view:
i have seen the difference in the deer that use our farm over the last 6 years than prior to having nutrients on a yaer round basis.

I'm not so sure of the older buck class that stay on the place.
but for sure I've seen certian groups that stay on the place.
The older class bucks often stay between 2 to 3farms in the area.
These are seen by video and in most cases during the off season while we scout, or word of mouth of them in the area.

I don't really know how tho measure it from this point, other than seeing an increase in numbers healthier herds and better class bucks taken. There waqs a point that we had lil scronny bucks, but not any more.

I'm still learning, the management process and it continues to get better.
We have some of the best group people on this site that share information.

This alone is a sense of success.

 

[TheLBLman]

But the fact those bucks are there, that year may very well be the thing that needs to be used as the best biological measure of success.

In essence something about the small land management probably influenced those bucks to use that property during that hunting season. Finding those influences may need to be the focus of small land management, and simply measuring the "attraction power" of those influences may need to be the real measure of "biological success."

In my case, a major "influence" is hunting style, or maybe more I should say year-round land use style.
Taking great pains to simply not disturb deer, so that the entire small property is somewhat a "sanctuary", at least relative to surrounding properties. So I'm talking about something far beyond just minimizing human scent and hunting the wind. While this is not a practice limited to just the hunting season, it is of it's greatest importance during a hunting season. But, again, I'm emphasizing it's not just a hunting style as much as it's a different style of land conservation.

On a year-round basis, I avoid any human activity on small hunting properties, then try to limit my more frequent excursions mainly to a small property's perimeter. Of course, there may always be something you're wanting to do on the property, so with exception to the perimeters, I try to do those things (like checking interior trail cams, mowing food plots, etc.) between late morning and mid-afternoon. This keeps the deer habituated to no human disturbances during the peak hunting times of early mornings and late afternoons.

I've also found that when hunting, entering the area well before daylight, staying on stand all day, then leaving after dark is one of the best ways to minimize human disturbance to a small property during hunting season. (For whatever reasons, deer do not seem as bothered by nighttime human intrusion.) If you can't stay all day, try to exit around 1P, when more deer are bedded, and there's typically a little wind dissipating not only your scent, but also your movements and sounds.

IMO, one of the biggest mistakes many hunters make in hunting/managing small properties is too much "scouting" and/or simply spending too much time on (or more in the interior of) the property, rather than around the property. But it's all a "relative" thing. So long as there's more human disturbance on the surrounding property, you can get away with more on yours, but still with the price of less daytime movement of older deer. If you're surrounded by property that seldom is disturbed, it may not take much human intrusion on your property to cause the deer to spend more of their time on the neighboring property. Deer quickly gravitate to the areas they find they're least disturbed, even if it's not the best security cover in the area. And sometimes even under minimal human intrusion, they don't mind staying bedded all day, only to travel over a mile to feed all night under the cover of darkness.

 

[BSK]

I would agree that the #1 most powerful "attractant" to small properties is good cover habitat and/or "sanctuaries." Nothing draws hunter-wary deer like places they can hide and places where they find little human intrusion. The radio collar studies from PA clearly indicate hunter-wary deer very quickly gravitate (during hunting season) towards the areas that experience the least human activity (scent).

I also agree about human activities on a property outside of hunting season. Other than directly post-hunting season, I do little "wandering through the woods" on my place. Now the deer will smell me year-round in the food plots and along the major roads, but human scent "in the woods" is kept to a minimum outside of the hunting season. Plus, we have several small designated sanctuaries where no human intrusion is permitted period.

 

[Boone 58]

Chaser, i agree, we manage almost 4000 acres, even though many folks dont really manage as intensively as others the far reaching impacts of everyone doing a little bit of managing along with the twra's reduction of bucks allowed has made a tremendous impact on the "maturity" increase of bucks being killed. Many folks now will pass up the 1.5 yr olds to chase the 2.5 and older but even said some pass thru and i can definitely tell an improvement in the age structure of our herds. I personally am impressed with the widespread interest by almost everyone in planting food plots. this coupled with better harvest practices has catapulted us forward by leaps and bounds from where we were just 8 to 10 years ago. When i came home in 97 i was depressed with the little being done toward plots since georgia had been on that program for many years. Sooooo good to see us going forward the way we are!!

 

[1Roscoe]

Bryan, what a great thread. Just joined the forum today and as someone who hunts 110acres, this has made for a great read!

OutdoorBob was right... you guys have a pretty sweet forum here.