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QDM Club Penalties

Highland

Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Messages
13
Location
Hamilton County
The property we are hunting has practiced QDMA for over 20 years. The membership turn over is low, we may go five years without a new member. Our main goal is not to harvest any bucks under the age of 3 1/2. This property is very unique in the fact that some 2 1/2 are in the 115 - 125 class. We are hunting in S.E. TN, and are harvesting some incredible deer for the area, and really any area. Over the last two years three 140 + have been harvested. Every year one or two 2 1/2 bucks are harvested, and in most cases, are truly tough calls in a hunting environment in the woods and a decsision is limited to 1- 5 seconds to shoot or not. However, there are a few members who seem to struggle each year with identifying 2 1/2 year olds. They are harvesting some good looking bucks, but are 2 1/2 by jaw bone aging. We as a club are trying to discourage this by talking about the deer and the potiential they have with these members, but so far have not been successful. We are not to the point of asking them to leave the club, but what kind of (punishment is not the word I am looking for, maybe penalty is better) penalty or consequences should we as a club try to envoke to better help ensure more of our 2 1/2 year olds are advancing to the older age class?
 
If the harvest of top-end 2 1/2 year-olds is only 1 or 2 per year, I don't see a problem. Depending on the size of the property, I really don't think those minimal harvests are doing much harm.
 
If its the same people year after year, its easy to fix! If not, either get everybody a better education, or set a penalty in place.
 
I agree with what BSK says... But you could also do an "earn a buck" system. If the first buck is younger than your target age, that member must kill x number of does to earn another chance at a buck.
 
regardless of how hard you try to teach people what to kill, you will never be 100% successful. there are too many variables that a hunter has to deal with. some hunters pick up on this rather quick, others will never be able to properly judge a shooter. i have seen hunters that kill the first 8 point that they see, bring the buck out and grab the camera. it continues year after year. beauty is always in the eyes of the beholder the same as what some see and do not see as a large mature buck. we try anything that we can think of. we know that we will never have every hunter that can identify a shooter, we keep trying though, and this has helped to keep mistakes to a minimum.
 
I did not mention the size of the property - sorry that would probably be helpful. We are managing around 1,000 acres, but the land owner adjacent to us is managing 8,000 acres, with more stringent requirements.
 
In that siuation, you'll never run out of 3 1/2+ year-old bucks, as long as you don't over-pressure your 1,000 acres and/or you have more of what deer are looking for, especially pockets of good cover.
 
steven stone said:
A couple of 2.5 yr olds will not hurt you one bit.

I wanted to expound on Steven's statement...

It depends on what exactly you are manging for. Should you be managing with traditional QDM goals and simply trying to protect the yearlings, then Steven is correct. A few 2-1/2 year olds on about 1,000 acres won't harm a thing.

However, if you are more into trophy management with the goal of harvesting 4-1/2+ year old deer, then the harvest of 2-1/2 year old deer is more detrimental to your program then harvesting the same number of 1-1/2 year old deer. If that's the case you may do better with a simple limit on the number of bucks that can be harvested to prevent too many middle-aged deer from being removed prematurely.
 
BGG, one thing that must be considered also is if those couple of 2.5 yr olds werent shot by a hunter, then how many would die of natural mortality anyway.
 
Exactly Steven, that's why if you are managinging for mature deer, it's more detrimental to shoot a 2-1/2 year old buck as opposed to a yearling...because that 2-1/2 has already survived to make it to 2-1/2. It gets even more detrimental if you shoot a 3-1/2.
 
To me, identifying 2 1/2 from 3 1/2 year-old bucks is the toughest part of field-judging buck age. Personally, I look at the size of the neck and the depth of the chest.
 
As others have said, I wouldn't sweat losing one or two 2 1/2 yr olds overall per year. However, in this case, it sounds like it's only one or two guys killing all the young deer. In that case, I'd go to a $500 or $1000 fine. That'll make people think twice about pulling the trigger. Or just give them one more warning, and kick them out if they shoot another 2 1/2.

My cousin killed a 2 1/2 yr old on our farm this year. 17" inside spread, scored 115". It didn't bother me a bit because he hasn't killed a buck on the farm in 3 years, and this was only his third buck to kill in 6 years. He knew he made a mistake, but I know that honest mistakes do happen on occasion. I would have felt different if he killed a couple 2 1/2 yr old bucks every year on the farm, though.
 

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