I wanted to pose this question to you guys since many of you own and manage your own land.
Why not shoot an 8 pt when he is 3 1/2? Most qdm theories state to let the buck reach 4 1/2 before they should be harvested to see what they develop into.
The reason I am asking this is because one of the farms I hunt has started to get a lot of 8 pts where in 04'when I started to hunt it the mature deer were mainly 10 pts. The genetic makeup changed a little bit and now there are getting to be a lot of 3 1/2 8 pts and older on the farm.
Of course there are some nice 3 1/2 10's but they are definately out numbered by the 8 pts.
So why wouldn't I want to shoot the 3 1/2 8 pts before they reach maturity and get very hard to kill. Why not kill them when they are younger (easier to kill), and since I believe that it has been proven that 3 1/2 yr olds will do more breeding than there older counter part, why would you want them to breed more.
Wouldn't you want to make sure your 10 pts get to breed more does then the 8's.
I know of so many guys that have large chunks of land and they start to manage it, by letting all the bucks get to 4 1/2 before harvesting them. Next thing they know that big stud that was on their ground is on the neighbors because he kept getting pushed around by all the other mature less inferior horned deer that were allowed to reach maturity.
Of course this is tough to do in IA w/ only one bow tag for a non land owner. I know I am like everyone else. Why would I want to put my tag on a younger 8 pt just to improve the herd very little. I do strive for a big deer every year too. So it is very hard and such a catch 22 to me to actually manage a herd for trophy deer.
So I would like to hear your thoughts on this and how you guys would go about it.
I personally think the current QDM theories are micromanaged for southern deer where midwest deer are so much different on a micro management scale.
Why not shoot an 8 pt when he is 3 1/2? Most qdm theories state to let the buck reach 4 1/2 before they should be harvested to see what they develop into.
The reason I am asking this is because one of the farms I hunt has started to get a lot of 8 pts where in 04'when I started to hunt it the mature deer were mainly 10 pts. The genetic makeup changed a little bit and now there are getting to be a lot of 3 1/2 8 pts and older on the farm.
Of course there are some nice 3 1/2 10's but they are definately out numbered by the 8 pts.
So why wouldn't I want to shoot the 3 1/2 8 pts before they reach maturity and get very hard to kill. Why not kill them when they are younger (easier to kill), and since I believe that it has been proven that 3 1/2 yr olds will do more breeding than there older counter part, why would you want them to breed more.
Wouldn't you want to make sure your 10 pts get to breed more does then the 8's.
I know of so many guys that have large chunks of land and they start to manage it, by letting all the bucks get to 4 1/2 before harvesting them. Next thing they know that big stud that was on their ground is on the neighbors because he kept getting pushed around by all the other mature less inferior horned deer that were allowed to reach maturity.
Of course this is tough to do in IA w/ only one bow tag for a non land owner. I know I am like everyone else. Why would I want to put my tag on a younger 8 pt just to improve the herd very little. I do strive for a big deer every year too. So it is very hard and such a catch 22 to me to actually manage a herd for trophy deer.
So I would like to hear your thoughts on this and how you guys would go about it.
I personally think the current QDM theories are micromanaged for southern deer where midwest deer are so much different on a micro management scale.