Some of you people need to work for CNN. Downplaying biologists' roles or their expertise in wildlife mgmt? Let someone come into a mechanic's, electrician's, Heating & Air guy's, etc... space and that someone start claiming that they know more about those disciplines than the men/women that work in those areas and there would be an uproar.

QDMA is NOT about killing bigger antler bucks. Killing bigger antlered bucks is a bi-product of killing mature bucks. QDMA is about the healthy mgmt of a deer herd. Not Jackie Bushman, "How to kill a big buck!". Deer biologists study deer for a living. They get up in the AM and they study deer. It's their job. I'm amazed at how many people discredit them because the biologists' proven wildlife mgmt principles differ than someone's desire to burn powder. Believe it or not, there are hundreds of thousands of VERY specific and controlled deer studies that have been conducted at universities all over the USA. They study deer as medical professionals and universities study humans. And I don't confuse biologists from MSU, AU, UGA, Universities in TX etc... with liberal biologists from maybe Oregon or USC and that ain't U of South Carolina!

QDMA does NOT prescribe the killing of every doe you see. QDMA strives to keep a deer pop within a given area's carrying capacity and having a more balanced sex ratio with a balanced age structure for biological reasons too long to mention in this reply. If you (or your club) needs to shoot more does, then do it! If not, have the discipline to NOT pull the trigger! And use proven biologically sound methods as to if you need to kill more does or not.

QDMA works and it all ain't about the size of the antlers although ALL of us would rather kill a 130" buck than a 95" buck.

My hunting clubs is a QDMA club and we shoot bucks by age and you CAN age a buck on the hoof. No, my club doesn't like to kill 3.5 yr old bucks and we target 4.5 yr old bucks. We see LOTS of bucks and we kill a good many good quality bucks and NO, all mature bucks are not going to be 140" or better bucks. We kill a lot of 115" bucks that are 4 yrs old and we are happy about killing a trophy 4 yr old buck as that's what he is... a trophy at 4 yrs old.

Are there supposedly "QDMA" clubs that don't do the right thing? YES!! Culls????? That is TDM!!!!! I'm sick of the ignorant hunter or club that claims he or she or they (meaning a club) kills "culls". BS! Culls are for TDM. You ain't going to change genetics killing culls unless you have a high-fence and you control everything. Free-range is a different story.

My club doesn't shoot "culls" and we accidentally shoot very few button bucks because we don't shoot "lone does" as lone does are, 9 time out of 10, button bucks. Education! When someone brings back a button buck, we'll ask: "Was the deer by itself?" More times than not, the answer is yes. There's a biological reason for BB being by themselves. Don't shoot lone deer!! My club's BB numbers went way down when we educated all the hunters in our club.

My hunting club has almost zero turn-over of members. We are happy with what we are doing and greed doesn't sit well with all members. We kill some nice bucks and we SEE A LOT of bucks and if you kill a 4 yr old 4 pt, we're celebrating! If you kill a 2.5 yr old 8 pt, no, we're not happy but we know mistakes happens and mistakes are not hell, fire and damnation.

QDMA works for us. We are NOT a TDM as TDM is something totally different. We don't shoot every doe we see.

If you wanna bash a deer management philosophy, make sure you know what you're talking about. Know what QDMA supports and don't confuse those that practice something else but calls themselves QDMA supporters.

And yes, we let first time buck hunters shoot anything they want, but if the parent would preach a little discipline and patience, the FTBH has a GREAT chance at killing a 3.5 yr old buck. Hunting is no different than life... you get out what you put into it!!! The QDMA's philosophy works so don't show your ignorance by misrepresenting it.

And, without doubt, hunting clubs that practice true QDMA philosophies CAN mange their deer herds by their trigger finger by pulling and NOT pulling it!! When a hunting club with 10 - 20 members has zero or 0.05% turnover, you're doing something right. The number of mature bucks on our property keeps members coming back. And mainly, the member's kids are killing nice bucks with some occasional studs. QDMA's philosophies works for us.