Originally Posted By: 49er
Originally Posted By: cartervj
I'll use your argument against buck limits, are we now justifying PETA and other anti hunting groups?

What you posted seems too indicate we need to quit hunting deer and reintroduce the Red Wolf. Let them do the killing and keep the deer population in check.


I was addressing Danny's question:
Quote:
What effect is the lack of mature does having on the herd's balance?



If you haven't read enough to cause you to take notice of probable unwanted effects of killing does indiscriminately as many qdm advocates do, then I won't argue with you. We don't think alike, and arguing with you is not worth the effort.

I think Danny shares my concern that removing too many of the mature does in a given area may seriously disrupt natural social groups that benefit the entire deer population, both male and female. I also believe that targeting only the best of the bucks has detrimental effects.

If you take time to think about it, those younger bucks that are left to fill the places of the mature bucks targeted in qdm this season become the main targets at the beginning of the next season. If they are killed before or during the mating period, the result is younger bucks being left with the task of mating. That would occur year after year if only mature bucks are targeted for killing. Natural predation does not target only the fittest members of a species, male or female.


I've never read anything published by QDMA that promoted indiscriminately killing does. Everything I have read published by QDMA regarding killing does has addressed the importance of site specific rules as well as the down side of killing only mature does or only fawns. In fact pick up the Oct. issue and it specifically addresses this. I don't have a dog in the fight, but I read their magazines and what they say and what you say the say seem to usually be two different things.

You are probably correct about there being a down side to only targeting the best bucks/ high grading, but what are the down sides of targeting only mature bucks? Lord knows no one is going to kill a high percentage of them anyway so if you allow your bucks to get older you are also allowing most of them to escape being killed by a hunter and so there will always be a good percentage of 4+ year old deer on the property. You are implying that if you target mature deer in year 1 then in year 2 there will be minimal mature bucks left to breed, so in year 3 most does are bred by yearling bucks. That isn't the way it really works.