Spoiler, big grin and I highly yield to your post! YOU ARE 100% right!!! I should have been more specific. No doubt that MO planted every available piece of land they could and they habitat managed it as much as they could. They did it right for BIG mature bucks AND a healthy deer herd.

But the part I was talking about (anyone can do it too) were the "buck harvest rules". MO was serious about mature hunters shooting mature bucks only! Way too many people paint QDM into a corner and say that QDM means you can't kill ANY immature bucks and that even means kids, first-time-hunters and that is NOT the case.

When MO had PL, the majority of bucks killed at PL were "mature". Being greedy and being trigger happy and shooting 2.5 yr old bucks or "4 pts on one side", was not tolerated. They also preached, which I agree, that you don't have to "kill" a buck for a hunt to be successful!

So yes, no doubt, MO had the resources to plant, plant, plant but the BUCK HARVEST or KILLIN' rules MO instituted when they had it, can be duplicated by any hunting club!!! So that was my point.

As Elkhunter pointed out, 4 pts on one side or better will not produce near the same results as "mature bucks only" rule. When you have several members killing two or three basket-racked 2.5 yr old 12" inside spread bucks every year, you're not going to have a great number of mature bucks.

Abolt300, you're right too. I am just glad that I got to watch the transformation MO did. However, even without the massive planting, quality bucks can still be produced there but the bucks will have to make it past 2.5 yrs old first!




Last edited by Bucktrot; 06/28/12 06:22 PM.