QDM and Your Neighbors

In the begining of 2006 I joined my first hunt club. I have two youth hunters that started hunting in 2005 and after a frustrating season and no deer on public land or a few properties I have permission to hunt, I decided it was time to make a change. This change was due to the fact that I wanted a better quality hunt for myself and my kids. The prices of quality leases and purshaing my own land swayed me towards the hunt club idea. It simply was afordable.

I attended my first club meeting and at the top of the discussion list was QDM (Quality Deer Management). I found the topic to be very interesting at least. The club would like all it's members to practice selective harvest, which I'm all for. After hunting public land and areas where Brown-Is-Down seems to be the motto, I am all for Let em go and let em grow. During the discussion though, it seemed that many members were of the view point that some of the club's leases would be better for QDM then others. Because I have yet to visit all the properties I can not speak for the topograghy of the land. However the controversy seemed to be more of the fact that some of the properties bordered questionable neighbors. If we let the deer walk, the guys across the fence will shoot them. Leaving our efforts to produce quality deer null and void. To some extent this is true. OK, it is very true. It does no one any good to let deer go by just so the guys down the road can shoot them for you. So does this go to say, the guy that owns 40 acres hasn't got much of a chance of creating a better deer herd for himself if the neighbors shoot anything? Not at all, there are a few practices that can be put into place to insure your deer grow old.

Keep in mind as you continue to read, the rest of this is just my humble opinion but I think you will see it makes sense. One of the first things you can do to keep the deer on your property is to give them a place to feel safe and comfortable. This means pick out a couple acres of thick cover and make it a rule to never go there and never hunt it. if you have questionable neighbors on all sides, the ideal spot would be towards the center of your property. If the deer have a place to go where they do not feel the preasure of hunters they will continue to use that area. This is even more true when first shot begin to ring out during hunt season. They will head for safety.
Another idea is to give the deer what they need and at the top of that list would be a food source. In my opinion this idea is one of the main pourposes for food plots today, to hold deer on your land. OK, I know it costs money and there is the time and effort factor involved as well. However if you spend a little money and put in a little effort you should see the rewards far out weigh the negative. If your property happens to have some open fields you may be able to work out something with the local farmer. Lets say you you give him permission to plant in your field and all you want in return is he leave a few rows of crops standing all year. Problem solved, no investment of time or money on your part. I have seen first hand how this can work. One private farm I have hunted for many years lost many deer to just such a cenario. I have hunted there for years and taken my share of deer and a few good ones. The last few years however, I have noticed the neighboring farmer has been leaving crops in the field. I have hunted this property for around 15 years and this has never happend in the Past. I have seen more hunters on his proprty as well and know he does not hunt himself. My guess is the hunters on his land worked a deal with him to start leaving some crops in the field. The result, come October-November when the crops are taken from the fields I hunt, we begin to see no deer on my side of the fence. Not only do we see fewer deer while on stand but a fresh snow fall shows no sign of deer even moving on our side of the fence. That is the power of a food source.

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One thing to keep in mind as you practice QDM on your property is the carrying capacity of the land. This seems like pretty simple math to me. If you let younger deer live to see another day, it does not take long before the herd begins to grow in size. Right back to the available food I go again. You will need to make sure there is enough to go around or they will simply leave for greener pastures so to speak. Mineral supplimnets should aslo be taken into concideration. Not only will they help aide in antler growth giving you better bucks but they help to insure your deer are getting the nutrients they need to stay healthy.
Then there is the harvesting does. I have hunted property under QDM before and the land owners were against shooting does. Their idea was, if we have more does on the property when the rut kicks in we will have more bucks comeing to tend them. The problem with this is, you then tend to see more does then bucks on many of your hunts because the buck to doe ratio is way out of wack and this isn't our goal from the start. Also consider this, if you take one adult doe you potentialy took 2-3 deer that won't be there next year (that doe's fawns included). You have aslo created less compotition for the available food for the following year. Removing does from your property is not a bad thing and last I checked, they are pretty tasty too.

I guess if you ask me can you practice QDM if your neighbors don't, my opinion is yes. Sure you will loose a deer from time to time that ventures in the wrong area and there always seems to be little we can do about poachers and trespassers. If you put in a little time and effort in though, it shouldn't take long for it to become very rewarding for you. Just keep in mind, there is more to QDM then just letting the little ones live....

Scouting, Scouting, Scouting

I have often thought of scouting for Whitetail Deer as the hunt before the hunt. The task of hunting for sign that will eventually and hopefully tell me where to hunt. Unfortunately for many people new to the world of hunting and some (hunters that should know better), scouting is something usually thought of as taking place before the actual hunting season.

If we think of scouting as something separate from hunting, then we tend to put some limits on our ability to accomplish the task at hand, harvesting game.
In my opinion, scouting and hunting are one in the same. Without one there cannot be the other or at least not to the extent of accomplishing our goals as we intended from the start.

Not only should scouting take place before the season but also extend into it. The sign will change and there are many factors that cause it to change. Weather, food sources, the rut, and hunting pressure are just a few things that will cause deer to deviate from a pattern. When this happens, all the old sign you found before season does you no good. We have all found some great deer sign, set up to hunt over it and see nothing. Chances are something altered the pattern. To figure out where they went you need to do more scouting.

One example was an early Wisconsin Bow hunt. I started scouting the farm we intended to hunt in July and August. I started looking around the crop field edges for trails leading into the fields. One secluded 40 acre soy bean field at the back of the property had everything I was looking for. Consecutive scouting trips turned up several sightings of at least four shooter bucks using the field. In fear of spooking any deer off I gave the scouting a rest for the last two weeks before opening day. First light opening day found me sitting in a funnel leading from the river bottom to the field. That weekend I put a total 16 hours in that stand and never seen a single deer. Before heading for home that Sunday evening, I decided to get out of my stand early and see what I could find. What happened in two weeks that moved the deer from the field? The sign I was now seeing was the same sign I saw two weeks ago, nothing new. This little afternoon scouting trip turned up some valuable information. What I found and learned was the beans had begun to turn and dry out in that two week period. As I continued to scout the field edge for sign, I found an area where the bean field met a corn field. There is what I’m looking for, Corn knocked to the ground in large areas, tracks everywhere and a few new scrapes along the edge. It seems that the beans were no longer what the deer were feeding on, in that two week time slot they moved to the corn. I found a nice little bottle neck in the corner of the corn field and relocated my stand there. The first evening in that stand yielded a nice Wisconsin 12 point. I know some guys that will hunt the same sign till the season is over and tell you they have no Idea what went wrong, all the sign was there.

Don’t get caught sticking with one game plan and do not be afraid to come out of that stand during season to get in a little more scouting. It just might be the best move you will ever make.

Trail Cameras

Do you use a trail camera also known as game cam where you hunt? If not, it is something you should consider adding to your hunting tools. Many people use them to do nothing else but to get photos of deer and wild game. Others like the fact that they can actually see what deer are on the property. The fact is trail cameras are good for both purposes. However there is another reason I like to use them where I hunt.

Recently on a scouting trip to one of the properties I plan to hunt in 2006, we placed a trail cam over looking an area that had some good sign. The cam was left out for one week, Saturday to Saturday. That is a total of eight days it was there to take photos.
we managed to get some great photos of the deer that were using that area, confirming what the sign was already telling us. Five out of eight days there were deer using this area. Sounds like pretty good odds of seeing deer if we hang a stand there. Or does it?
One other piece of information I like about trail cameras is the fact that many of them also keep track of not only the date but the time the photo was taken as well. This is valuable information. Although my trail camera captured a vast amount of deer on as many days, The time stamp shows they are only using the area after 8pm.

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Using the information we got from the trail camera as far as date and time, I can now further scout the trails backwards away from this area and try to find a staging area the dear are using during daylight hours. If I find such a place, another trail camera hung for a few days should tell me when the deer are using it.
If the sign continues to show use in the first area, we will save it for later in the season as we get closer to the rut and have a better chance of seeing the buck we want during legal shooting hours. If you are not using trail camera, you should be. They are not just for taking pretty photos.

Finding Bedding Areas

OK, how do I find bedding areas? This seems to be a question I see in forums, emails and a large amount of search queries on the net. As my Bowhunting season is about to kick off here in Wisconsin, I have been out looking for those bedding areas myself.

First off, if you spend enough time hunting a piece of property, you will no doubt come across bedding areas. Deer will often year after year use these same areas. They continue to use these areas because the feel safe there. Once you know where they are your hunting will be a little easier. Most educated or experienced hunters know where the bedding Areas are or know how to find them. For most new to the hunting world this can be a daunting task or at least seem that way.

As with any aspect of hunting, no one piece of deer sign means you are in the right spot. You need a few things to go off of. In order for me to find bedding areas I first need to locate and identify the major food sources on the property. This can be a new article all of it's own. However to touch on it briefly, crop fields are one place to start looking. Oak trees dropping acorns is another. You need to do a little homework and some scouting to see what the deer are feeding on. Keep in mind you are not looking for places where the just nibble here and there. The food sources we need to find will look like they are being used often.

Now we have targeted a few major food sources, next up find the major trails leading to and from those food sources. I mention to and from, because the direction they lead will play a big role in placing a stand when we are ready to hunt. There are a few ways to determine the direction of travel. Tracks on the trails is one such way. The trail may be through a grassy area sowing no tracks. In this case generally the grass will be bent of padded down pointing to the direction the deer are moving.

Now we know where they are coming to and leaving the food source. Time to find the bedding areas. The simple task of following the trails will often lead you to the bedding areas. Yep, that's the big secret to finding the beds. Keep in mind though, trails intersect and meander all over so you need to be diligent in your scouting to find the beds. You might want to limit your scouting the bedding areas to well before hunting season. In the case that you spook deer it will they will have time to get back to the normal routine before hunting.

Once you have found the bedding areas, look to the trails leading to and from them to the food sources again. These should be the areas you want to look for spots to place a stand. Trails leading to the food often make a better evening stand, as trails leading away usually make a better morning stand.

Finding the bedding areas where you hunt is a big part to knowing where the deer travel. Once you find them it becomes a little easier to plan a strategy to hunt them.