QDMA 2017 Whitetail report

[Hawthorne]

Lots of data including hunter and harvest data from every state. Michigan not has bad has I thought. 60 pages.
https://www.qdma.com/wp-content/uploads ... R-2017.pdf

[Rich M]

Thanks for posting.

[creepingdeth]

Wow, amazing....bookmarked it

[mspaci]

Im sorry, this is not meant to offend anyone but I just cant get behind QDMA. It just sucks the fun right out of deer hunting for me. Ill shoot what I want when I want w/in the law & don't like anyone telling me different. Its what really started much of the antler craze talked about in other threads. Its restricted a lot of private lands here in Ny, especially western Ny, bought up by the wealthy or leased out. Gone are the days of knocking on doors for permission or doing summer work for hunting rights that fall, etc. Just the way I feel about it. Mike

[Aaron1987]

Im sorry, this is not meant to offend anyone but I just cant get behind QDMA. It just sucks the fun right out of deer hunting for me. Ill shoot what I want when I want w/in the law & don't like anyone telling me different. Its what really started much of the antler craze talked about in other threads. Its restricted a lot of private lands here in Ny, especially western Ny, bought up by the wealthy or leased out. Gone are the days of knocking on doors for permission or doing summer work for hunting rights that fall, etc. Just the way I feel about it. Mike

I agree with this. I think they have good intentions but managing for older deer with bigger racks has made hunting more exclusive and far less social than it used to be.

I did not see where they tallied overall hunter numbers for states. Is that in there?

[JoeRE]

Im sorry, this is not meant to offend anyone but I just cant get behind QDMA. It just sucks the fun right out of deer hunting for me. Ill shoot what I want when I want w/in the law & don't like anyone telling me different. Its what really started much of the antler craze talked about in other threads. Its restricted a lot of private lands here in Ny, especially western Ny, bought up by the wealthy or leased out. Gone are the days of knocking on doors for permission or doing summer work for hunting rights that fall, etc. Just the way I feel about it. Mike

I agree with this. I think they have good intentions but managing for older deer with bigger racks has made hunting more exclusive and far less social than it used to be.

I did not see where they tallied overall hunter numbers for states. Is that in there?

I agree with you guys. I wish QDMA would quit beating around the bush and change their name to TDMA. Trophy Deer Management Association...sounds great till you see the long list of side effects. I used to be a big fan of QDMA when it first came out, took me until the last few years to realize what we are doing to ourselves.

That, and I have seen enough misleading or completely wrong information come out of that organisation to be suspect of any data they put out. I don't think they are deliberately doing that, just that they have no quality control or management on what they publish. Something sounds good so they send it out the door. Which is kinda ironic given their name.

[Whitetailaddict]

Some things I found interesting in the report was that WI had the highest percentage of 1 1/2 yr old bucks killed in the Midwest(although MI had more 1 1/2yr olds overall killed). I think some great bucks are taken in WI and MI every year but it would be interesting to see what some of these Midwestern states would produce for record entries if they had the same harvest rates of 3 1/2+ yr olds as some of the southern states. I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to shoot whatever legal deer they want I would just be curious to see but this will likely never be a reality and we'll be left to speculate. I also wonder if these southern states like Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas are seeing a big difference in record book entries and if their public land hunting is reflective of these harvest rates or if its mainly private land where they've seen an increase in harvest of 3 1/2 yr old bucks. We occasionally hear about big bucks from these states (like the pending world record non-typical in Arkansas) but I don't hear much about them competing with the Midwest in terms of record entries. If they did maybe there would be more beasts headed South for the winter with no intentions of enjoying the weather