Who inspired you to start QDM?

[SIWhitetail]

Do you still hunt that ground? If not, can I?




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Well, I would still be hunting it if I still had the connection. Unfortunately, it was company ground and the friend that was upper management for the company moved on to another job. Haven't been able to get permission since then. If I had, I would have made the trip a few times a year.

 

[sixpack]

Honestly, the initial spark was my distaste for Pa's hunters' mentality. As I grew older I slowly separated myself from the brown and down, if it flies it dies culture around here. My dad and pap always preached the ethics of fair chase and doing right by the land, but so many friends were entrenched in bad habits that I had to let them go as hunting companions or risk becoming one of them.
So, I set out on my own for info, which was hard to come by in the "pre digital" era. I did what I could in the early years, mostly just through hunting practices, and then I found the Forums. Wow, what a life changer. So many guys sharing so much GOOD knowledge. I have a far clearer understanding of how things work together and how changes affect more than just your target species. I no longer just plummet into changes without thinking long term. I no longer take the first written word as gospel without research. I no longer let the string go without a clear goal in mind. I love the work as much as the hunt and I am thankful for the knowledge that everyone has shared. The success stories and good vibes are what really got me over the hump and into the QDM part of this.
QDM can be practiced anywhere and by anyone that has a will to do the right thing. You don't need 5000 acres and you don't need to shoot a 160 every year to be successful at it. Heck I haven't dropped bone in 2 years and I look at my last 2 seasons as some of my most successful hunts. I learn and grow from each one, and if I can coax a few people into it along the way then I'm making a difference also. No matter what I decide to do with my ties to QDMA, I will always practice my version of QDM

 

[PecanArcher]

I'd have to say I got influenced the day after I harvested my biggest buck with a rifle. I had really just started getting into hunting. I was out of highschool so my time in the fall was not occupied by sports any more. It was 150" main frame 8 with big ol' split G2s. He resembled a Mule Deer. No one in my family had seen a buck that size on our property. I didn't know it was possible to grow bucks that big in Oklahoma. Although I loved the hunt, I knew I would have loved it even more had it been an archery kill. What can I say, I love being challenged.

So I set out to find out as much as I could about archery, food plots, and came across the QDMA forum and then Dr. Grant Wood's videos on land management. Been hooked ever since. Now I live on my in-laws pecan farm. Manage the pecans, and the 400 acres that surround it. With 3 kiddos, not much in the way of habitat improvement gets done here yet. Mostly just practicing doe management, and hunting smart and leaving much of the property untouched.

I have big dreams for this place. Soon my oldest son will be right by my side in all of it

 

[W33kender]

I enjoyed reading your post, Cutman. Hats off to your granddad and dad!!!

 

[Brushpile]

The above pic is of me shooting a bow at about age 3-4. My father was a wildlife biologist with the Wisconsin Conservation Department (DNR), and met my mother while she was shooting her bow at the Conservation Department Archery Range. From an early age I was taken to the field to observe all things in nature and many evenings the family would go for a ride to look at deer. So my environment taught me to appreciate nature from an early age. Genetics also plays a role. I have one son who enjoys hunting and fishing and one son who could care less.

Before deer stands I stood on tree limbs when I learned that deer usually didn't look up. I made my first portable tree stand from wood, I bow hunted in the early days when there were very few bow hunters, and I was interested in QDM long before there was a QDMA.

 

[wbpdeer]

Brush
You get a good grade on form. Bow Hand, elbow, etc. Great photo & the hat makes it for sure.

My parents had three boys and I am the middle son. The youngest could care less about hunting - he can hardly pump gas. Oldest brother likes it some and likes to own a few guns. Now me ... it is my passion other than my family.

 

[JBFARM]

After spending several days of reading only one of his threads, on another site, I learned that I could offer a diversity that was not currently surrounding me. I'm looking forward to the fall, with these days of 105 degree heat index behind me, to start planting some fruit. If you haven't already done so, I'd recommend reading his post. Native Hunter, thanks again.... Jb

 

[Twolftg]

I am not sure what inspired me to start QDM or even how well I actually do it. My original focus was to have more deer, now I just enjoy the time on the tractor, 4 wheeler, or saw in hand. The work seems to help the kids and inexperienced hunters seem more deer and it's fun too see the animals enjoying the work.

As for my hunting inspiration it was my mother's father, I never forget the my dad telling me he went hunting with my Gandpa soon after starting to date my mother. Driving up to the northern Minnesota woods parking the truck, sleeping in the bed of it and waking up to my grandpa standing in the falling snow, in his boots and boxers making coffee on the tailgate. Something about that story stuck with me and made me want to hunt, can't tell ya what. Maybe it was the commitment and toughness of those old school hunters. My father took my older brother and myself hunting a few times with a group of his friends when I was in junior high, my father and brother stopped hunting soon after so in my highschool years my grandpa would come pick me up right after my football games and we would drive 4 hours up to his brothers to rifle hunt. I loved the time in the woods.

 

[BrianVT]

I vaguely remember when marketing started for Whitetail Institute Clover started. That sort of planted the seed. (bad pun) Never really did anything though. Fast forward to 1997 and I bought out the other heirs on property I'd hunted as a kid. Did the same thing with my maternal grandparents place. Farmed the one place a little for about 10 years. The whole time I'd gotten out of hunting. Slowly started getting back into hunting. My first food plots were mainly used as an attractant to fill the freezer. Ended up on the other forum by way of another website.

The real inspiration comes from 2 different sources. The one place is bordered by about a 900 acres that I also grew up hunting on. It was bought and the owners immediately started implementing "let em grow restrictions" . While no longer able to hunt that tract of land the positives outweigh the negatives by far. I'm seeing and passing on deer that my dad never saw in his lifetime. There is no way that would've been possible under the previous ownership.

The other source of my inspiration is my sons. They are still fairly young but it doesn't get any better than sharing the journey with them.

 

[Gator]

I'm another that grew up in a non-hunting house. I started deer hunting because friends talked about it all the time. My brother and brother in law got me started once I started asking about hunting. But to answer the question of who is responsible for me starting to pass the young deer (even those with great antlers) in order to pursue mature deer, the answer is simply me. I didn't read about it, I didn't have others talking about seeing a young buck and letting it go, I simply just wanted more. More of a challenge, more of something other than more meat. I believe wanting more is also the reason I bow hunt 99% of the time. It just harder and I get more satisfaction out of a harvest with my bow.

 

[wbpdeer]

Gator, I had rather hunt with a bow too. Just seems to be too easy with a gun - most of the time.

Besides - having a buck close enough for a bow shot is the real rush. Hope that never goes away.

 

[Weasel]

My father has been my biggest outdoor influence in all of my hunting, fishing, camping & writing. My dad never expressed an interest in owning his own hunting land but the bug I caught from him for whitetail deer, especially bow hunting, led me out of the crowded Pennsylvania public woods and eventually to owning my own farm in Ohio.

Fellow traditional bowhunter, Doug S. from Ohio, who would eventually become a good friend, was a real estate investor and he was kind enough to share some of his West Virginia and Ohio properties with me. It was on those hunts that I started to appreciate the solutiude and the freedom to landscape for wildlife owning your own place could afford. Doug was a smart land steward and even better bowhunter. I can remember him talking about planting cereal grains way before I ever heard it in the mainstream hunting circles years later. He let me scout, choose and set my own stand one year on one of his Ohio farms. I couldn't hunt it much that year but he ended up killing a monster out of that stand and that was it. I knew I'd own my own place someday.

In 2007, I bought my first piece of property and found the old forum shortly after. I learned so much so quickly from the guys there, many who are thankfully still posting here. I cut my teeth on that first farm for four years until I sold it to get a bigger place. Funny how interests can come and go through the years but I've never grown tired or bored with deer hunting or habitat management. I'm fortunate to be young enough (41) to be able to see and enjoy my improvements in the years to come good Lord willing.

And speaking of the Lord, I have to thank Him for the opportunity and blessings to be fortunate to do this stuff. My wife and daughters deserve a lot of thanks too.