Wisconsin Trail Cam Buck

For some years now we have been practicing quality deer management (QDM) on property in northern Wisconsin outside of Turtle Lake. QDM makes a lot of sense from my perspective for a number of reasons, however, I'm also aware of the "trophy hunting" mentality that sometimes takes over a well meaning QDM effort.

After years of decidedly mixed success, we are finally seeing some real results. And the difference has been clover. At first we noticed almost no difference in the deer herd. There was a big difference in the hunt because we weren't shooting the first deer we saw. Consequently, we were watching a lot more deer and learning much more about their behavior.

But we were not harvesting bigger bucks until we got serious about the clover. Now we are consistently seeing more bucks and bigger bucks and we are harvesting them, too.

 

At left is my son Blake with his quality whitetail from our 2007 gun deer hunt. Rumor has it I will have another picture of a quality deer, a Pope and Young class animal, very soon. So, check back soon.