buck management

4 Lessons About Antlers and Deer Age from a Simple Chart

Mar 2, 2021 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

It’s difficult to overstate the value of this chart for anyone trying to improve their deer hunting. It was produced by New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for their annual deer harvest summary, and…

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How We Can End Buck-Shaming

Jul 22, 2020 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Last year was a good hunting season at Grace Acres, my family’s farm in Southeast Georgia where we have practiced Quality Deer Management (QDM) for many years. My brother-in-law Zack Clemons killed his first buck…

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Fawns are the Fix for Most Deer-Hunting “Mistakes”

Jun 3, 2020 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

I bring good news to all deer hunters who think they made some “mistake” last season or feel like “disaster” struck: The arrival of fawns each spring is the annual correction that makes it difficult…

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Mapping Antler Expectations

Jul 24, 2013 Bronson Strickland and Steve Demarais

All wildlife biologists learn in their first ecology class about a relationship called Bergmann’s Rule: within a species, or group of similar species, body size increases with latitude from south to north. It’s assumed this…

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Why We Can’t Manage Deer Genetics

May 30, 2012 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

The power of selectively controlled breeding is incredible. With it, we transformed a wolf into a chihuahua over the course of 15,000 years – mere milliseconds in the echoing depths of geologic time. We transformed…

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Will Dominant Bucks Dominate the Breeding?

May 17, 2012 Kip Adams

“Do a handful of bucks sire the majority of the fawns?” This question is often followed with a series of questions, such as: “If the dominant buck in my area has narrow antlers, will I…

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