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Learn all about wild deer behavior, habitat improvement, food plots, hunting techniques, and much more with over 500 free articles available on our website. If you enjoy our content, we'd love to have you as an NDA member!

Hunting

“Age This!” Celebrates 10 Years. Why is Buck Age Still Important?

Sep 17, 2024 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

We’ve been featuring an “Age This!” buck survey in this organization’s weekly e-newsletter for 10 years now. September 17, 2014 was the first newsletter to include a reader-submitted trail-camera photo and age poll. That’s not…

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Deer Science

Can You Tell Bucks From Does by Their Tracks?

Sep 11, 2024 Matt Ross

A lot can be learned from investigating deer tracks where you hunt. I’ll even go as far as saying that deer tracks could be the number one type of deer sign to look for when…

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Hunting

4 Ideal Deer Stand Setups Boosted by Habitat Enhancements

Sep 11, 2024 Ryan Rothstein

Too often when I read articles about deer stand setups or strategies for picking stand sites, it’s usually surface-level information. We get it by now – hunt funnels, set up downwind of trails, yada yada….

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Hunting

The Risks and Rewards of Targeting a Single Deer

Sep 4, 2024 Nick Pinizzotto

The weather was brutal. After an unseasonably warm and rainy stretch to kick off the Pennsylvania firearms season, I was reminded how quickly Mother Nature’s mood can change in December. I don’t prefer hunting with…

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What Are Hybrid Oaks?

Mar 8, 2012 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

In fall 2005, QDMA received a house-warming gift for our newly constructed National Headquarters in Georgia – four containerized hybrid oak seedlings from Charlie Morse of Morse Nurseries in Michigan. Charlie admitted he wasn’t sure…

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How to Build a Food Plot Browse Exclosure

Mar 8, 2012 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Often, food-plot farmers complain about crop failure because nothing seemed to grow in the field they planted, especially in small plots. The plants germinated fine but never grew more than an inch or two. While…

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Can Ticks Affect Antler Development?

Mar 2, 2012 Joe Hamilton

Recently someone asked me if ticks had been known to affect antler development, and then I captured the pair of photos above on my trail-camera. That prompted me to give this question more thought. The…

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Detecting the Rut Peak

Mar 2, 2012 Kip Adams

Fetal aging sounds like a technique used by Ob/Gyn doctors and ultrasound technicians, but deer managers can learn a lot about the population they’re managing by taking some annual fetal measurements. Joe Hamilton, QDMA’s founder,…

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Finding Un-Pressured Deer

Mar 2, 2012 Kip Adams

Density, distribution and travel patterns are things we often seek to learn about deer, but researchers from Penn State University set out to learn the density, distribution and habitat use of deer hunters. They used…

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The Biology of Bachelor Groups

Mar 2, 2012 Matt Ross

If you are monitoring local whitetails during summer through the lenses of your binoculars, or through the lens of a trail-camera, you’ve probably seen what are known as “bachelor groups.” These are groups of bucks…

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How to Establish a QDM Cooperative

Jan 25, 2012 NDA Staff

“We would love to participate in a deer management program on our property, but those dirtbags across the fence shoot everything that moves. So, what’s the point?” Sound familiar? I’ve heard this countless times over…

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Aging Bucks on the Hoof

Jan 25, 2012 Kip Adams

Harvesting white-tailed bucks based on age is becoming an increasingly common management strategy. To implement this practice, hunters must have the ability to accurately age bucks on the hoof based on their body characteristics, an…

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