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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!

Habitat

5 Easy Steps to Better Deer Forage and Cover

Jan 22, 2025 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

One of the easiest ways to quickly improve forage and cover for deer is to remove a plant that doesn’t belong here. Whether it’s a non-native tree, shrub or vine, the space and resources it…

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Hunting

Mature Buck Harvest Rises to Another New U.S. Record

Jan 15, 2025 NDA Staff

U.S. deer hunters took more than 3 million whitetail bucks in the 2023-24 hunting season and set a new record in mature buck harvest, as 43% of those bucks were estimated to be 3½ years…

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Deer Science

4 Reasons Mature Bucks Are Critical to Deer Herd Health and Hunting

Jan 8, 2025 Kip Adams

Mature bucks can take your breath away. Whether it’s a frosty fall morning in the woods or a summer evening in an alfalfa field, the mere glimpse of a mature buck will make your heart…

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Habitat

A Guide to the Most Important Weather Factors in Prescribed Fire

Jan 7, 2025 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Prescribed fire is a fantastic deer habitat management tool, and nothing is more important when using it than ensuring a safe, effective and contained burn. By planning and waiting to burn under the right conditions,…

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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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Submit Your Buck Photos for “Age This!”

Jan 1, 2012 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

One of the most popular features of NDA’s weekly e-newsletter is “Age This!” We select trail-camera photos of bucks supplied by our readers and ask our readers to estimate their age. Readers get to see…

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