Odd Duck Cooperative in NY

[foothillshabita]

Attached is a pic of a QDM Cooperative I have been running since 2005, it consists of 7 landowners and just over 1200 acres. These are the oldest bucks harvested in 2010. 2 are 4.5 year olds and 2 are 3 year olds.

[foothillshabita]

I saw the other harvest guidelines thread - and thought I would share our harvest criteria. Our baseline is to harvest 2 1/2 year old bucks, with a standard of 8pts and 15" spread, which eliminates ALL yearling bucks. Yes, some bucks that are 2 years and older do not meet those standards and some of those are taken. Bottom line is if the buck is a 2 year old, I, as the Cooperative manager, am perfectly OK with it. IE - the 4 year old buck bottom right does not meet the minimum antler guidelines but was clearly an older buck. The one above that top right was a 3 year old. I had all of these bucks on camera with their pics and ages posted at my check station. Doe harvest : varies depending upon our best assessment of the herd. I hold a meeting every fall pre-season where I issued doe tags, review the harvest data from past seasons, and an educational component regarding buck ages & doe harvest. We do lose a button buck occasionally and older bucks with broken horns. I just keep beating the drum and things improve every single year. You have to Keep it positive, but that is difficult I know ! BTW, I do not own ANY of the land in this cooperative but we are all reaping the rewards. We are entering year 6 and - clearly, a majority of the hunters are now passing 2 year olds on a regular basis.

[outdoorstom]

Nicely done. Your guidelines are very reasonable and I'm sure that helps the guys stick with them. You've got some nice looking bucks there!!

[brutusbeefcake]

Very cool! Great job!
Our co-op is going into it's ninth year and is dealing with an outfitter business setting up in the co-op area. Most are getting along fine with them but it kind of stinks passing bucks that some guy from out of state pays for to shoot.
For the most part we help each other out. They just get the money at the end of the day.

[foothillshabita]

Here is a pic of one from the 2011 season. I had him on camera a few times and one of the neighbors took him.

[QDM land owner]

Originally Posted by foothillshabita

I just keep beating the drum and things improve every single year. You have to Keep it positive, but that is difficult I know ! .

well done

seems like there are more land owners joining co-op's these days around me.. such a positive thing seeing more & more hunters getting involved in some form of deer management practice on their hunting grounds..

[foothillshabita]

I started out dropping back issues of QW in mailboxes, and I just keep expanding the drop zone .

[QDM land owner]

thats a good idea.. we got each of our surrounding neighbors a 1 yr subscrtion to the QDMA years ago..
only one of them handed the "gimmic" literature back to me and told me "you cant eat the horns kid"


i spoke last week to a gentleman ( central NY) )** he spoke about how his surrounding neighbors/hunting camps are putting together a co-op this past winter, they are currently negotiating co-op rules and are having a tough time, lots of fighting between the camps at the meetings.. he said the biggest hurdle thus far has been agreeing on a restriction for antler size/points and imposing fines.. i told him myself and neighbors just try to keep it simple, with one goal of protecting 1.5 yr old bucks.. i wished him luck, their co-op would consist of over 2000 acres between all the camps invoved, so i hope they can figure it out and stop the bickering about antler size, keep it fun for the kids...

[foothillshabita]

Tough to impose a 'fine' on land you don't control, and we don't do anything like that. IF I have a real problem, my only real card is the extra DMAP permits, and the motivation to do the right thing.

Our baseline critera are - 8 points and ear tip spread. If a buck meets both critera (in our area) it will NOT be a yearling with 100% certainty. That said, as time progresses certain hunters have taken bucks that had less points, but if the jaw says they are 2 + then that's OK. We started with 6 points & spread, but we found that some yearlings met the 6 + spread criteria so we raised it.

The buck harvest guidelines should be set on biological criteria based upon your local yearlings.

My two cents.