I've been doing it for years on several places with varying degrees of success. On my primary Kansas hunting place we have 4000 acres and good cooperation from neighbors. We take 2-5 good to great bucks a year between my father and I and a couple of guest each year. The property was unhunted when we started hunting 10 years ago so good bucks have always been available. It's mostly just a matter of controlling your urges and those of the guests, and not shooting the first 120" 8 point that walks by. In Kansas we can take 1 buck per hunter, regardless of weapon, and the rifle season is in early December after the rut. The hunter culture is more receptive to quality management than the, "I got my buck" mindset you find in other places. This year we took 4 bucks, two over 140, two high 130s, all bow, all 3.5 or older.
In the closest family farm in Missouri we have had a complete disaster with respect to QDM. We've tried, but the farmer and his kid just don't get it. The property is also arranged in smaller pieces and odd shapes so there is more bordering pressure. The biggest difference is that Missouri rifle hunts in the rut, and the culture is much more of a "point" style. Hunters don't care if it's 110" 2.5 yo 8 point, it's still and 8 point, and it's gunna die! Missouri went to a 4 point rule a few years back and you should have heard the howling from these types. Despite it being quality ag ground with plenty of deer, a 140" buck is rare here, although the farmer killed a monster non-typical in the 190 range this year. A 140 and a 125 were also killed there this year. Typically 1 or fewer good bucks will be taken here, and 2-3 young bucks will also be killed. I haven't hunted there in years.
Where I hunt in Missouri these days is 500 acres of swamp ground (WRP) that I am part owner of as a duck club. 4 of us hunt it, and we do QDM there as well, but the property is too small to have an impact, and the population is too great. I saw 9 legal bucks on opening morning there this year, and it's nothing to see 30 or more deer during an all day hunt. The problem is that with such a small property, the rut rifle season, and the "I got mine" Missouri mentality, it feels like a hopeless project. We took 3 bucks there this year, one a weak 115 2.5 yo "mistake" deer. A great busted up old buck that would be 155-165 if he had been intact, and an average 135ish 3.5 y/o with good genetics. The neighbors killed 3 good young bucks that we know of, and one of our guys killed another. It's an awful lot of pressure to put on next years bucks. The habitat is fantastic but it holds an almost unmanagable number of deer.
Don't get me started on the family farm in the Ozarks... It's impossible to get anyone to even consider QDM down there... It it's got more points than they've got teeth, it's dying. And they don't have many teeth.
So my take from actively managing 4 different places over the last 10-20 years is this: It MUST be big. A few hundred acres isn't enough if the rifle season is during the rut, it would be otherwise. Deer homerange in great habitat can be a few hundred acres, but those bucks wander during the rut. It needs to be contiguous and big to make it work. If you own that much ground, or can get the neighbors on board, great. We make exceptions for kids and new hunters, but they amount to 1-2 deer a year, and we try to steer them towards does. If you've got a couple hundred acres of mix ag or pasture ground, I'd say you're probably better off focusing on food plots or nutrition than you are on QDM. Do what you can to hold does during the rut, to protect the young bucks as best you can. Also try and get your state to work on a four point or similar rule. It isn't perfect, but it's MUCH better than nothing. If nothing else, it at least makes the, "I got my buck!" guys stop and think about points before they whack that 2.5 y/o 6 point at first light on opening morning of the rifle season.
