People won’t be satisfied with 2 bucks and 3 does I’m afraid. In a scenario above 5 people hunting 500 acres wiped it out. I have people killing 2-3 deer on little 2-3 acre house lots all around me. Prob kill more deer than they have acres of land. Imo it needs to be done based on how much land you hunt. The blanket buck limit didn’t make sense then and the same limits for everyone doesn’t make sense now. One man hunting 1000 acres or five hunting 500 should be balanced somehow. I wish you’d apply for tags based on the amount of land hunted, and if you get caught without a tag it’s your ass!

Dead on post here. The poster " Furflyin " all but quit hunting due to low sightings or not seeing any deer at all on multiple weekends. He's in Marshall county. Myself here in South Montgomery see five to ten deer every weekend. But five to ten years ago saw twice that many and we haven't shot a doe in six years. That's two hunters on five hundred acres.

It's also bad management to have an extended season in North Alabama. Divide the state into multiple zones setting seasons starts, ends, and limits based on real data from hunters, processors, state and private biologist in that area. Makes sense.

FIFY

I just find it funny how 20 years ago in my area of the state there was quantity and quality. Quantity has gone way down and quality has stayed the same. Every property is different and there’s no one way to make everything come together. I’ll go ahead and say I believe we have killed way too many does and not near enough other predators. The balance is out of whack.

So trapping coyotes where deer density is low isn’t relevant? You know actually doing something you can control vs complaining on a forum that does absolutely nothing.

x4

No one's forcing anyone to shoot does.

Most definitely there are. A little 4 month old buck gets put out into the world all by himself while the does stay together in family groups. There may be as many or even more buck fawns born as there are doe fawns but there is no way anywhere near as many live to be 1 year old.

Too many doe days for my area

I haven’t shot a doe in probably 6-8 years either. Haven’t shot a buck in 4 years, of course my son is my trigger man but even he won’t shoot a doe now. He hasn’t shot a doe in probably 3-4 years I guess. Now my father-in-law will shoot the first deer he sees, regardless of whether its a doe, spike, state record, etc..., doesn’t matter to him. His reasoning is that if he doesn’t shoot it, someone else will. He hunts within the law, so I don’t really say anything but then he turn s around and complains that he doesn’t see hardly any deer. Go figure.

All this over regulation has me sitting out deer season again. It's absurd.


The same people that think you can manage a herd of animals across an entire state are the same ones that think you can manage the weather (global warming). You can't. The answer is, of course, to do as much as you can locally to accomplish whatever your goals are. The old frame work of does days gave the landowner and club member the tools to manage locally, but that's not conducive to bigger gov't, increased power and revenue, and telling other people what to do.

And we thank you for it!
I wish more people would follow your example.

Correct, nobody is forcing my neighbors to shoot multiple deer every time they get to the wood line that is 200 yards from their house.

But that's exactly what they do.

Because it is legal.

I have no idea what in the cornbread hail they do with all those deer they shoot . They are giving them away. I know they don't have a freezer big enough to keep all of them.

So, I'm guessing I'm helping feed 1/2 that side of the county. I'm completely thrilled about that. All the work I'm putting in planting year-round and improving my land is really paying off for them.

This^^^

Some people think just because you can, you should.

Some of the public land I hunt has better population numbers than my lease. Quality is definitely not the same though. I think the state does a great job managing those tracts I hunt. Just can’t figure out why public land is managed different than private.

Deer are easy to manage, people are not.

The problem is that people think of wildlife as "my property if it's on my property". But it's not.
Wildlife is a natural resource, hence the "Dept of Conservation and Natural Resources " title.
My problem is that the "Dept of Conservation and Natural Resources" has forgotten who they are and what they are charged with.
They are far more concerned about politics and money, and absolutely oblivious to the resources.

Well said

2Dogs is right.

And, therefore the problem. They are NOT charged with managing people!!!!!!!
They are supposed to be managing the resources.

The "one size fits all" approach isn't in effect anymore, compared to years ago when we didn't have the A-B-C zones we have now.

I'd guess we will have more changes coming after another year or three of GameCheck. Whether you believe the numbers are flawed, skewed, somewhat accurate, "only 30 percent" being reported or whatever, it's what we have and will be used.

Right now, the total is 44,629 deer reported since opening day. I can't believe that is true after 2.5 months. There are easy ways to get around GC for those who don't want to report and/or aren't reporting. But it's what we have.

Do we want to be like Louisiana or Arkansas with two dozen zones, dates, limits? I don't. They have about two dozen zones and a map that looks like a Rorschach test. I also know the "one size" approach likely isn't the best for management, although I (and probably others) prefer it for simplicity's sake.

Gotta be some middle ground, which I think we're in now with the A-B-C zones and ability for tweaks when necessary.

Amen to that