I've had more bucks than does for a few years now too...those keep me intrigued

It cracks me up listening to these South Alabama hunters complaining about not seeing 30 in a field. Y’all may not have the numbers you used to but y’all still have more deer per acreage than most places in the country.

I’ve hunted North Alabama as long as I’ve been hunting and I’ve gone 3 years before without seeing 30 deer.

We are very Blessed i guess. Most of the hunts we see 12-15 deer each sit. Buck sightings were of this year til this past week. Thursday afternoon I saw 22 with 5 of those being racked bucks. We are on river land with a mixture of Ag and old growth timber. We have been very selective the last 5 years and it has helped. We try and leave the baby makers alone, and keep pressure to a minimum. It is my son and I hunting around 450acres so that helps.

The deer are still in the state, they're in south Momtgomery County

I’m lucky to hunt 5000 acres private on the river in Greene County.

We kill maybe 10 total deer a year.

We are seeing 25 deer in good fields. 15 years ago we were seeing 50.

Numbers are down. We stopped shooting does a couple of years ago.

All I can say is stop killing so many deer.

Yep, this is the problem. There are “places “ , blocks of land >2000 acres where if managed properly and not shot out , anybody might be able to see 20 or 30 deer a day. There are also big swaths of land all around those blocks that could total 20,000 acres that might not total 30 deer on over a square mile.

That’s what sucks , is for every person claiming they’ve got too many deer , there are 20 people that can prove they don’t have squat.

Old Bow Hunter is definitely correct on his assessment - Stop shooting does and small Buck's - Period

I hunt some small properties. On one of these properties, I've got pics of:
Two spikes
One 4 point (think the neighbor shot him, I saw him and watched him walk toward the neighbor's, then 10 minutes later I heard a shot, haven't seen him since)
One 5 point (he was killed/culled)
Two 6 points
One 7 point
Seven 8 points (2 were killed)
Two 10 points
Numerous does, none were killed

So I have seen or had pics of some 16 different bucks and hopefully 11 are still alive and well.
I usually see 1-6 deer per sit at this location.


On another small property I have pics of numerous small bucks, 1 shooter (killed) and one that needed 1-2 more years (was killed by a neighbor today).
numerous does, none were killed.

Ok I’m back and still hating the state and federal government. I would just like to go back to the way it was before the doe slaughter started. There is a huge young generation of hunters or shoo say shooters who have come up with this state mandated idea that there are unlimited numbers of deer and shooting a deer every time you go is normal. I’ve shot does mostly with a bow but I was in a place you could do that and it actually was a good thing because it was a place that needed that at the time but between the ehd and coyotes and all the state mandated begging people to kill deer it’s just too damn much. If a landowner has a deer overpopulation problem he should be able to go get help from the state.

I think there’s around 33,500,000 acres in Alabama with an average carrying capacity of 28 deer per square mile you will hit around 1.5 million. I hunt land in chambers, Lee and Houston counties. All three have 40+ per square mile.

I don’t know how many deer are getting killed but two weeks ago I started hearing, “you better call ahead cause the processors are full up”

Man I am glad I don’t hunt an area like that. I like watching them and the more the merrier. This year I saw over 20 in an afternoon hunt a half dozen times.Get 3-4 doe groups jostling for space in a plot and a few frisky yearlings and it makes for an entertaining afternoon.

Wasted money on a broke system. The app is junk to. Hard to audit the government/state but it needs done.

No no no Ron. They all in Jackson county.

Thanks every one for the replies to this thread and all the discussion is great. Hell that’s what we are here for, that said it’s pretty clear there is a big difference between north and south Alabama as we all know because of the big blocks of well managed and the smaller blocks, but if a man in Greene county which is a historic deer hunting county is seeing half of normal from a decade ago that should show something needs to change. Let’s go back to a doe day program and leave bow hunters have at it and try to get a real solution or count on the true numbers of deer in Alabama. And no I’m not sure gamescam, I mean game check is the truth.

20 years ago I saw deer every time I went afield. For the last ten years.after all these years of a doe a day I may see twenty or so a season. Hunting in Shelby County I have seen less than 25 a yea on three different clubs. By the way I hunt at least three days each week.

I am not a fan of how the state manages out wildlife at all. Heads are in the sand.

Seeing deer is not my usual issue. I hunt numerous tracts of land both large and small and have had all if the tracts i currently hunt between 4 and 29 years. I have seen my properties suck, get better, reach a point where numbers are high or bucks and doe ratios are getting closer or further from1:1.
Changes in habitat such as planting crappy pines where soybeans once grew changes the herd. Cut overs cycling from 1st year to 20 year regrowth changes the herd. The natural cycle of the land plays a bigger role in this population issue than most realize. I am very picky about what properties I lease and hunt. Just because i can lease it does not mean i will. If its in an area where brown is down and mature deer potential is low then keep my money in my pocket and move along until a better opportunity opens up. All I can do is do my part to manage what I can manage. I have multiple properties so while some are on a down cycle others are at a peak. I know everyone is not going to have that opportunity. In that case you either help the situation of low population by backing off that trigger or you pick up and move to an area that is cycling on an upward trend.

Heres a prime example. In 2011 when we had the massive tornado outbreak the area I live and primarily hunt in got hammered. Many of those damaged areas had low to moderate population and the habitat consisted primarily of mature hardwood timber and mixed ag. Drop a couple of tornadoes in that and it becomes thick nasty regrowth and mixed ag. Populations exploded first 5 -8 years following that change in habitat. The age class structure also changed and about 3 years post tornados the trophy class deer that started hitting the ground around those tornado tracks was nothing like you would have guessed Alabama could produce. Pick up and move shop to new dirt if your population are low and you like to see piles of deer when you hunt. The state will leave you with an empty hand if you are waiting on them to fix it.

1.5 million would equate to 28 deer per square mile for every acre of ground in the state.....

Bingo

Bottom line is that we should all know by now that the state of Alabama DNR will do Absolutely Nothing to address this problem.

And for those that say manage your land better or find a group of like minded people, that is bs too. We haven’t killed 16 does on 1600 acres in the last 4 seasons and still don’t have very many.

I’m not a biologist, but I don’t see this can ever be fixed without some major changes in legality of killing does , and like I said, we know the geniuses making our game laws won’t address it , and even if they did it would be some jack leg change they wouldn’t make a difference.