Well to make this interesting. I walked the road along one of my largest tracts of pine thicket. And what I found were trails coming out of it along the way. If there is everything in there for a deer to eat, except acorns and a green field, and it has water too, why would it need to come out?

She did suggest we do a camera survey sent me detailed instructions on how to do one, so we will probably do that later on once bucks start growing new head gear.

This doesn't mean I think we have some hidden pocket of 100 deer on my lease, but I think there are deer that spend alot of their life in there, and we rarely, if ever see them. And I think our buck numbers are way higher than any biologist wants to admit, since they say its difficult to get to a 1 to 1 ratio even on well manager property. Well if its 4 to 1. And I got 10 spikes running around, and at least 5 or 6 nice rack bucks, I should have about 60 doe's running around, and I don't.

I think if we went back to a doe season, and not having a 3 buck limit, in a couple years, we would be seeing more deer. I think the 3 buck limit is not helping, especially when you are in a club, and have a 6 pt or better rule. 1050 acres, if I had 2 or 3 people hunting it, perhaps you could tag out on bucks, but.... not when you have 10 folks hunting it. NO one even saw a buck chasing a doe this year on my lease. I killed a buck following a doe last season, and saw 1 buck chasing a doe hard the prior season. As much as I hunt, the law of averages would give me a good shot of seeing a buck chasing a doe you would think. NOPE!

So you want the government to change the rules for everyone because you can't tell the people in your club to quit shooting does?

I don’t think anyone want the friggin government to tell people what to do.
The problem is that there are millions of morons , idiots, and rednecks hunting all over this state, who are going to kill, kill, kill if they “ can “.

I’m almost 50 and I know grown ass men who hunt 5 to 7 days a week and kill every deer they can. They’ll fight to the finish to kill their 3 bucks , and however many does they feel like. I don’t think lowering the bag limits would slow down people like that , but it might slow down a few others.

In my club right now, there have been a total of 7 deer killed. 4 doe's, a button head and 2 bucks. Off 1050 acres. Could I have killed more doe's myself, absolutely, but I let them walk.

The larger problem is a doe is no different than a buck. If bucks are nocturnal because people shoot at them alot, why wouldn't one expect the doe's to be the same way? If every doe someone see's on a green field gets shot, guess what happens? Doe's quit walking out on green fields during the day. Back when we had doe season, I could sit on a green field and see deer every time I sat there. Now... good luck.

Your average timber company lease is not one where even half the members are going to kill a rack buck that meets the lease rules. It's a pretty tough sell to members to say, hey you can't kill any doe's this season, when the chance of them killing a buck is next to zero as well. Yeah I need you to pony up your $1000 in dues, do your 3 work days, and oh by the way, you can only kill 6pt or better bucks an nothing else this season. I would be paying the lease myself at that point.

My best option would be to limit doe kills to something like 2 per membership. For me that means each of my kids could shoot one, and then I would have to kill bucks in order to put meat in the freezer, which is the primary reason we hunt. We probably need 5 deer to stay in meat til next season. My suggestion that I still haven't gotten an answer on is to let us shoot some of the spikes. Worst case I pull a few bucks off an ajoing property to breed the doe's we have.

So by which method would the deer herd grow better by? Having a limited doe harvest, but open up the buck harvest to make up the difference, or have a doe a day limit, and 3 bucks, 6pt or better on 2, and one has to be an 8pt?

I will bet money the timber co mandates CWD testing going forward. No one is going to want to turn in a nice rack buck for testing. If you aren't killing a bunch of doe's, then they aren't going to get many samples, but if we busted 6 or 8 spikes, no one will care about submitting those.

And also consider this is timber co land alot of us hunt. That is not managed for deer production, its managed for timber production. The biologist straight up told me the biggest obstacle to having a nice deer herd is the timber co itself. If we could go in and selectively harvest the pines to open up the understory, do controlled burns to get rid of sweet gums and other hard woods, and then bush hog swaths thru the pines in a 3 year rotation, and then have about 10% of the acreage planted in crops, that were set up for being able to hunt effectively, rather than just any opening we could find, yes we could kill the mess out of doe's and it wouldn't matter, because we would probably have 90 deer per square mile.

I have nearly 2 square miles,and I bet I don't have 90 deer on it. I think its more like 60. The range for shelby co is 30 to 60 deer per square mile. If I am at 60, then I have 120 resident deer. Killing doe's isn't a big deal then. But if I am only at 30, then I have 60 resident deer, only 30 or so are doe's. If we kill 15 of them, that's half my doe population. Half of my new fawns are going to be bucks. So there is no way to rebuild the population if you kill off half your doe population each season. It will be skewed towards bucks, which is what I am saying the population is now. And no way we kill 15 6pt or better rack bucks... Just not going to happen. But that is the number we need to decrease.

You don't see cattle farmers with 5 cows and 5 bulls. Why would a deer herd be any different?

Or you could cut down on members and pay more per member. The largest problem is everyone wants to keep doing what they want to do and make everyone else comply.if you need 5 deer to feed your family for a year shoot em. If you need 10 member to pay for your lease get them. But don't complain your not seeing any deer..and your solution be state who you've already said can't manage deer should make everyone else do what you want to do to manage deer.

However many deer anyone has on their place is irrelevant. If you don't shoot any for five years you'll have more in five years no matter what the laws are or what anyone else does

Because deer aren’t cows. You can not compare their breeding habits because they’re not the same.

Lol and most sell young bulls when they get 500lb and keep the heifers....u can't have baby bull breeding its momma

CNC and Morningair I like they way y’all think. I’m back at home to run my business for a few days and am enjoying all the replies that people are posting. I guess I’m not the only one that would like to see some changes. I’m not totally outraged at all because I’ve got good places to hunt but I’m just tired of the state management of the whole state when there are so many variables within the state. And I still will never believe there are 1.5 million deer in this state. No way

The Deer have moved into suburban neighborhoods.
I have over 9000 pics on one camera in a neighborhood that borders up to some US Steel property in the city limits of a town in Shelby county that I placed AFTER Thanksgiving. Some HUGE bucks on that one. Also, more bucks than doe.
This cam is less than 30 ft. from the back of their fence. haha, she said, please put them in a bag when you haul them out. All the neighbors are feeding them. Should be interesting

Compare that to 2000+ pics on my 2 other cell cams that are on food plots on a 130 acre piece of land that has very little pressure. More bucks than Doe there too.

The Blind is already setup for that city location so they will be good and used to it by bow season.

No Friend requests please!!

Side Note:
DCNR reports that 83,780 Bucks & 75619 Doe have been reported killed this season. LINK >> Here
The Numbers changed as I refreshed it, so its kinda a live counter

Deer are a shared resource. Deer move. Deer move long distances. Not everyone, not even the majority of people hunt in big clubs. For the ones hunting in clubs that are thousands of acres yes you can do that. For the folks that own their own little spot of land or lease some little spot, or hunt public land, that is not an option. Guess we can get rid of buck limits. Hell lets get rid of seasons all together, since all you have to do is tell the people in your club to not shoot too many.

I very aware of suburban deer I see groups up to 12 every day going to and from work and they are damaging valuable landscaping because a few people feed and name them and the majority are Ike me and wish them death. I’ve killed several with my bow since I’ve lived here but really lost interest in dragging them out and fooling this them. That said, let’s compile a list of the most wanted things you would like to see implemented into the state regulations. It will take me a while to compose my list but #1 will be go back to the season north of 80 ending on the 31st or at least say no does after the 31st. I will add too my wish list as I compile it. It might be long lol

Bullshitt. The vast majority of folks on here and in this state do not have thousands of acres to hunt and manage. Case in point, I have 37 acres here at home I can hunt, I have 76 acres in New Hope that I can hunt, and I am in a 1000 acre club in Jackson county along with two other Aldeer members. Not one of those places are big enough to contain a deers movement and keep them from going onto another property. Therefore it don't make two shits if I don't kill a single deer for the next 20 years, I cannot control what the neighbors kill. Only the state can try to control that by seasons and limits. The outright doe slaughter for the past 20 years has decimated the deer population in most of Alabama. Friggin outlaws are going to kill as many as the state says they can because it's "legal". The stupid ass 2 does a day and only 3 bucks, one of which must have at least 3 points on one side only makes it worse. Folks that have decent bucks ain't gonna kill a bunch of spikes to fill the freezer, therefore does get hammered again.

I have not killed a deer on my home place in 5 years. I haven't killed a doe here in over 10 years. I've only killed 3 does on this place in the 18 years I've been here. Since summer I've had a grand total of 5 does and a few babies on camera. I get pics daily of these same 5 does and littleuns. I also have pics with 9 bucks in the same picture at the same time on the same food plot I get daily doe pics from. By your logic I should have deer running out my ears but I don't because the neighbors kill what the state says they can, too damn many deer. Add in the coyotes, poachers, night hunters and outlaws that kill whatever the hell they want to and whallaha, very few deer left. And I ain't killed a one of them, proving your logic is bullshitt.

If you have several thousand acres and can control what's killed, congratulations. The rest of us don't and therefore have to rely on our piss poor DCNR to try and manage it at the state level.

Bring it on just an illusion, your getting it out there.

Agree...theys a lot more to it than just holding off the trigger...I've said earlier I ain't killed a doe in 8 years and can count on one hand the previous 20 n this is over 1000 acres and just me hunting...I do have some bucks worth killing every year just not enough

Let’s say you have a 2000 acre club with 20 members. But instead of having one set of rules for everyone, it is divided into 20 sections. Each member gets an equal share of 100 acres. That member can do whatever he wants within the law on that section. So we have a couple that will only shoot it if they are going to mount it. You have another couple of members that are there to feed the family and shoot every thing that can. Then you have one guy that buys 4 memberships in the middle of the place. He likes to have as many people there as he can. His four kids his wife. And different guests every weekend. They shoot everything they see. Then another that just wants to kill a few good bucks.

This is probably not going to be a club many on here would like to join. But this is exactly what it is like for most of us hunting small divided properties across the state. So yes we do have to have state laws.

I have about 300 acres I own that I Hunt. Shot one deer in 3 years and couldn't find it. My neighbors across the road(who shoot everything) killed the buck I was hunting last year. The neighbors on my other peice killed the buck I was hunting this year. So I'm not someone who has thousands of acres to manage. My point is two fold. For those of us who are relying on DCNR are just wasting time. It'll never help. All you can do is focus on improving you place and making it better. For all the people who want to change the laws so they can still keep killing 5-20 deer a year and still have plenty of deer that won't work either. Just killing different deer isn't going to help deer population. To sum up my point. Only way to have more deer is to stop killing so many, and the state ain't gonna help. People gotta find a way to do it on their own!

As the DCNR 159814 killed. And we all know of 6-8 or 10 bucks and does or more that have not been reported. I’ve seen at least 6 or so road kills at lest 2 were bucks. The numbers will be a lot more than theDCNR will ever know.

The only way there is going to be less deer killed in this state on a grand scale is if the state makes it happen. Small landowners like you and I and the rest of the guys on here that actually give a shucks ain't hardly a drop in the bucket. But, in my opinion, the state don't want the deer herd back to where it was in the mid to late 90s. Insurance companies damn sure don't want it back to those levels, I'd be willing to bet deer/vehicle collision claims are down 50% or better compared to the late 90s. I remember back then, before the onslaught of the doe massacre, we used to get out and ride around in the evenings just to see how many deer we could see. It was nothing to see 15-20 deer any given hunt in southeast Madison county. Granted most were does because it was illegal to kill them most of the season, and therefore the road/night shooters killed every deer with visible horns they saw. It was kinda special to see a good buck back then too.

Nowadays I travel 80 miles a day just back and forth to work and might see 3-5 deer in a weeks time. There just is not as many deer in Marshall, Madison and Jackson counties as there were back then and the only thing that will help it is for the state to restrict how many does are killed each year LEGALY. I hate government intervention in any of our lives as much as anyone else but the truth is whether any of us like it or not, most folks don't give a shucks about what's left for tomorrow or next year. Therefore, only through government regulation can/will it be managed as a whole. In my opinion and my opinion only, for this area of the state, I think it should be limited to 2 maybe 3 does a year and 3 bucks of any antler size. I'm also not foolish enough to think that this would be most beneficial across the state because I don't hunt any other areas of the state.