That’s the best way to manage larger properties where a high percentage of them aren’t very good at aging live deer. Collect data on each age class and set your minimum requirements about one inch lower than the average for the class you’re trying to get them to.

Shouldn't we have 80, 11 million extra bucks running around by now since Alabama went from 117 bucks a year to 3 bucks a year 20 years ago? Where did they all go? Or does the limit not really impact the herd just the hunters?

We significantly reduced the number of baby makers on the landscape......That's where a lot of the bucks have gone. There's not as many being produced.

I think the situation of 1 person hunting 1000 acres is few and far between. Plus if a guy kills 3 bucks off of his 20 acres it’s not like the deer are staying there. That takes away 3 deer that the other guy next to him on 50 acres can’t kill. So if you introduce antler restrictions, it helps that. In other words, there’s probably only 1-3 3.5 year olds using it. 15” wide with 20” main beam should put most bucks at 3.5 or older. I would love to some how make it 4.5 and older but that’s a stretch. It’s the same at a hunting club. You got 7 members hunting 1200 acres. Well that club isn’t gonna hold 21 3.5+ year old bucks. So obviously they all won’t limit out. Older deer are harder to kill.



Wouldn’t antler restrictions that leaned heavily on 3.5+ year olds help both at the same time? Supply up and trigger pulls down. Trigger pulls on the wrong buck would be illegal and if enforced would help much faster than just waiting on it to correct itself.

I’d love for someone to pull up the old three buck limit threads and (like a politician) see who’s flip flopped on the subject. A LOT of people on here were all for it, just don’t mess with turkey limits….. Ok? 🙄

Limits only work if they are followed and enforced. In AL, buck limits, size limits, etc are kind of like speed limit signs. With AL's lack of enforcement, limits are merely just a harvest recommendation that is very very very rarely enforced (by the wardens, and even less enforced by the judges when the wardens actually do write a ticket). That's why corn isnt having the impact that some felt it would. Deer are used to corn piles all over the woods. A large percentage of the people hunting in AL were raised doing it and have been hunting over corn since long before it became legal to do so. Why, because it was not actively enforced and nobody was really worried about getting caught. Same with the 3 buck limit. Chances of getting caught with over the limit....virtually none. Human behavior rarely changes without severely negative stimuli being associated with the bad behavior. If there is not negative stimuli associated the the bad action, people just continue to do it and become more brazen each time.

Dangerous road to go down. Maybe we should say that only the actual property tax paying landowners will be able to kill 3 bucks and anybody leasing land can kick rocks and shoot does.

🤷🏾‍♂️

I left a fantastic place to hunt with very little cost involved and equipment provided for land management, just because a couple guys could not abide by the law and constantly slaughtered bucks year after year. I would rather pay to hunt somewhere, than to hunt with folks that don't give a crap about others or sustainability.

Every single club I was ever in had those guys. That is why I left my last and final Alabama/Florida club years ago. It's damned if you do and damned if you don't. Can't afford enough property to manage with a small group of trusted friends. Tried small properties with just me or me and my brother but the neighbors shot every 2.5 year old that crossed the property line. Pointless.

I would not be in favor of forcing everyone to try and manage for 3.5 year olds and I dont believe the public would support it either.

There were a lot of deer killed Feb 1-10 in north Alabama last year that probably shouldnt have been.......Also, compliance with "the rules" suck......Fixing just those things would save quite a few bucks.

It is tough to find a place with no drama and like minded folks. If there were laws that were enforced to support what we have been talking about it would be easier

^^^^
Amen

I got my own place - lot less drama. I shot one good buck last year amd let one good one walk amd shot one doe - thats it

I can tell you there were. And about 10% or more shed their antlers either being loaded or unloaded from the pickup. It’s ridiculous.

It starts with having a DCNR that cares and their priorities are nuts.

Im not saying that those deer shouldn’t have been killed or the season needs to run through February 10th. Im just saying that it’s not hard to kill 3 legal bucks a year in Alabama. So don’t you think of those hunters know they won’t get those 10 days and that they will just kill that buck earlier? I mean not that exact buck, but a buck? If anyone in Alabama doesn’t kill 3 bucks a year it is because of self imposed trigger control wouldn’t you say? Im sure there are a few outliers of guys that just hunt 1 time a year or something but heck I think a lot of us could buck out before thanksgiving if we didn’t have self imposed restrictions. Am I way off on that?

CNC can you make us a chart/graph?

Sure, how bout that one??

Dayum

While we’re on the topic of total buck harvest and percentages…..I don’t know what the exact numbers are but let’s just say that we’re harvesting 60% of the buck population and our goal is 35%.......There’s at least 10-15% or maybe more in waste that’s occurring due to bucks being shot and not recovered. I’m not saying that there needs to be any rules made….but just understand that if we can recover 5%.....or 6%.......or 7% of that waste……then that’s going toward our goal stated above. Who cares how many folks call in a dog to recover their deer……we should praise the effort that increases efficiency and helps keep us from moving one step closer to reduced bag limits.