If the thought is the cameras and feed lead to more kills and people are tagging out too much, it sounds like you would either need to change the bag limit or get rid of the things that make it easier to kill more deer. I cant fault people for killing as many as the law allows them to kill. If you don’t want everyone in the state killing 100 does and 3 bucks every year, then the bag limit needs to reflect that. I never understood why people care about how hard it is to kill a deer. Doesn’t matter if it’s a bow, crossbow, trad bow, shotgun or rifle, if the limit is 3 they will all do the job. Now if we are saying the the bag limits aren’t productive to the deer herd and buck age, then sure the whole system would need adjusted. Even in that scenario bag limits would trump how you kill the animal or how hard or easy it is. So right now I’m for changing bag limits and leaving cameras, baiting, and weapon of choice for those that enjoy that. I hunt public land only right now so the impact of the regulations would affect me differently if I hunted private I’m sure.

Cell camera bans don’t work anyway, at least not at the level of fines that they have for doing it. I have seen plenty of people use trail cameras on public land that is already not permitted. You thinking banning them statewide would prevent people from using them on their own property? Fat chance.

^^^
Amen
People going to use cell cameras now since they here. I use mine more as a gamewarden on roads

And to your point - i think it is comical that u got people on here that are so concerned what weapon u use to kill a deer. Dude i dont care if u kill him with a sling shot and i want be more impressed - thats highschool level 🤣🤣🤣
Just kill the dang deer

Buck limit is 3. If you kill them with corn, cell camera and a hand grenade it's still 3 bucks!

Weapon of choice absolutely does matter. Why do you think the Midwest and northeast states have very few guns days, yet archery seasons are as long or longer than ours in some cases? They could leave their bag limits the same and increase gun days and their harvest would skyrocket. Days of opportunity with more efficient weapons increases harvest more than bag limits.

There is not going to b many years i ever kill 3 bucks

So glad i am still blessed to b able to hunt and i am still allowed to hunt. It will not b like that forever with america which was built on hardwork is becoming less and less america daily - one day we want b america nor will we b able to hunt

You factor in the number killed and not found with archery and the number is way up there anyway. Too your point, if Northern missouri had more gun days it would be wiped out quick.

I love how people on here are ok with stuff being banned since they’ve had a bad experience, or don’t care about said item/style, but when they come for something that you actually care about it will be too late. What if they decide to ban crossbows, recurves or trads, what about any rifles chambered under/over a certain caliber will you care then? Eventually they slip down the slope right into something that WILL affect you.

I got 2 friends that bitch about crossbows but come end of November they break out a rifle.

“Messaging” goes a long ways…..especially when its coming from state biologists. I think all the messaging that went along with the two a day rule change on does was probably more impactful than the rule itself. That was part of my thinking with the changes I suggested in the season dates concerning doe harvesting. A slight change in the structure to go along with some new messaging that “Hey, there’s a lot of places where you might want to think about not shooting any does for a few years. Coyotes + Humans is more impactful on population growth than we thought”.

Not to spoil the survey thread but if you notice the vast majority of the people killed 1 or 0 does last year. That’s kinda ugly when thinking about what would have to be done in that kind of situation in order to create any change from what we have now. That essentially is saying that if you want to see population growth then for a lot of areas that is going to mean shooting virtually zero does.

Yotes are playing a much larger role today in moderating population growth than they were 20-30 years ago. The combination of humans and coyotes is likely keeping there from being any growth ever occurring in many areas. There’s only maintain……slow decline…..maintain…….slow decline…..maintain………A lot of places could use some “growth” thrown back in the mix. I guess you could say that density dependent factors are not playing a role in controlling populations. That’s certainly not everywhere but the places with "burgeoning" herds are the exception and not the rule

That's actually much higher with guns despite the perception otherwise.......There have even been studies that show this is the case. Gun hunters blow the legs off of more deer than bow hunters lose in total. Most bow shots are either recovered or they live....that's especially true now that tracking dogs have come onto the scene

Technology improves hunter success which in turn affects the population.
You can’t continue improving the hunters odds and not affect overall health of the herd/flock

It’s not about banning anything rather adjusting as technology advances the hunter success more and more.

Like already mentioned, if there was a long gun season in the Midwest it really would hurt the overall population

Just like the huge increase in deer hunter numbers in the Midwest. Many hunters grew frustrated at the end of their hunt and started shooting healthy 2.5 yr olds and soon there was many properties missing bigger bucks.

The hunter sentiment was “well I paid 3-4 K I’m killing something with horn.” Fortunately many saw the problem and changed criteria if you hunted their lease in the Midwest.

Technology can’t keep advancing and not be addressed. It’s a negative return at some point

If I had a dollar for every time I heard can’t kill him if you don’t shoot or gotta break him down and then find him.

My point was not that those things don’t matter but that if you want season dates, weapon of choice, trail cameras, or baiting to not matter as much then you would need to reduce the bag limit. You could make drones legal and if the bag limit was 1 buck, then it doesn’t matter what you use everyone would still be limited to one buck. Why have a bag limit of 3 for everyone if the herd couldn’t take 100% taking 3 bucks and 100 does a season. I know it’s more complex than what I’m talking about, but that’s my 10,000 ft view of cameras. Lots of factors to consider.

That is kinda what I was trying to say but didn’t. You can’t have baiting, long seasons, trail cameras etc. and keep bag limits high. It’s a balance. I could see (not saying I agree) leaving all of that in place I.e. long season, baiting, cameras, but reducing bag limits. That’s half of what the discussion turned into though, how to best manage Alabama’s deer herd. To that I have no clue, only speculation.

Not up north

As a starting point it would be nice to see the same “data” used to extend seasons where needed, be used to remove the extension in areas with earlier rut dates. Using that data to extend seasons statewide was a very bad management decision. If we are going to have Zones, then use the data accordingly.

Pay to play hunting over bait never should’ve happened. It should either be A) Baiting and/or feeding will be allowed statewide 12 months a year or B) Baiting and/or feeding of wildlife is not permitted at all. I’m ok with either. I’m not ok with requiring hunters to pay to do something the LAW prohibits.

On the use of real time data transfer and imaging to aid in hunting, it just simply changes the game altogether. Not sure how to deal with that honestly. It has made more hunters successful. Along with baiting it’s opened the door for a lot more people to kill deer who previously would not have. Anyone with a backyard can bait legally and shoot out the window whenever their phone alerts them.

I do not agree with a reduction in antlered bag limits. That should stay as is.

I think a season restructuring and prohibition on cellular cameras will have to be done at some point.

Because their archery season is so long. In the south rifle hunters wound considerably more than archery hunters ever thought about.

I agree…..I just don’t know if cell cams are ever going to be something that’s realistic to ban. I think we may have to work the solution around that one.

That would be me . I get a shot it dies I ain't waiting . Course I use a gun thst can handle the bad angle shot