One of THE biggest misconceptions we have as Alabama hunters is our perception of “scale” when looking at the landscape. When you’re in a 1500 or 2000 acre club it can feel like you have your own little world to “manage”. I know what that’s like from first hand experience and I see the same thing in a lot of folks when you start having management discussions.

Tracking deer for people has completely changed my perspective of things though. The landscape is much smaller than it seems. You can take any given point on your property and draw a straight line out for 1 or 2 miles and its nothing for a buck to get up and go that far. When the rut hits he may be three or four properties over…..They’ll jump and go a ½ mile before you blink twice. Even the biggest landowners who have 5-10K acres are still effected by the surrounding properties…..To think that 300……600…..or even 1500 acres can have some kind of stand alone management occurring is just an unrealistic perception of things. When the rut goes down or when resources get slim….. its going down on a much larger scale than our 500 or 1000 acre properties. You gotta have Texas sized ranches before that changes. We're all in it together whether we like it or not.

THE more you know...............

This is very true. Problem is very pronounced in all the counties bordering the TN river.

Another way you could look at this is like playing chess……..The landscape is a sequence of squares and we need more squares on the board to start playing the game with a different strategy from what we’ve been doing over the last couple decades.

What we’ve had happening is that each and every square has been getting “prescribed” a “management plan” for what they need to shoot or at least that’s the way most hunters perceive it. What we need though, is for more squares to adopt the management philosophy of “not managing”…….NOT thinning does……NOT shooting culls, etc…….The do nothing approach to herd management……Now, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t have any fun or never shoot a deer…..but rather to recognize that every 500 acre square on the board doesn’t need to have the herd “managed” and at least for now there are plenty of other 10, 40, 80, 100 acre properties with corn piles doing their part……And…… it is highly likely to be in your favor from a strategic standpoint as well as best for the population overall…..to be one of the folks who adopts that strategy. A stockpile of unpressured does can be a mighty strong hand to play when the rut hits……

Put your tracking hat on for a minute. Serious question. If a hunter shoots a deer, say in the foot, leg or something as to where the deer would possible survive and you track and bay him up and kill the deer. Who really killed the deer? I see alot of people posing with deer every year that were killed by the tracker. Always wondered what your opinion is since you track alot of deer.

Lmao. No comment or just no opinion?

Thats why I don't shoot does anymore

I agree with that CNC, some deer travel. But I think a good many don’t as well. I know I’m the last 4 years we’ve had bucks stay from year 2-5 or 6. Some leave for the summer and come back in the fall. Some stay year round. Some leave and we never see them again. But I definitely agree we need a broader change to trigger control. I used to be in the camp of shooting deer to manage deer, but I just don’t see any proof of results.

The problem is exactly what you said above. Something like “ O don’t mean don’t have fun and shoot a deer if you want to.” Well if 7 people have 1000 acres leased and they all kill one deer to not take the fun out of it you are kinda going against what needs to happen.

It's really something that I don’t ever think much about. As long as there arent any rules defining such (and there doesn’t need to be) then its whoever’s deer the hunter and tracker say it is. Two people have shot a deer…..they don’t need the state to be an arbitrator to determine possession. It’s one of those things that doesn’t need fixing because its not a real problem……just something for some Karen to bitch about.

The problem is that we’ve gotten to a low hunter to deer ratio……The deer population has been whittled down to the point that you’re exactly right….. every hunter cant shoot one anymore…..There’s not enough for everyone to “fill the freezer”…….The base population needs to come back up for those things to be possible. You’ll never get everyone on board and that’s part of the point in choosing to manage the way I suggested. You know it’s a given that there are numerous “squares” around you that will still be whacking their share and opening up holes…….And really that’s ok….. as long as there’s enough people playing a different game to prop up the population.

I guess my opinion would be the same unless it was just some foot injury then I'd have another opinion on whether it needed killing by the tracker.

What if it was shot in the jaw??

Well if it can't eat I'd say it needs killing!

Cooperatives!!!

........and why is that??.....Because its going to die from the injury??

I already explained why. I just asked for your opinion no need to get testy!

Oh I agree. We had just a few hundred shy of 5,000 acres and I thought we needed more. I knew all the places killing out 2.5 yr old 8s were definitely benefitting.

I do recall an odd 6 point that had an almost 25” spread and almost 30” main beams with 5.5 inch bases that carried the mass all the way out. One of the new members saw him the afternoon before on the back of the club and let him walk since he wasn’t an 8. Deer was 5.5 or 6.5 yr old and he could’ve killed it. A kid named CJ killed it the next afternoon in the front. Almost 8 miles as the crow flies. That was a distance traveled during the rut. Knew of another buck that came from across the road and circled thru out front and back across the road in a weeks time. Sis it a few years in a row at night, some of the outlaws still tried shooting him and may have crippled him a killed him and not know it.

When we dog hunted, we’d jump the same deer in the same location multiple times.
Someone would see it but not get a shot or miss it. A week later we’d jump him again and kill him.
I’ve also busted a deer and never seen him again. Maybe somebody killed him, maybe he moved.
Tracking collars tell the whole truth.

Deer move a whole lot more than the average hunter realizes, even if everything they need is right there.