Well if Alabama hunters are killing 90+% of the deer, and the herd is decreasing then the Bama residents probably need to exercise some restraint and if they cannot, which they continually prove that they cant, then the state will have to step in and make a reduction in the limits. I'm telling you, the majority of those out of state licenses are people like my future son in law that came with my daughter to the camp at Christmas and bought an out of state license for the 2 days he hunted with the family. The largest percentage of those out of state licenses are going to be people coming in to hunt the pay hunt operations all over Alabama. Alabama's deer season is 4 months (16 weeks) long. Just one pay hunt operation running 10 hunters per week during the season would account for 160 of those out of state license sales. If there are 250 pay hunt operations (my guess is that it is way higher than that) there's 40,000 licenses and the majority of your out of state license sales.

COVID. Bunch of kids and adults having to stay home for 2 years, most likely got reintroduced to hunting or started back. Lots of people have moved south out of the NE out of democrap states and Alabama's population has grown. Huntsville alone has added almost 6,000 people per year for the past 5 years. You think any of those people moving in hunt? Those are all now residents CNC, just like you. Big picture CNC, Big picture.

Which part of the state do you hunt?.......Because there's a LOT of out state hunters occupying the clubs in the counties around me

We dont have to guess on this......The state has the information......Why dont we have it too??

Most of them moving here gor money to . Got a cousin that wanted to sale two 1 ac lots . Most wanted to buy the whole 46ac house and all

My ex gal in Queens NY has a 80 year old small house on less than a acre of land . It's wroth 2.5 million dollars. Lot of the people around her selling out and moving . So when they get to where they going they bring money

BTW……I think you’re WAY overestimating the pay hunt operations…..They don’t run nearly that many hunters through. I doubt there’s as many total operations as you’re estimating either…..There really aint that many down here where I’m at and I’m in one of the best locations for it…..I mean, there are some but its only a handful of them….not dozens upon dozens……My guess for why is because its probably not really that lucrative anymore and becoming less and less. Just like we’re talking about in the other thread…..its hard to find folks to pay top dollar to go on a mediocre hunt where they might have a chance at a 115” eight point.

West Central blackbelt. Marengo, Dallas, Wilcox and I'm telling you, Alabama resident hunters outnumber the out of state hunters 20:1 Now we do have a ton from Mobile, Fairhope, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Montgomer. They arent locals, but all those are still "Alabama Residents". You want to see what a real out of state hunting invasion looks like? Drive up to southern IL in the peak of the rut or over to Arkansas on the opening weekend of duck season and count out of state tags. Bama definitely doesnt have an out of state hunting problem compared to other states. Like I said in an earlier post. It's all reciprocal between states. Bunch of Bama residents frequent the surrounding states and use their resources too. Drive down to the Florida panhandle and count out of state tags next week when spring break starts. You think all those out of staters clogging up the beaches, restaurants, and causing traffic jams are going to piss off all the locals down there? Drive down to Venice when the big tuna are thick and see how many out of state tags, and how many Alabama tags are in the big marina parking lots. You might be surprised.

Let me redirect you to the what was originally said again abolt because folks seem to stray off sometimes giving an answer that doesn’t fit the question……..We have just cranked up the harvest on a decreasing deer population……Again, for the sake of the idea we’re discussing in this thread lets assume that’s so…..

In the next 5 years if we have to address the situation……Will you be ok with lowering the bag limit to 2 bucks without there being a cap on the amount of folks that can just keep coming in from out of state??......If there isnt and the number of hunters just keeps climbing then the buck you’re giving up isnt helping the herd to be better…..its just being redistributed to the growing number of hunters….And again, I’m not saying this to bash out of state hunters…..I’m trying to say that you might want to give this some thought before just lining up and supporting a 2 buck limit…..If you look in our other discussions, some people already do.

I've got no less than 20 within 50 miles of me. Quick google search shows pins for 33 pay hunt operations south of 80 between I65 at Evergreen west to over Demopolis and south down to around Thomasville. There are 3 pretty good sized operations very close to me that are not even listed on there and they run groups of 4-7 hunters on 3 day hunts twice a week from opening weekend of bow season all the way through Feb 10th. Same search shows 6 pay to hunt lodges just right there around Auburn. There's a whole bunch more than you think. It's not top dollar. Most are $1500 - $2700 with lodging and meals included. Damn sure aint top dollar. Go look at what a guided hunt on private land costs in other states. Bama is the Dollar General of paid deer hunts. Why is it so cheap? Because our age structure sucks as a result of the majority of our residents feeling that they need to kill anything that they see with hair on it and as many as they can. "We looked in the mirror and the enemy was us".

This is past being pathetic move on.

I like the ability to be able to hunt other states even though I rarely do. I like being able to fish in Florida. I do not live far from the MS line, it is conceivable that I may want to join a club in MS one day. Creating a license war will help no one.

You talk about big picture Abolt……..Look at the rising lease prices and what’s feeding into it…..If there wasn’t an unlimited amount of out of state pockets that can just come in and jack the prices up we might not be seeing such “inflation”…..As it is right now the ceiling is way up there for folks to just keep raising the price and packing more hunters in…….Lower the bag limits on them to make up for it……….Maximize profits ……Big picture abolt……big picture…….

Absolutely. I'd be fine with cutting off all buck killing in the entire state for the next 2 years if that is what it takes to start correcting our age structure, putting more bucks into older age classes, and what is best for the herd. I'd be perfectly fine with dropping the limit to 1 buck per season. That's honestly probably what needs to happen and what it is going to take to finally make people think before pulling the trigger on that 60-90" 2.5 yr old 6 or 8 pt. I enjoy working on the land, improving the habitat and managing and growing deer and turkeys as much as I do hunting and harvesting them. I'm only interested in harvesting mature animals. I passed the stage where I felt I had to kill a buck to prove I'm a good hunter or kill a deer just to feel like the hunt was a success, many years ago.

I remember back when we ran dogs in macon county for a club ,,,,, 3 times,a years they have around 30 come up from Fla to hunt . We had places we never ran till they came . Each one paid the club $25 each time that came


That was early 80s

Man you really need a shot of reality. Everything is double, triple, quadruple or a 10X increase in price from what it was 5, 10, 15, 20 yrs ago. Lease prices are no different than the cost of 4x4 trucks and cars, groceries, lumber, gas, oil, boats, houses, insurance, property taxes, hourly wages, and on and on. Unfortunately, it is the world we live in. Thanks in large part, to a govt that just prints money on a whim.

People will raise prices until people refuse to pay. At the point in time when they cannot get what they want, they will say okay, if you will not pay what I want to get, I'll just take this land out of the lease pool and no longer lease it for hunting. That will happen long before a price drop will, and unfortunately, that's just a fact of life. We arent ever going back to the way things used to be. I'll also say that I've been outbid on some really good property, that I've really wanted to get control of, on several occasions. It's never been by someone from out of state. Every single time it has happened, it's been a group of lawyers or doctors out of Mobile or Birmingham, and one time by a guy that owns a big trucking company here in Alabama.

Out of state pockets jack up the prices? How about greedy land owners. It sounds to me like you have an issue with out of state hunters.

When you can prove there's a decrease in deer I'll listen to some more of your crap. Absolutely No way to count the number of deer in Alabama.

For the folks keeping score at home........

For those keeping score. CNC is OCD and not the sharpest tool in the shed. He evidently thinks that nobody in Alabama has and is willing to pay big money for a good deer lease within an hour of their office and that only people from out of state can afford to do that.