the first year of DMAP if you had 25 tags you could kill em all in one day. No daily limit that first year.

Yes the majority of the state has a peak rut from October to early December, depending on location, but average dates are a full month or more ahead of most of AL. There’s a few acres along the TN border and AL where the breeding is a little later, but still way ahead of ours.

Not the southeastern corner of the state.

Georgia is just better managed than Alabama. It's got nothing to do with when their Rut timing is... what does that have to do with anything concerning antler size? Nothing.

I hunt in Georgia I have a piece of property near Dawson. It's less "brown is down". Age structure is better without question.

You don't see very many 4-5 year old bucks in Alabama. Not sure why this is so hard for some to comprehend.

Alabama can have better deer. Y'all don't want that. The minute someone changes the seasons you're on here crying in your Cheerios about it.

The AL DCNR is a pack of knuckle dragging worthless. They play around doing studies to justify their jobs and money spent. Read the studies. Their are stupid as hell and done by people with ZERO common sense apparently. Stupid people teaching their students how to be stupid? That's All Day. You eventually get to some point where they collectively as a group can't comprehend they don't know how to conduct a study because they don't understand basic fact patterns and common sense fundamentals. That's Auburn's wildlife bunch. You would think that whoever is in charge has hunted enough to understand what impact hunting pressure would have on their study. WRONG.


The majority of Georgia's Rut occurs PRIOR to Thanksgiving with really only the SW corner being during December. There is a little piece going up towards Lake Keowee that's December as well. Their rut is not just ahead of AL it mostly goes down before our rifle season opens here in AL. What does that have to do with anything related to Antler size? Nothing. But instead of asking it's pretty easy to lookup on your own. And you might actually learn something. We picked an area with a December rut because of convenience and kids ball games and all that. Otherwise I would be somewhere there is an October rut and hunt that then come hunt this shaithole State and blast does with the rest of y'all.

Its not about the timing of the rut.....its a different "strain" of deer.....That technically may not be the right word but they're different

While that is true that also has nothing to do with why you don't see many 4-5 year old deer here in Alabama. They have better genetics in Georgia. Alabama has a trigger control problem.

Kansas has better deer too they are genetically different. Doesn't make any difference when you don't see any 4-5 year old deer here in Alabama.

Our age structure is our problem.

This whole thread started about the quality of bucks hitting the dirt in GA. We all can agree that different genetic strains of deer produce different body and rack characteristics and some are definitely better than others but anyone that knows anything about growing, managing and killing big bucks, knows that age is the key to being able to take advantage of those genetics. Age structure of the overall herd is the biggest difference between Alabama and most other states. If Alabama had more deer making it to older age classes, you'd see much better racks and better overall herd health being expressed on a regular basis. Why do you think that there are huge racked (140-160"+ bucks and a bunch of them), super stud bucks living in several big city suburban areas in Alabama? Because they dont get hunted very much in that environment and they are allowed reach 5-9 yrs of age. Last I checked, there wasn't much row cropping being done in Liberty Park, AL or all that tightly controlled US Steel land anymore so the monsters seen in peoples backyards in those areas dont have a nutritional or genetic edge. The only difference is that they are allowed to get OLD.

I've always said that Alabama's biggest issue is a complete lack of trigger restraint, coupled with the exceptionally liberal harvest limits and long gun season. People would be surprised at what Alabama genetics and dirt can produce, if you have the self control and opportunity (which is mostly neighbor related in Alabama) to let deer get into the 5 yr plus age classes. Matt Brock and I talk about this all the time. If all the current big buck states had a 118 day season, with 82 gun days, and 90% of the total buck harvest in these big bucks states was 1-3 yr old bucks, like it is in Alabama, it wouldn't take long for them to no longer be known as big buck states.

I just know what I've seent.....

Oddly enough that Bankhead area has a lot of booger/sasquatch sightings, I assume because of the remoteness and harsh terrain. Or maybe it has something to do with the northern strain of whitetails?