So what about all of this ^^^^^ brings you to the theory that herds are growing and providing more opportunities to hunters??

In some areas populations are growing. I see it every day. The problems with corn/cams/extended seasons are occurring in areas with smaller land ownerships.

In other areas populations are doing just fine and continuing to grow. The several county area I work in and am most familiar with are eat slap up with deer. Seeing them is not a problem. Killing them is not a problem.

What I’m asking is…….what’s the “metric” by which you’re basing your opinion on??.....What’s telling you there’s more deer than 5 years ago?...... Is there any areas where road mortality is increasing?......That would be a sign of herds growing…..It seems like I’m seeing less but without actual measurements its hard to just go off of perception…..There are some stretches of highway around here where the road used to get hit pretty hard…….Its just a few deer here and there now though……Again though, a real measurement would be a lot better than perception.

What I’m basing my theory on is that the last time we saw harvest trend lines increase for several years and then decline due to a change in the “rules of the game”…..aka the doe slaughter…….it did not result in more deer at the end of that time period…..we had less……My theory is that if we see the same trend line occur due to people killing more deer because of corn……then the end result will be the same…..less deer……Killing more deer is killing more deer regardless of if it happens from corn or a 2 doe rule……..If we had more deer then the harvest trend line would grow upward and then remain there on a new line that just did little up/downs annually…..We are trending downward though and have been for some time……The recent spike in harvest is from corn increasing opportunities and not from population growth.

What are you basing your theory on? If you didn't see the deer being killed in front of corn, it is nothing but speculation.

What would really be good to know to add to our equation is any correction factor that may be needed for gradual changes that may be occurring with game check compliance……If GC compliance is trending upward then that would have the potential to make harvest appear to trend upward……I kinda feel like GC compliance probably plateaued though and those who use it do and those who don’t….dont…….Still though, even if compliance is trending upward…… if the trend line goes up and then back down again we still know there’s a good chance that a population decline is occurring…..

In clark - my 256 has 9-10 5 yr plus mature coming on it. Several experts or experienced dudes hav confirm what i saying thru pics! That would be very strong on 1000 acres. I made one eho n 6 years here - the rest been mature. Best year i ever had w deer on place. Prob agv taking 1.5 buck a year here and taken prob 4 does in 6 years

Next year may be the worst - but it strong this year. Winds hav sucked incredibly so i bairly hunted best spots this year - but pressure being way down is positive. Winds good Thursday on for few days - but hot so hopes low. If cold would feel
Incredibly good on shoot mature

Matt what General Counties and what type of Properties are these Deer Sorghum Hollow Processing post on there FB come from? Some Hammers but it may not just be this Season it seems like every Year!

All the processors up here I know of keep cutting hunters off because of record number of deer they’re receiving. The latest post on FB says call them after Dec 30th

That’s exactly what you would expect to happen when the harvest trend line goes up……I’m sure many of the processors said the same thing back in the early 2000’s when the does started pouring in back then too……….

If u don’t have them in a pen u will never figure out the puzzle just like turkeys. I do find it interesting data or theory as to what happens or think happens. Too many factors but maybe we can somewhat get in the ballpark and that’s at best.

CNC…check your pm’s

Fayette, Lamar and Marion for the most part. They come from all types of properties including public land. And there’s a lot of deer that aren’t getting posted on their FB page. I know of 8 very good deer taken there that have not been posted.

Wow!

Here’s the doe numbers for just a few counties for the last four years to show you the type of trends that are occurring in some areas…..I could keep listing them but doe harvest increases range anywhere from 15-50% across many counties……Covington Co is even up 59%.......Do we think this is because there are a bunch more deer in these areas?......I doubt it

Autauga……1196……1363……1357…….1592
Montgomery…..1421…..1486…..1706……2122
Lowndes……….1223…….1261…….1401……..1786
Henry………1329……….1473…….1463……..1905
Covington……1392……1634………1730……..2219

Like I’ve said before…..I think you’re going to have to break it down and put each county or group of like counties on their own time line …….Different variables will impact how things plays out…….When its all said and done though I think you’re probably gonna have like three groups…….. 1) Lightly impacted…..2) Moderately impacted……..3) Heavily impacted…….The question is what percentage of hunters will fall into each category…….I’m saying its probably gonna be something like 1/3……1/3…..1/3 kind of a split……

I still really think a lot of what will determine that will be a matter of how hunters keep reacting with shooting does moving forward …….. If bucks are already becoming in short supply in some areas then drawing down the doe populations is definitely not gonna help the matter…..When you shoot too many bucks and follow it up by shooting too many does ……then you’ve just shot the chit out of everything and what you have is less deer…….Some folks ^^^^ may want to think about pulling back the reigns on the doe shooting…..It isnt gonna fix the problem of too many bucks being killed

Autauga County has about 600 sq mi of terrestrial "non-water" area. Even with 1600 kills, that' pretty close to 2.66 does killed per sq mile. The Covington Co numbers are less than that per sq mi. Those don't seem like big numbers to me..??

I agree with mbrock

Do you think they've just been shooting way under what they could have been up until this point?......Covington Co must be crawling with deer like fleas on a dog's back then......I'm sure doubling doe harvest wont be a problem.

The problem is you are using bad information to try to come to a conclusion. Anytime you do that your conclusion is probably not going to hold true.

Yeah, I’m sure some folks want to convince everyone else that GC numbers are useless so that they can dispute the conclusions but its just not the case……The same way you can look and see exactly when the rut is occurring due to when the kills roll in……game check is also very good at showing when hunters kill a bunch more or a bunch less over time…….What GC is telling us about Covington Co is that there are a lot more does being killed and that is highly likely to be a true statement.....But y'all keep on telling everyone its not true if you want to......I guess you gotta hang your hat on something