When we first started hunting the place we had in Georgiana we were surrounded by big dog cubs. We had many conversations with those guys and them telling us about the 100s of bucks they’d kill every season. Now this was 3 different big clubs. One even told us that they had no buck restrictions when running dogs but if someone stalk hunted they had to shoot 6pt or better. I asked him what was the point of the 6pt rule. I kid you not, his response was to help grow better bucks!! Yet they were shooting anything with a visible antler in front of the dogs!!

That’s why I encourage cooperatives and great relationships. Work with each other rather than against. Nobody wins if we all have the mentality that I’m going to do what I want and dig in even harder every time it’s brought up. That goes both ways, for trophy hunters and meat hunters.

That’s why I’m throwing out the idea that trophy hunters in counties like say Montgomery……might want to consider pulling back the reins on doe harvest and allow the meat hunters to “manage” the doe herd…..I can tell you from talking to hunters that I dont think anybody has a clue that doe harvest has just increased 49% in Montgomery Co and the bigger landowners/clubs are still having the same old conversation about the importance of shooting does……If the smaller parcel hunters around you want to fill their freezer then you don’t have to worry so much about reaching that doe quota…….That doesn’t fix the overharvesting of bucks but it does help curtail overall population decline

Some people who own land have hunted the same way for years and are not gonna change. 2 land owners that border us might shoot a 150 today then shootna spike tomorrow. They just do as they please because they can.

Where I hunt, it seems mature bucks are easier to kill in the Feb season than in the rut. In our area the rut is pretty much over by then and the bucks are on any food source HARD for about 10 days. All you have to do is sit over a good food source for as long as you can. They feed all hours of the day. They are STARVING at this point.

Precisely the reason I HATE it. It’s a full month after peak breeding here. Deer that survived the breeding season are the most vulnerable they’ve been all year and adding to the buck harvest that late is biologically irresponsible.

We see more bucks in March and April then we did the few times I hunted the first couple years they added the February days. I guess they either shut down for a while after the rut.

Bet it was better before trophy management too

The 10 days shouldn't have been added statewide. It was originally put in place because some in this part of the state were missing the rut that was firing up as the season was ending the last of January. Heck I can remember having doe days down here and now we're overrun with does. Sure was alot more fun when I was a kid leaving out at daylight with 4,s 6,s, 8,s and buckshot. Shaking vines in the river swamp and it was pretty much anything goes that was edible.

Exactly the problem

Those last 2-3 weeks , over a corn pile, in the woods, is easy pickins' .

We should just make it does only for 4 yrs then the whole problems fixed.

It’s really only about a week and an half after peak breeding here. Most of our members don’t hunt that February time because they are burnt out from hunting the rut so hard. But to kill one you got to be willing to sit awhile. They might be there at 10 AM there is no general feed time. They are hungry 24/7.

Well I hate to beat a dead horse , but Chuck Sykes told me , not long after he got the Directors job, face to face, there would not be a Feb. season in North Alabama . His words , "there's no biological reason for it." After it was implemented , Game and Fish had a meeting in Scottsboro , Chuck was to be the keynote speaker. I reminded him of what he'd told me earlier about not having a Feb season in NA. He told me give it a few years and when they get data , the season will go back to the last day of Jan. Well I reckon they haven't gotten any data , because it hasn't moved back. However, I suspect I was lied to twice on the subject .

Keep in mind when the Feb extension was implemented , there were at least two owner/operators of high fence operations on the CAB board. One of which was the current Lt. Governor's brother.

If this is true I don’t understand why season is open in feb in northwest alabama . Make very little difference . Rut is over by Jan 1 an all deer has run in a hole or been shot . An every hunter is tired of hunting . Hard to find a buck here after the rut. Across the line in southren tn deer are dropping antlers in feb.

Here's the same map for does last year......Definitely a lot of deer being killed in those 10 Feb days.......

Don’t hunt February. Leave them alone. December-January is long enough to loose sleep, wet and cold and clean mud from the driveway. Throw the corn and sweet feed out, new camera batteries and see what slipped by ya all year. Ya really don’t have to go in February just because season is open.

They’re dropping antlers in north AL in late January and early February and I’ve got plenty of info I’ve given the agency. Apparently they don’t care.

Some people are going to hunt until the last second because they can, and grin from ear to ear knowing they’ve killed the last deer. You can’t provide opportunity to the public without expecting them to exploit it.

Matt, do you ever think our state will go toward seasons where we have a more limited rifle seasons and etc or what’s the reason for some states having it and not others? The terrain and ease of killing deer with rifles in flat land?

Not saying I’m for it or against it, just curious.