I’ve talked to people hunting Bibb, Perry, lowndes, Montgomery and bullock and no one hardly has a shooter buck. Most are saying they don’t have half the bucks on camera this year. Curious how wide spread this is.

buck sightings are up but not alot of shooters. I ve seen more bucks this year than does.
im in west Jefferson county.

Shouldn't we eventually start seeing bigger bucks since antler restrictions.and the 3 buck limit?

Not saying that they havent been over harvested, but dry summers create prime conditions for it and lead to prevalent EHD outbreaks, and we had a pretty freaking dry summer and early fall. For whatever reason, older, mature bucks seem to be more susceptible to EHD than the younger ones.

Yes....but its called corn in neighborhoods for me. They cant survive a crossbow and a dusk to dawn

HUGE problem and will only get worse. It’s not just highly populated areas either. Most rural areas have homes scattered throughout the countryside these days - more than enough for this to be a real concern. Only the true remote places don’t deal with this, but there’s not a lot of that left in the south these days. Fragmentation is an issue that doesn’t get talked about enough.

if the majority of people abide by it yes

We have way more. Not trophy like you see on tv bucks. But bucks we would shoot and be happy we did. We have 6-7 bucks we would kill if we saw. Last year it was more like 2-3. Also have a bunch of 2yos. More of them than normal too.

I only shoot mature deer and the chance of a buck making it to 5yr old is getting near impossible and I have a lot of land.

That’s a fact. But three of the properties I’m talking about don’t have that issue.

Not seeing the numbers or quality I normally see. Guess I will wait and see what next year brings.

This should be an interesting thread.......

Its Milroes fought....

I have 8 identified bucks coming by my gravity feeder(not using it much but that’s where the camera is). All but one are 6-8 points and 2.5-4.5yr olds. One young 4 point. Most are clearly the same regulars I had this time last season just a year older. There’s 2500 acres behind me with almost no hunting and they come off that through the yard making a loop.
My worry this season has been recruitment. I had 11 does last year. I killed one. This year I have 9 does and only one fawn.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s we couldn’t figure out where our 2.5 yr old 8 points were going

Never did

Worst year in memory for me. Have plenty of does and more little bucks than I have ever seen. But have not seen a buck I would shoot in a month. Had 3-4 good ones alive after last season and had pics of 3-4 shooters until a month ago and they have just disappeared. The fella who hunts with me told me today he is probably not gonna be back until mid January, hunted for a week and had seen all the does and baby bucks he could stand. I am totally baffled and to the point I don’t even want to hunt. And I can be from the couch to the stand in 5 minutes. Ain’t worth getting the hunting clothes on.

About the same for us, every year there is always alot of 2-3 year old bucks, but never seem to be make it to the next age bracket. Not sure if its the neighbors or they move on somewhere else, but we are lucky if we see one or two a year.

I’ve barely seen a buck all season. One to be exact. From bow season to now. On the same property last season it was no problem to go see some bucks. Not this year.

Had a banner bunch early, but pop pop pop, they gone.

I have four racked bucks on twenty two cameras running. A normal year I’d have ten.