On camera? Over corn?

Then the drought/disease or both might be the culprit. People aren’t killing that many deer.

JMO

6,500 acres.
truly only bout 6 to 8 deer hunters and only 1 or 2 that hunt a fair amount. I noticed a drastic change in the herd 3 seasons ago. It’s bad, real bad. Not near the deer and nowhere near the bucks. The older bucks we do have on camera have the poorest set of horns you can imagine in comparison to what it was just a short time ago.


Damn pigs took over the place 3 years ago you bout couldn’t buy a deer. Went from seeing 20+ deer per hunt (in the woods or plot) to seeing hopefully 2 per sit. Pathetic! We put a hurtin on the pigs for 2 straight seasons and it seems to have gotten a little better. Bucks are still pitiful. I was told by a couple local guys that the dog club beside us slaughtered every deer they seen for 2 straight seasons. I have no idea how accurate that is but something definitely happened.

This is my last season in this club. Damn shame

They absolutely are……People are using 10 acres and a couple feeders to pull in and shoot a lot of bucks in these good areas like turkeyneck mentioned……I’m actually walking to the corn piles and laying my hands on the deer so I can tell you without having to assume….I’m just saying that if every 10 acre parcel in the area has shot 3 and wounded 1 before bow season is even over then that starts to add up after awhile....I'm not saying that to hack on the hunters doing it because its fair game to do now......I'm just pointing out the reality of what's occurring

Bucks spread out…..when the buck levels have been lowered all around you prior to the rut then a lot of your bucks that you’re trying to stockpile and protect are going to leave and go to those other areas that have been shot out with no competition.....especially if your shooting a bunch of does on your place making the competition on your place even greater.... Some of those that leave will be shot too during the rut until the whole area is impacted…..This is why I have said that I think some of the big wigs will find that they arent immune to the impacts

I’ll say it again cameras are what gets deer and turkeys killed. I love my cameras and ain’t for banning shitt. When u get a pic u go on a mission on ur 10 acres or 5000. It doesn’t matter. There’s a few other factors when it comes to bucks but most everyone runs cams. Only thing I will say is our deer season is too long and not trying to take anything from south bama but most above the belt don’t need to be killing in February. 5 months is too long to be killing and now days with technology it’s too easy. Again I ain’t for banning things cause agencies don’t know what the hell they’re doing but would be open to cutting back some of the doe killing. Some need a good many killed and others don’t but this setup we have now that’s months of blasting away is a problem.

Yes

Here’s the solution. We just need to kill a bunch more does to shorten the duration of our rut and then cull all the spikes we see, to get rid of all those inferior genetics, and we are home free. If people would just get on board with the program, there’d be a 190 behind every tree within 3-4 yrs.

It’s tough to get all in this part of the world, obviously width matters the least in the math, but if you have good tines, it lacks mass visa versa.

The big wigs already know that they aren’t immune to the impact. They are the ones most affected and most aware of what’s going on because they are the ones raising all the young bucks that are getting sucked off of their properties and killed by the neighbor next door with 5 adjoining acres, three cells cams, a night light, a baiting permit, a crossbow, and 400 lbs of corn piled up in a pile out his back door. When the big property owners and managed clubs decide to toss in the towel and say that they are done, and start indiscriminately shooting the same number of deer per acre as all the small properties surrounding them, that’s when everyone will see the problem and the error of their ways. It’s coming too, unless something changes. It’s getting way too expensive to control big acreage and try to stockpile enough bucks to get just a few into older age classes so that you’ve got mature bucks to hunt.

Season is too long here. 5 months of hunting is too much.

Yes they absolutely are. 100%

Already happening. Ppl are fed up spending tens of thousands of dollars annually to NOT pull the trigger, while all the neighbors benefit from their hard work.

I'm going petition that we need hunters with last names starting with A - M hunt only on odd years, and hunters with last names starting with N - Z hunt only on even years. That ought to help. What do you think the limit should be with this new scheme to save the whitetail deer in AL?Hunter's choice ... only 1 deer a year per hunter. You can buy 1 doe tag for $1000 or you can buy a buck tag for $5000. That should do it.

Oh well. I guess the big wigs with the fat wallets are just out of luck!

Man, it’s like people on 5 acres just now started shooting deer over corn. I guess the bucks just prefer that corn over the corn that exists on these big clubs. Must taste better!!!

Thank you for starting Januarys yearly thread!

I wish we had deer that would steadily come to slaughter piles on our place like they do on all the small acres. You shoot a couple deer off a pile on our place and it take a long while for them to come back in the daylight. I guess we’re doing something wrong.

Things like that has been going on forever. Just like here with the guys that own large acres of marsh for duck hunting. If the little guy sets up a blind in the public waters next to them a happens to kill a couple ducks you’d swear the world is about to to end. They call us and wildlife and fisheries and wants them arrested. They get real pissed off when we tell them that it’s their right to hunt their and nothing can be done to stop them.
Same thing is happening with deer hunting. I absolutely believe that the small landowners are shooting a few deer but I find it hard to believe that this is something new.

I help ppl manage property. I work with ppl all over the state. I guess until you have it happen to you some of yall just won’t get it. Let me ask you this question and give an honest answer. If you were a landowner with several hundred to several thousand acres, is it unreasonable to expect that there should be a couple of mature bucks to hunt each season? I mean it’s not greedy or selfish to have that expectation right? They’ve spent their money on land, equipment, other resources to have a nice place and to enjoy it. They can’t enjoy it fully because what they’re after is not attainable. It’s not because they don’t have the habitat. It’s not because they can’t hunt. It’s because their neighbors kill every deer that is 2-3. Corn and cams completely changed the ball game. It baffled my mind yall can’t see this. I’ve seen large acreages completely changed by a handful of neighbors who decide to start killing deer. Neighbors that do nothing for wildlife except put corn and a camera out in deer season. Places that go from having multiple mature deer a year to zero. Would it change your mind on the subject if you knew the lease you were paying money for had zero mature bucks? Would you keep paying it? Would you enjoy it? Would hunting be the same?

Most places just don't have the genetics to grow deer that some hunters want to kill. We watch these hunting shows and compare our places to northern genetics and huge bucks on social media and are unsatisfied. Truth be told only less than 5% of deer in Alabama have the genetics to grow to be 140" and the odd of them making it to maturity is slim with season length and high grading of young deer. You can only kill the biggest deer on your place and people are spending lots of money so they feel the need shoot young bucks.

I completely understand and I know it sucks!! My whole thing is this is nothing new. As far as our place, we’ve all but did away with cameras to cut back on all the running around and really have no idea what we have this season. We are the big land guys in our area but we have reasonable expectations because we know that we have no way of keeping the deer from crossing the property lines. And the neighbors, I have no idea what they are doing and not really worried about it because I can’t control that. In my world I worry about things I can control. If the deer are leaving the big properties to go to the small property, there’s only a few things that can be done to stop this. Bigger bait piles, buy the small properties out or fences. Or maybe they should try to work with the neighbors and come up with some kind of plan and try to work together. Problem is not everyone is a trophy hunter. Some people are deer hunters and some people are deer killers. I’ve evolved from a deer killer to a deer hunter. I haven’t made it to a full on trophy hunter yet. Do I like killing big old bucks? Heck ya!! I have a house full of them but I also will shoot any buck that makes me happy at the time. It may not be one for the wall but it won’t be 2year old 6pt either unless that’s the only deer I’ve seen all season. That’s never happened. Here at the house I own the only 35ac piece of property in the middle of a 6000 acre rice farm. Guess what!! I have a big corn pile in my back field to pull deer off that big farm. We’ve only killed 3 bucks in that field in the last 10yrs. Simply because the guys that hunt the big farm and I know what we want to kill and little deer is not it. But if a deer steps on to my property and I want to shoot it that’s my choice. I really hate it for the big landowner’s that can’t accomplish what they want but maybe in time the small guys will change their ways. But it’s been said on here many times and we know it’s true. It takes a very large tract of land of cooperations with neighbors to be able to accomplish those goals. 500-1000ac ain’t enough. We have 900ac in one chunk where the camp is and we will see the same deer at at opposite ends of the property in the same day when they are roaming. Heck we will see the same deer on the off property we have a few miles down the road. If you can’t control the deer, the only other option is to try to control the neighbors. And you and I both know most times that won’t happen.