You can thank trophy management for that .

1/6 Update.......The asterisk * in front of a number means its a 5 year high

Bucks



Does

So here’s what I’m kind of coming to the conclusion on with some of these numbers and the impact from baiting

If the doe population isnt being effected then there is likely the same number of little bucks being produced….Therefore the number of bucks being killed isnt varying a whole lot…..Its just that some places are seeing many more younger bucks killed and less older bucks….It would be hard to distinguish which counties those are without more info to go along with the numbers……stuff like hunter observations, etc…..which we have some from folks here reporting

However, if the number of does being killed is going up and the number of bucks killed is going down…..then its likely due to hunters decreasing the overall population and there being less bucks on the landscape to be shot…..Again, I think Montgomery Co is probably a prime example……Doe killing has really ramped up in the last couple years and now it appears as though buck harvest is about to be down…..likely due to less bucks being produced and less bucks being present on the landscape……Montgomery may be the overall most impacted county in the state……

I’m not trying to be an ass, as I’m truly wanting to know if there is somewhere we can see the actual numbers instead of the percentages. Those are some very high percentages in some areas and I’d like to compare actual numbers. I know Game Check is not a true count of deer killed but is there a place we can see actual number and historical numbers? I have a hard time believing that hunters are hurting themselves that bad. I guess I give people to much credit!!

You can look at the Game Check numbers on the Outdoor Alabama website.......What are you wanting to see?.....I have the last 5 years of data in a spreadsheet

Just the actual numbers to compare. I’m just curious!!

I actually think its more relevant and comparable to put the numbers in percentages because if you look at the raw numbers then you might say for instance that 100 deer isnt much…….but that’s only relative to the population that exists in an area…….For example 100 deer in Dallas Co where 4-5K get killed annually doesn’t mean as much as say 100 deer in Marshall Co where they are lucky to kill a thousand total…..That’s why you put it in percentages to show change

I agree and completely understand. I was just wanting to look at the numbers. I will check it out in a little bit

Here’s Monroe’s numbers for the last few years……The numbers are very constant and like you say I suspect there is very little change there…..

Does…..1847……1827…….1678…….1788…….1060 current
Bucks….1641…….1712…….1614…….1638…….581 current

First posted Oct17th. Has your opinion changed or will the numbers rebound. I don’t really feel like reading 16 pages.

My opinion is still basically the same but I’ve modified it a little bit……I think many of the southeastern counties are likely to see the decrease in buck harvest this year though it will extend on into next year and from there we’ll just have to see…..It depends on how this doe killing plays out…..Its easier to predict the long term trend pattern that will occur than the specific timing of it all…….Buck harvest for counties like Montgomery, etc may be down 25-30% or more by next year or the year after....I think hunters are lowing the overall populations in these areas

Other counties might not see as much of a drop in buck harvest though…..Something I wasn’t taking into account was the potential to just shift the harvest back to younger age class bucks and still have the same total……I still think it is all playing out and the change is long from being over……We’ve still got to let folks finish going through the killing more does phase trying to balance things out to see where we ultimately land.....

Thanks!!! That’s what I was wanting to see!!

I’ve said this a few times but just a reminder again that what we are looking at right now is a comparison of this season against the average of the last 4 years…….When I say that I expect many counties to be down 15-20% I’m referring to being down from the peak of the trend line……I was taking an educated guess at the increase peaking last year and this being when buck harvest would start trending back downward for many counties……It could be that we have another year of peaked harvest......Like I said, predicting the exact timing of how its going to play out is a little harder than predicting the overall pattern but it does appear to be playing out pretty much as expected…..I think the doe shooting is still a bit a wild card in it all though to be able to say how it will go from here……

Here’s something I’m talking about with the doe shooting as to why I say its still up in the air……If we look at the buck harvest for most of south Alabama where the January rut occurs….most counties are sitting in the mid 30’s or thereabouts…….Everything is pretty even on buck harvest with the rut still being yet to come……But if you look at the doe harvest rates some of the southern counties like Lowndes, Marengo, Covington, etc are shooting way more does than the other counties like Monroe or Clarke……..Just like we said with Marsh, counties like Monroe and Clarke are holding steady with no change so we can compare against those kind of like they are our control group……

So then why are those other counties like Covington running at 81% of their doe killing average or Lowndes at 75% compared to 59% in our Monroe control group??.....Why are hunters ramping up doe killing in some areas??.....That will determine where this goes from here ……If hunters start shooting a lot more does for several seasons, regardless of the reason, then you’ll still likely have a decrease in buck harvest yet to come for some folks as populations are lowered……Its hard to put a time table on it

Here’s the raw numbers for the counties mentioned…..I’m just using these as a few examples.....you could list more……Here’s our “control” with Monroe doe harvest……

Monroe…… 1847……1827…….1678…….1788

…..and here’s our example counties experiencing increases in doe harvest……and it appears as though it will keep going up or staying elevated this year…..This will be a part of determining how it all plays out from here

Covington……1392……1634……1730……2219
Lowndes……1223…….1261……1401…..1708
Montgomery…1421….1486…..1706…..2122

Just wait. We are about to have an extended period of abnormally cold temps. Deer are about to be slaughtered as a result.

^^^
Should hav lot shot and ruts coming

This is why I wanted to see the actual numbers to compare. I’ve stated before that most days while I’m up at the camp hunting, I hear very few shots around us. Hardly ever here any shots from the neighbors unless one of our neighbors grandkids are hunting and they’ll shoot every so often. As said above. The most shooting we will here will be in a few weeks. Shots tend to get more frequent the last 2 weeks of January. Nothing like we used to here when we hunted in Georgiana. They’d burn it up that last week of January there.

Things are so different from area to area that it is really hard to generalize conclusions. I hunt several disconnected pieces of property and need to manage each one differently. One tract has neighbors that shoot almost every day. I typically don't shoot does on that piece of property. Place is a de facto sanctuary and I see lots of deer but rarely if ever shoot. On another tract my neighbors stopped shooting does and I counted over 40 deer in a large cereal rye field. That property IMHO needs a little population control and I will let the youngsters take care of it.

Common sense is missing from our greed driven society. If you are seeing less deer, stop shooting does. If the deer are more numerous and smaller then open up on them.

Yep!! It’s the “if I don’t shoot it the neighbors will” mentality is rampant in a lot of places. I feel for the ones that have to fight it. I’m very thankful we have great neighbors to work with.