It wouldn’t

Growing a 130" past 4 year olds in a lot of areas in any state just may not happen. On occasion you will hear about that one freak slipping through every few years and once someone sees it on cameras or running across the road everyone in the family and other families are after it. You just have do what makes you happy. Or put up a high fence and grow cattle type deer. Deer are just free ranging cattle, but we hunt them for sport. How long you think a fattened free range steer would last?

I'm in the same boat Ridge life. I got 300 acres to hunt here in bama 10 to 15 yrs ago I could grow some good deer I've killed several 130s a 150 and a 165 but now I've got folks all around me hunting everyone has a feeder and a cell cam in the back yard and hunt from the recliner when the cam goes off they raise the windows up and blast it. I had a good crop of nice 2 to 3 yr Olds that all have been killed now. I got a nice 4 yr old 8 this year and that is the first one I've killed in bama in 6 yrs. the area I'm in has great genetics but folks won't let them live that long. all I got now on cam is a couple of spikes. deer are easier to kill now than ever before with all the technology and something needs to be done we need to shorten rifle season. no reason to have a 3 month long rifle season.we got too many hunters and not enough resources

Property next to mine, they started doing paid hunts. Guy picks them up at a convenience store gets a some $$$ drops.them off at a stand let's them shoot anything. Kinda like a drug deal really, and they're piling them up. All the deer I've fed and managed for ten years. But what do you do? It's not corn or cameras, or bag limits, or seasons. It's people, they don't care about anything but themselves, and no law is gonna change it.

They will be hating on you for trying to grow deer on small acreage bye lunch. It’s truly sad what is happening in a lot of areas in this state.

I have 81 acres. Same story here.

That's a fact , bait and cams can effect even large tracts if they have a couple of neighbors that are heavy baiters and quick on the trigger. Wouldn't make me mad if they'd out law bait and cams in season. I'm afraid that ship has sailed and it ain't coming back.

I've got a tract of about 1000 acres, hunted very little. In three years we have shot O bucks and a few does a year and I agree we need to kill more does. We have a few younger bucks on camera but nothing like you would expect for three years of passing bucks. I've had some decent night time pics a couple of years back but I think they fell prey to the backyard booger lights.

And the amount of deer that will die in the next 3 weeks will be staggering. I hunt central alabama and the bucks are just starting to tolerate each other a little which means they are about to start focusing more on food than chasing. Corn after a hard rut is deadly with no trigger restraint!!!

It's not just small tracts. In the latest "deer range" thread, Eclipse829 mentioned a buck that was killed recently about 5 miles from where he had seen it during bow season. I know the guy that killed it and a friend of his had pictures of it a couple miles further away. From Eclipse's place to where I know for certain it was photographed, there were several pictures of it within a 7 mile span. I don't know about you guys but I can't afford enough property to contain a deer that travels like that.

I have 104, same story. This has been the worst year at seeing bucks. Too many people shooting little bucks, but their not my deer. People can shoot what they want, I just wish they would be more selective

215 acres.

Unless you have an agreement in place with LOTS of neighbors (and nobody cheats) - you, me, most of the hunters in AL will face this fact of deer hunting.

Manage the deer on your small parcel anyway you like, but the most important thing you will have to manage is hunter expectations. Killing a big buck on a small property IMO is sheer luck. You have to be sitting there when that one buck walks by that has somehow managed to elude all your neighbors on 4-8-12 different properties for 4-5-6 years.

That buck would never make it around here. I’ve let several 8 points go that may not make it.
As long as the state says it’s legal, there’s nothing wrong with it either. I’m not for huge restrictions, but the micro acreage (house lot) is killing me. I’ve said this for two years now, at least, harvest has got to be done acreage based. That’s how we measure deer density (per acre), and that’s how harvest should be doled out. I won’t get as much as some, and I’ll get more than others. That’s ok.
Every guy with 2-3 acres and a feeder can’t get 3 bucks and unlimited does. Can’t. Or we need to all quit trying.

bamashooter - I'm in the same boat as you, own 123 acres and border some really good property that's pushing 2k acres all along my western border. We are hunting/seeing a lot of the same deer in some cases - I know b/c the majority of the deer I see come off of their property thru the bottoms. I can't even get them to call me and let's get introduced. Left a note in a zip loc bag zip tied to their gate lock over the summer. I know they got it b/c we know some mutual folks and they told them, "yeah we got it, but we don't need anymore members". Uhhh, I didn't ask anything of the sort, I just said we should meet/talk sometime if for no other reason than b/c we are neighbors. I'm sure they are blasting whatever they want while I'm just watching them letting them walk. Some people are just assholes, you can only control what you do. Their leased land belongs to Tisdale and I've already talked to him and he told me to do whatever I need to do if I have to go track a deer onto the property.

I have a small tract I live on, and have some large tract neighbors, and we all are on the same page in terms of what kind of bucks get shot. It’s really nice to pass a 3.5 year old and have a reasonable expectation I might see him again next year. That said, I believe all but one of the older bucks I have on camera got whacked this year. The lack of an acorn crop I think pulled those bucks onto the green fields on the other properties. Especially post rut. Corn certainly isn’t the issue as it’s been legal as long as I’ve hunted here. Cell cams certainly make it easier and I wish they’d be outlawed during season but still not the biggest issue. But the lack of food in the woods, got a lot of deer killed that otherwise would have lived. I think that situation may be a factor in Bama too.

But it hasn’t always been this way. Even on small properties landowners had the hope and expectation of at least having the opportunity to kill a mature buck. That hope is now lost because they’re not making it. People don’t have to kill a mature buck to be satisfied. Knowing one is there is usually satisfaction enough. When they are no longer there ppl will lose interest and stop trying to be good stewards of their land.

I interviewed for a job with Extension back in 2005 or 06.. I remember the interview - I was asked to put together a 15 min presentation on a natural resource topic and I was given a list to choose from. I went off the rails a little, and talked about small parcel deer cooperatives in order to better manage deer. I talked about many of the same things we have discussed in this and other posts about trying to manage deer across lots of properties and landowners with wildly different objectives and expectations.. and this was back before all the corn saga.. and game cams were used, but still kinda in its infancy. When I was done, the interview panel seemed amused. The mixed response I got was 1) you should have stuck to the topics given. 2) good idea, but it'll never work.

I defended the topic choice, not being identical, but very close to one they offered in nature, but I never could convince them that cooperatives could work. One guy asked me had I ever met an Alabama deer hunter.

I think it has been this way for a while now - at least in some areas.

Serious question: Have you taken it upon yourself to shorten your own season and not hunt all 3 months?

We do. Don’t hunt much at all from about January 10th on. Been doing that for years. All we get out of it is a pile of dead buck pics from neighbors. 😂

For God's sake if you're just Jonesin' to make something illegal, then go to a statewide minimum antler restriction like Mississippi does(last I hunted there that was in place anyway, might be different now, I am not sure)

Protect the actual deer, don't just make a list of equipment or methods and start crossing them off