One of the problems that’s likely impacting us right now is that hunters have been “taught” for years that if you’re seeing a bunch of does and not many bucks then you need to start shooting the does……That’s what I believe is the main culprit behind the rise in doe shooting we see occurring……This is a secondary reaction to the original over shooting of bucks which is going to have a double whammy on some areas that is still to come…….The overshooting of does is going to compound the problem of overshooting young bucks and suddenly some folks are going to look around in another 2-3 years and things are going to look real chitty…….maybe sooner......Maybe some folks will recognize it and self-correct a little bit.......

1/13 Update.......About time for south Alabama to start whackin and stackin.....I cant believe how slow it was this last weekend


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Does

So last year nearly the entire southeastern quadrant of the state had really elevated doe harvest levels……Now this year you see them all once again looking like they will end up with similar numbers…..except for a couple counties like Macon and Bullock…..These counties have some big plantations on them and it makes me wonder if there’s been a few folks who have pulled back the reins on doe killing on some of the big plantations……and that’s the difference we see…….I wonder??....

Well…..so a bit more info to add into the mix which at least helps point toward the idea above being a real possibility……I’ve spoken with several big landowners and clubs in the county and according to several of them they are seeing way fewer deer this year and are pulling back on the doe killing……So that very well could be why you see those big plantation counties trending behind everyone else…….Which means that there’s the very real possibility then that everyone else is still just whacking away in the other counties……It'll be interesting to see how this plays out

I’ve been thinking over the whole situation above and something I mentioned to the hunters that might very well be playing a factor in all of it for this particular area is that there’s a chit ton of coyotes…..Fawn recruitment may not be good……That wouldnt show itself so much as long as hunter density was low as there werent too many deer total being shot like much of it has probably been in the past……However, if there is low fawn recruitment then it probably wouldn’t be hard to increase the doe harvest past the threshold where you’re taking out more than you’re producing and things could go backwards on you……Especially when folks are taking out does in big numbers…..An extra 900 does being shot last year in Bullock Co is a lot…..and that’s just the extra that GC shows……there's no telling what the real number is.....Bullock Co is only like 400,000 acres total…..

The guy hunting next to me on Five acres shot that many, and I know he's not game checking them. And I'm not trolling or joking, that's in bullock co

1/20 Update.....again this is a comparison to the average and the * indicates its a five year high

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Please update the map to show Gulf of America now.

🤣

I know a lot get killed during the rut but dadgum south Alabama has a lot of killing to do in the next 20 days

They will. Don’t give up on them.

We’ll see……folks ought to already be whacking and stacking at a pretty good clip……Does are going hot……I’ve been watching cameras at my place and as of right now there aint nothing there worth shooting……just a couple dink 3 year olds and a few younger bucks have passed through……..For the folks who are hunting older bucks….I kinda wonder how many are left to “come out of hiding”…..Yeah there’s some but I’m talking about as a percentage it could be pretty low……

Something to keep in mind as well that I keep repeating is that the maps I’m showing is just looking at the comparison to average…..If I changed it to a comparison to the peak harvest from last year then many of those southern counties would be running another 5-10% lower……I have a column for that on my spreadsheet too……

1/27 Update.....

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I will be very surprised if Dale County makes it to 100% on bucks, probably not does either.

Matt said not to give up on them so I’m holding out hope…..We do tend to kill a lot right at the end but goodness its slow…..It should be peak rut right now for many…..Again keep in mind that 100% is just the average line

There’s absolutely no way those southern counties make up a 12-28% deficit in one week.

The numbers in my area are down because populations are down......

And populations are seemingly up in a large area of north and central AL. I’m not saying that because of the graph. The graph does support it in theory but we’ve got a dang lot of deer in places up here.

If you look at the GC trends over a statewide level you wouldn’t be able to tease out the regional differences and see there was an obvious issue.