I say it’s 3x as hard to kill a Mature buck on public ground in Alabama. I’m more impressed with a wall full of 120-140 deer off public in Alabama than a wall full of 140-170 from the Midwest. Totally different animal. I’m not knocking bow hunting the Midwest but killing grown deer in Alabama isn’t easy and the same goes for turkey.

point went right over your head too.

do you REALLY believe that your rifle ONLY has a slight advantage over my bow.you have got to be kidding. right?
go you guys think you would want to hunt the Midwest if they were rifle hunting for 3 months? I doubt it.there would not be much to hunt would it? except for some does and spikes where is the satisfaction in that?

kinda like hunting here huh?

^^^^This. Because a large percentage of hunters in this state have absolutely zero self control when it comes to killing deer. With Chuckie caring more about $$$$ and playing politics, than doing what is best for the resource, Its now becoming detrimental to the resource that is supposed to be protected for its health and future generations.

Lower the bag limits. Cut out doe harvesting. But shortening the season will affect how people are able to hunt the rut. Within 25 miles of my house the deer rut from late October to late January. How could you possibly zone that ? I remember in the 80's and 90's you could not shoot a doe in my county. Now it's open and hardly anyone takes any. Buck limits and antler restriction could be changed and would probably help more than anything.

No, they have Bergmans Law and better habitat is why they have bigger bucks (and usually small bag limits). In most cases they have much shorter seasons (bow and gun) is why they have more of them. Don't take this as a dis to bowhunting, I like to bowhunt or did til shoulder problems. But its used as an excuse to shoot smaller bucks (you know because its with a bow) and most (not all) bowhunters are not good enough woodsmen to keep from educating the old does and the bachelor groups while hunting close as you have to to kill with a bow. And frankly, until corn was legalized, there weren't many buck bowkills in our area.

Not going to argue at all. Just my personal experience.

You couldn't do that statewide. Around my place, they are thick as fleas at times.

Years ago they restricted by county, not zones. It might help to go back to that.

You could do that…..but you could just have a change in doe management mentality by “X” percent of the clubs and landowners in each county and it would fix any doe killing issues……If too many does are being shot then some folks just need to quit shooting them……Its really not too complex……I don’t really think it would be that hard to accomplish……A biologist and a DMAP program could easily do it but I don’t think the state has the same goals in mind……They hand out doe killing prescriptions like Oprah giving out birthday presents......

Nothing will happen if it's on a voluntary basis.

I volunteer to not shoot any does next year in Macon Co.........

I volunteer to only kill the 2 I need for sausage unless I kill a buck here at home. If I kill 2 bucks here at home then I won’t kill any does. Just like I’ve done for the past 10years or so. But I will try to kill at least 2 deer.

But if I had to bet, you haven't been taking out many does anyhow ? Most people who will volunteer have already been managing that way. I know I have.

Just like marsh here.

Like I’ve said before there are already some big properties voluntarily doing it……One told me they had killed 90 does last year and 60 the year before that…….and this year they weren’t gonna kill any……..Another one that had been killing 60+ was only killing 5-10……..Another property where I had the caretaker tell me about 9 years ago that the biologist was recommending for them to take out 150…..they shot 4……So yeah, there are folks out there who are volunteering to do it…..You just need a little bit of organization to it so that everyone is on the same page with what's occurring

I really hope that will happen but it's probably only a pipe dream.

Having an individual cooperative for every county in the state would definitely take some doing but just to form a single cooperative for a single county like Macon or Bullock wouldn’t really be all that hard……All you need is one or two of the big players in the game to get the ball rolling and then someone like me who travels around and talks to hunters to “recruit” properties……. ……

Again, with something like “not shooting does” you dont need a majority to participate…..It only takes a small percentage of folks to be able to push the pendulum between…….. growth……stable…….decline…….one whicha way or another if everyone is on the same page……..For example, if we go with our Bullock Co model where <1700…….1800-2200……>2300…….was our harvest numbers to plug into that pendulum……you really only need control of about 400 does to start influencing the swing which is 20% of the total……Just the few plantations I mentioned already have a good bit of that accounted for already…..If they continue to NOT shoot those 400 does and maybe get a few more folks on board where that total doe harvest dips below a certain threshold……then at some point population growth will begin to occur……Eventually that same group of folks could decide to start shooting a few again one day and shut growth off and maybe be a little more conservative about doe killing moving forward knowing that they are tipping the scales.

My number ranges just represent a concept……the actual numbers and range of where growth, stable, decline occur would have to be tested out a little to figure it out more precisely……I think it would be something along those lines though…..

Youre absolutely correct. Now let's discuss why that is. Maybe because in Alabama, there are 90% less mature bucks, as a percentage of total buck population for the state, as there are in many of those midwest states. The more mature bucks you have in a population, the easier it is to run into one. And why is that? Because Alabama kills most of them before they get past 3 yrs old and has been doing it forever. Age structure, and the regulations and trigger restraint that are all necessary to achieve and maintain that age structure, are real factors. You cant kill what is not there and the fact is that in most of Alabama, most bucks are shot long before their 4th birthday. There are small areas in Alabama where you would not believe the number and quality of bucks youre able to see, but they are few and far between and most possess unicorn factors like large land holdings, surrounded by great neighbors with additional large land holdings all around them, and most importantly, they have very low pressure and are ultra selective about what bucks get taken each year. They dont attempt to kill every mature buck they have and they damn sure dont shoot every 6 and 8 point that walks out. They might have 5000 acres and only take 5-7 bucks a year off of it. There are 500 acre clubs all over Alabama that kill 15-20 bucks a year. Basically, every rack deer that is seen from the stand or on ride in, gets shot at or killed. It's not rocket science why the buck hunting and buck quality in Alabama is the way it is.

The biggest plantation I know of in bullock county is roughly 7500 acres. If they were killing 150 does then it's no wonder they aren't seeing as many deer. That place also does not care about deer hunting because of quail and field trials. They do not sell any hunts either- it is completely for friends, family, and business associates.