The 1600 acre hunting club that surrounds my sons property in Conecuh county killed 31 antlerless deer over the Thanksgiving week end. 7 were buttons. This was the second year to do this. They plan to do it again next year. 20 miles away at my property this could never happen. I don't have the numbers that he has. Like I said before It all about habitat and what the land can support.

7 buttons. That’s horrible. They need a doe killing class. Do they keep in mind what their neighbors kill when making management decisions?

That last map I posted was a county wide average…….Many of the southwestern counties are killing some of the lowest doe rates per square mile in the whole state……Are populations really that low or are hunters just not shooting many does??

I got a buddy that hunts North Sumter Co. He’s covered up with does but they kill very few. They don’t want to fool with them.

That’s kinda what I was thinking……So if hunters arent controlling their numbers then I suppose we could assume that coyotes are likely ultimately making up the difference in the end?…….along with maybe some added road mortality??…...Lower birth rates?? Coyotes kill doe fawns on the front end and likely any does having any kind of age related issues on the back end, pregnancy issues, etc……..The population still eventually stabilizes somewhere though…..

So would the hunting be way better then in Sumter Co if hunters shot more does??......Would folks kill more big bucks??

I tend to think that overall as a whole we probably end up doing more net harm than good from everyone trying to “manage does”…..It results in a lot of places where folks eventually end up shooting too many….. kinda like what’s happened around here recently……I think a lot of folks would be just fine to shoot what does they want for the freezer and let the rough side drag on the rest…… just like what is probably occurring across much of southwest Alabama…..That freezer meat amount is enough to skim the top off the population without over doing it