You are delusional if you think the majority of hunters in Alabama can practice any type of common sense doe management, especially in hunting clubs.

One thing for an owner of a 2000 acre piece in central Alabama to do it. Is another for any size group in North Alabama to do it. Or anywhere in the state for that matter.

Take Lauderdale. There are areas of this county full of deer and areas that are not and they are all mixed together. I’m sure every county is similar especially up here.

I'm sure everyone who enters one of these fabled cooperatives would be an upstanding, up and up, no nonsense sportsman... no way ever that anyone would cheat the system, esp along property lines from the neighboring cooperatives.

But… it’s no different than… I mean it’s the same policing whether they are in a cooperative or not. I think maybe you are confused on what people mean by cooperative.

Maybe I did miss something?? I was under the assumption that cooperatives would attempt to hold themselves to a more stringent set of rules than what the state issues.

We’ve used cooperatives for years with unparalleled success. You have to in order to manage a deer herd properly. Few ppl own enough land to make it work without forming some type of cooperative.

But you can’t do it if anyone who impacts the others decides to go rogue.

I could see it working in areas with likeminded leases in a given area. Especially in areas that have leases that are 200 to 500 acres ( rough estimate ) in size that want to have quality deer. In areas like I'm in, with landowners who have 30 to 200 acres I'd have to believe it's more of an uphill climb. Not impossible, but probably less likely depending on the landowners.

A cooperative to not shoot does would be a lot easier to pull off than one trying to manage for big bucks

Maybe so. I had a nice 2 year old 6 point I let walk all season. He would have been a shooter this year if he made it and would have been a good buck for my area. He was like clockwork every single day. A neighbor ended up getting him with just a couple of days left in the season. Managing deer in an area with neighbors who don't is like pouring water in a bucket with no bottom. It's an exercise in futility.

“Maybe I did miss something?? I was under the assumption that cooperatives would attempt to hold themselves to a more stringent set of rules than what the state issues.“

Hold themselves is the key phrase. No extra work for game wardens.

I was leaning more towards the situation where the cooperative members "Hold themselves" until the last week or so of season when somebody in the cooperative decides they are going to do whatever they want and screw on their suppressor....

We have 2500 acres. I don’t know what the state is suggesting or what the state rules are on does and IDC. No one cares more about our deer herd than we do. Our education comes from AU, MSU,TA&M, UGA, Grant Woods, NDA and many other biologists. We have A TON and I mean A TON of does. We only shoot 4.5 yr old bucks. It is a chore to harvest the number of does we need to harvest. Anyway, I wish hunters would take a more biological interest to learn more about deer mgmt and realize that shooting immature bucks just really isn’t a great accomplishment!. Because we don’t shoot immature bucks, we have a ton of them. We put our deer herd before the hunters. If more hunters would put wildlife before themselves, the ROI is great. Educate yourself and realize there is a lot more to deer management than what you may think.

Good post

I would feel the same way about you though. You shooting a 3.5 year old buck that I had let walk. And others would feel the same way about me. Me shooting a 4.5 year old that another neighbor had let walk.