Point taken. Will comply.

I've got 3 at a processor right now and hope them to pick them up tomorrow. I'll see what they say.

It should not be a surprise if the numbers are down a little from last year numbers went way up during the great doe slaughter that started when they made the entire season doe season. Then they started slowly declining almost every year since. You increase legal doe harvest to virtually an unlimited number you get a few years of record deer harvest when for the first time more does than bucks were killed then after that you get gradually declining deer harvest numbers because there are less deer and less does to have deer. If you want less deer kill does if you want more deer quit killing does. Right now the state along with most people must want less deer. Doesn't take a genius to figure this stuff out.

Mike,



What are you basing that on Mike? Most hunters I know love to see lots of deer when they hunt.

According to the Alabama hunting survey statistics released by the state each year there were more does than bucks killed 9 out of the last 10 years.

How many does have been killed in the past 10 years?

If we have an estimated deer herd of 1,500,000 at a ratio of say 3 does to every buck.

What is the replacement rates for the state?

and one more time, what is the actual carrying capacity of the hunting land?

I don't give a darn about Game Check or the constant arguments that surround 49er. All I know is that I've hunted 11 times this season and have seen only two tiny buttonhead bucks for less than one minute. A friend of mine is a successful veteran hunter who contends that deer are becoming harder and harder to hunt each year because of a natural selection process where those deer that are more willing to move during daylight hours have been largely killed out.

I don't really know. But I can figure that fewer deer sightings = fewer deer at the processor.

I've done the math, and, according to the figures in those reports, we have only been killing a fraction of the 35 percent of does that the biologists claim is necessary to begin reducing their estimates of the deer population. Doe seasons always close anyhow in spite of that, and now doe seasons are being limited. That in itself should tell you that their estimates are inflated.

Counting dead deer doesn't work well to properly control a deer population if you have no solid figures to tell you how many live deer are in the population to begin with.

It is not up to hunters try to determine the live population levels of each species of game animals in Alabama. That is one of the lawfully defined functions of the DCNR. Those numbers are required by law to be gathered on each species of game animal in order to determine when hunting seasons should be closed or opened. The numbers are to be gathered on a sit-specific basis according to the law.

I went this afternoon for the first time this season. 1 adult doe with 2 fawns and a 1.5 year old doe on my clover. Caught a glimpse of a good buck, he was hanging back in the thicket and he won today.

Try him again tomorrow.

I'd say hunters griping more than anything

I'm not doubting yotes doing a number on deer, heck I was jumping up and down back in the mid 90's about yotes killing adult deer and was laughed at.

I don't doubt we've killed them back to some degree.

But I've been around enough club members thinking we'd be killing 30-35 3.5 yr old and older bucks off 5,000 acres a year to realize some overestimate what is truly possible year in and year out.

What eventually happens to any wild animal population that is over populated?

I keep hearing about no deer in an area then drive thru a 20-40 acre 5-6 yr old pine plantation with honeysuckle and greenbriar that is leafless at a deer's reach.
Maybe a new attic is needed to killem.

Tonight on the way home, I seen 12 plus deer on the Trace and Hwy 72
I've seen at least that many if not more ran over along the same travel route this year.

How many are does? The number will continue to fall as long as we shoot off all the does. The doe a day or 2 a day is just crazy.

Dropped off my sons 170 pound 7 point yesterday in Greene County. Processor said he was 150 deer down from last year.

Which processor

The guy I use is way down over past years.

I have heard from many of my friends that their deer sightings are down, but most are still killing their usual numbers.

I believe that the numbers sent to processors will continue to decline with people processing their own deer. I know going forward - we are going to begin processing more of our own.