I don't currently live in Alabama, and have lived in 5 different states. Their angles tend to revolve around cruelty, I don't see how feeding can be categorized as cruel.

as 49er touched on, I'd be more worried about the antis targeting bowhunting (because it could be perceived as more cruel) before baiting. From a purely hunting perspective (putting habitat improvement aside because antis don't care about that) there isn't a lot of difference between baiting and hunting over a food plot.

Nothing to stop you from going out in February to "experience the rut" as it is now. You just can't kill one of them.

Now, is it really about "experiencing the rut", or is it about killing bucks for you?

I have mixed feelings about baiting, with little personal experience to base a good opinion on. I feed in the summer & my cameras show that about 95% of activity is at night, but I've also seen big bucks killed that had a belly full of golden acorns in the middle of the day, so it works somewhere. I've always been told that it makes mature deer even more nocturnal because of the availability, so maybe the successful feeders secret is to use timers only instead of troughs or whatever. I know a lot of other states allow baiting & I don't think it hurts any image that hunters have in that regard. I think most antis put hunters in the same category as people that ride the roads & shoot them at night, you all kill the cute animals.

Many of you think I am always about bowhunting. Not true at all. I am about hunting! I love to bowhunt true, but until this year I promise you I have hunted much more with a gun than a bow. And it I hadn't had a bowhunting only place to hunt, I would have hunted much more with a gun this year as well.

Now back to bowhunting vs baiting and antis. Look at the states that have lost baiting and dog hunting for bears. The antis didn't go after bowhunting. They went after the items that trigger anger and pitty.

Look at what has been going on. Look at what has been effective for them. Their main offense is now predators. They are fighting for bears, mountain lions, and wolves. Why, they believe if they can get these populations high enough, they can make an arguement that hunters are not needed to control the herds. They also think that if these predators kill down the populations, man is lazy and will give up hunting. Look at all the places out west where the wolves were reintroduced, the large amounts of deer and elk are gone. Hunters change their hunting locations. More hunters on already crowded places, hunters don't enjoy it as much and next year they don't buy tags. Antis won!

I know, you say that is out west. True, but the more wins the antis get the bigger and stronger they become. Image is important, conservation is important, buying licenses is important, introducing new hunters is important, being part of the process is important. Fighting amongst ourselves is what they want.


As for bowhunting, it is growing like crazy. More and more places are opening up land to bowhunting only. Thus hunting is taking place where it wasn't allowed to before. It is viewed as safer. More and more states are going to urban deer control programs to deal with deer populations in urban areas. And while the antis do say things about it being cruel, most people do view it as hunting vs killing.

One day, we will wake up and not like what we see. And most likely it will be because of what we have done to ourselves.

It is about experiencing the thrill of the full rut. I have killed 4 bucks since I started hunting in 2005. All but 1 were killed before the rut. Of course I would shoot a monster if I saw him...but it aint about killing for me.

If you want to take your arse to the woods out of season to watch then go ahead. It's called hunting, not wildlife observation.

[/quote]It is about experiencing the thrill of the full rut. I have killed 4 bucks since I started hunting in 2005. All but 1 were killed before the rut. Of course I would shoot a monster if I saw him...but it aint about killing for me.

If you want to take your arse to the woods out of season to watch then go ahead. It's called hunting, not wildlife observation.[/quote]

How much of the full rut will hunters be satisfied with? Deer rut into April for sure. I know that is being picky, but my point is how much is enough? Where does south bama end? At what point do we do more harm to the deer than they can stand?

As the DCNR does more and more testing, it seems they are finding that the majority of the doe are bred during the current hunting season.

If Alabama wanted to hunt the deer during the same breding season as they get to do in the midwest, we would have to open season around Dec 15th and run it through the middle of April. Our deer are different. And the only way I see to really change the rut timing here in Bama is to capture about a million deer from the midwest and move them here. Then we could hunt the "Full Rut". LOL

Again I think you give the anti's too much credit, I don't think they are even familiar with the various hunting practices in different states, nor do they care. They want all hunting banned and all of their efforts revolve around cruelty issues. Its very hard to convince me that an anti is going to perceive baiting as cruel.

I'm not the one pissing and moaning about wanting an extended season. I average killing about one good buck a year...sometimes during the rut, sometimes before the rut. See a bunch during the rut, just may or may not choose to shoot due to what I judge the buck to be.

If it truly "is about experiencing the thrill of the full rut" and "it aint about killing for me" for you, then it shouldn't matter if you're holding a rifle in your hand or not. An opportunity to kill should not alter "experiencing the thrill of the full rut", if it "ain't about killing" for you.

No one is pissing and moaning. Of course we all want a chance to kill bigger bucks that the rut may pull to us. I see that you hunt "during the rut". Maybe you should get off of your self righteous horse and stay at home during that period since you don't care about the rut.

It is an opinion. If you don't like it, move on and hunt the way you like.

It's called fetal surveys, and then zone appropriately. Not sure why it is a difficult concept for you.

Maybe you should have just been honest the first time instead of hiding behind a poor excuse for why deer season should be extended. Nothing wrong with having an opinion.

Oh, and where did I say I didn't care about the rut? Seems you're making stuff up once again.

Not difficult for me at all. But, it seems that Alabama's deer herd is comprised from several different deer herds with different breeding time tables. Since you are a genius, I am sure you can figure out where to draw all the lines that will make everyone happy!

I spoke at the CAB meeting last year in favor of 2 weeks of feb season. I talked to Elkhunter(Barry) and Bowhunter84 Darryl at this meeting. Both of them had some good points in favor of it and some good points against it.
Some of their points are: it could cause the season to changed and we could miss some holiday hunting.
Small game hunting.
To many bucks killed.
etc etc.
They had very valid points. It made me think more about it.
I am still in favor of feb hunting,but they did have some strong points and did not state them in a way to piss anyone off.
They are good guys and not in this just for themselves. Yall should listen to them.

Maybe I should say it slower for you. I can kill a buck anytime. I want the opportunity to see more bucks which we agree can happen during the rut. Some of those I might shoot. I was clear as glass on that. I'm sick of people like you saying that if you can't kill em 3.5 months the one more won't help.

For me, having that excitment is about qaulity, not quantity of the hunt.

You can't make everyone happy. Florida and Ms seem to have figured it out. No Genius needed...use the sceintific data as your guideline.

And if the sceintific data doesn't support a Feb season keep asking for it anyway!

We have already agreed that planting quality food plots can be as expensive as baiting...maybe even more.

As far as reducing hunters skill, I'd say the single thing that has reduced hunters skill the most...reducing them to killers the most is the game camera. Do game cameras cause more harm than good too? For many people scouting has become noting more than hanging up a few cameras on trails or a food source.

Who "agreed" to that? I certainly didn't.

And, it's not an either/or thing...it's "in addition to" planting food plots.

Tonnage for tonnage, it's not even remotely close.

Baiting is for lazy people in my opinion , get off the couch and
go scout for a deer that's where the satisfaction comes in knowing you scouted and killed the deer the way it was intended.
As far as extending the season start in November 15th instead of October 15th and extended it thru February.

...and I didn't quote nor reply to you.