I remember when there were so few deer in Alabama that simply seeing a track was a big event. We did not even have seasons in north Alabama. We worked hard to build a huntable herd. Then we, meaning the hunters in Alabama, began to have a great deer population. It was illegal to shoot does. Then we could shoot a few. Now we can kill them all and guess what- the deer herd in a lot of Alabama has dropped. Sure, some large tracts still have a good number of does but we are not seeing the numbers we saw just a few years ago. I would like to see recent counts on the sex and the age of the population broken down across the State.
Its not just the wholesale shooting of breeding age does that is the problem, there are also changes in agricultural practices, habitat lose, and an increase in the number of hunters.
I am not in favor of the government interfering in our lives or rights but they are the only entity that has the ability and resources to develop comprehensive plan for the management of the deer population so that we and out kids will have quality deer to hunt in the future.