I for the life of me can not understand why so many on this board feel that regulation would not help our herd in general no matter where you hunt. Guys we can start hunting Oct15 and some of us go all the way through part of Feb. Our season is too long and way too lax to consistently produce mature deer.

Look at Kentucky. Before they went to a one buck limit they were harvesting 1 and 2 year old deer by the truck loads. That being said there are still many hunters in KY that don't give a flip about horns but if they choose they can hold out for a more mature animal.

I have seen an area close to me that as a kid I hunted and could see 45 deer per sit. Numbers were put in check with a couple rounds of EHD and today you might see 15 per sit on a great day. I would say the average buck killed in Lester, AL had a score of 80-90 inches if it was lucky enough to live to 2 yrs of age. Over the past 8 Yrs I have seen that many land owners and hunters in the area have started land and deer management practices. I know guys that are consistently growing and harvesting 4yr old + bucks in that area now.

They have got to live to get older and even if our season and bag limit were more restrictive (which I am 100% in support of) you can choose to shoot what ever you want but it would give those who measure there hunting success by harvesting 4 yr old or better deer the opportunity to do so. Most hunters in Alabama would not end the season without trying to kill as many bucks as the law will allow. Some of us go multiple seasons without killing a deer not because we could not but because we choose to manage our deer the best we can.

Rules and regulations are made for people who can't control their own actions and selfish desires.

I believe that most of our herd in the state has the genetic program to reach 130" if the hunters would stop pulling the trigger. It doesn't hurt as bad as some think to watch a young deer walk off and not shoot him. The satisfaction is multiplied 100 x when you shoot him as a 6 or 7 yr old and you know you let him live until you decided to take him off this earth.

We usually kill one a year on our family farm in northern Marengo county. We have a lot of ag land on and around our property. There is no hunting clubs within miles, mostly individual land owners and we've only killed one doe in ten years off the property. We don't shoot does due to there not being a lot of deer in general on the property. We usually have several 130-140" deer on camera every year.

Wow!

A whole lot of flip-flopping back and forth between antler score and age. People sure get confused easily!
Most properties have 4 yr old + bucks on it. But, most people can't kill them. ESPECIALLY if it is in a high-pressure area.

Sure, you can allow MORE bucks to get that age and it will definitely increase your odds of one walking by you.
BUT, that does absolutely NOTHING for antler scores.

I completely disagree. Your right that if you include every buck in the state of Alabama that there are mature deer that won't score 130". Never did never will. But there's no way in this world anyone can say that statistically speaking and majority of the time a bucks score is not going to increase with age until he hits his down turn due to old age (7-8yrs).

OK

Good hunting!

The last club I was in killed 3 or 4 bucks over 4.5 the last two years. None of those bucks were even close to reaching the 130" mark. Lots of areas in this state 130" deer are a anomaly and you can't regulate enough to grow them in even moderate numbers.

Sounds like my hunting ground....every few years we will kill one around the 120 mark but as a rule our 4.5 plus bucks are in the 90 to 105 class.

I agree.....anyone seeking more regulations thinking there will be 130 class bucks behind every tree because of this has been watching too much tv or reading too many magazine articles. Granted there are pockets within the state that produce monsters every year, but those areas are not the norm for Alabama.....

Looking at all the FB pics of guys going to IL, KY, KS and such to kill one of those 'big' bucks shows me that most of them have NO idea what a 130"+ deer looks like. Because most of the ones I am seeing are 110"-120" from up there, too.

Where I hunt we kill as many mature deer as any place I have ever hunted. And most will not score 130 +. That is why I say 1 per sqm would be doing good in AL because most bucks will never score 130 no matter how old they get. And no regulations can change that. You just have to except that is the way it is here and be happy with what you got. Mature bucks that average scoreing 110-120 is what most of AL can expect.

That's true..... I am heading up to Illinois for the first time next week and I can tell you right now I have never seen a 130" deer in my life walking through the woods in Alabama so it going to be tiff for me to make a judgement till I actually hunt in an area that has those type deer. That's being said if I do kill a 120" buck it will be my best to date and that deer will go on my wall!

Good Luck, bigt!
You are gonna be AMAZED at the sheer size of the deer up there. And, the amount of daytime movement is gonna ruin you forever...... LOL

Dang sure glad I live in North Alabama and have others up this way who are seeing the potential in the deer herd and are willing to take the painful steps necessary to develop it further. A 130" deer is not hard to grow up here and there in lies the problem with our state herd as a whole. The entire state is being managed based on what the hunters in the bottom 1/4 of the state want. There is a heck of a lot of regulation in place that does not fit illness for the pill that north Alabama hunters swallow for what lower Alabama wants.

Bottom line for me is this. Why ask the question of how many 130" deer can be grown in this state per square mile if you are not interested in growing bigger antlered deer. I see posts every day on this page wanting others opinions of what a deer will score and what his age is. If you don't care enough to lay off the trigger and take the difficult steps necessary to grow 130" or better deer then why even put out trail cameras. Why join a club or lease property. It's not cheap to do those things. If I wanted to just kill meat deer then do it on public land.

I agree that you cant see 130" deer on you property consistently if you don't make an effort to manage to that goal. If Alabama were to only give us one buck tag per year (I am not for that)you would see this state do exactly what Kentucky did which was start growing bigger deer. Sit back in the bushes and watch Tennessee. They took a step in the right direction again. The new two buck limit is going to make an already good situation great in about 3 years.

Thanks! That's what I have been told

I am glad you northern guys have the potential for a lot of 130" bucks with the right management in place but no amount of management or trigger control is going to make most of the southwest part of the state like that......that being said I would be happy with a bunch of 110" bucks walking around

BigT, I hope you have a fantastic trip and see a brazillion bucks and does and chasin' and fightin' and scrapin' and everything else going on. And I hope you get to see a bunch of bucks from the size you see at your place to 130 and 140 or even bigger, because once you see 'em first-hand it's eye opening.

Best of luck for a safe and fun hunt.

We need a big release of Northern genetics in SW AL!

And, for yelkca280, who says that we don't show trigger restraint in SW AL? Why do you think that we are not allowing bucks to grow to maturity? And, do you REALLY think that only mature 130" bucks are shot in N AL? LOL

For the record, I do not care not one bit what anyone in N AL does, what their Regulations are, what they shoot, etc. Not being an azz.....it just simply does not affect my hunting at all.

You think that would matter? I mean, legitimately, you think bringing x-number of deer from Wisconsin or Kansas or Iowa and releasing them in SW Alabama would in 4-5 years have a significant, legitimate, genetic impact?

Probably not in 4-5 years.
But, short answer, yes!
I definitely feel that it would.