Fact is the DCNR is trying to figure out new streams of revenue cause the legislature is coming with an ax this year. If you really want to help out the DCNR and hunting in Alabama then vote against any politician who supports taking funding from the DCNR.

just how many of us are killing deer off your property?

same in the area i hunt bigt .

End the debate. One buck a year per hunting license and make processors verify kill confirmation numbers from the state. This will make AL deer hunting better all the way around.

Cheaters, Liers and Thieves will be as such no matter what system is put in place.

I say mandate the processors and I disagree with just about everything ole skiguy is saying. But the doe harvest is not sustainable long term and anybody who believes it is needs there head examined.

i rather see we hunters mandated before they are .

This thread continues to blow my mind. I would've never thought there were so many folks on aldeer that thought the government could manage anything better than individuals and the private sector. There is no one size fits all solution which is what we are going to get. Individual landowners and lessors need to be the ones making management decisions, not the government.

I am not sure anyone is saying the government can manage somethings better than personal trigger control and land/herd management. I think what this really boils down to is some people(me included) would like to see some changes that help the LEO do their job busting criminals who are stealing from everyone.

I don't see the harm in having a physical/hard to duplicate tag so that people that want to cheat the system will have a harder time than printing off a new blank form. Will it stop all law breaking, absolutely not. Heck, may end up getting more people in trouble. But if you follow the law, and are honest, it shouldn't bother you.

Now, some of these arguments in this thread are WAY OFF BASE.

Additional laws, tags, ect will do nothing to help bust criminals. There are existing laws that prevent over harvest, poaching, night hunting, and so on. Until the government has the personnel and budget to enforce the existing laws, new regulations will serve no purpose.

I'm with you that they need more boots on the ground but I just don't understand everyone getting all up in arms over say a more realistic tagging system. Something like they use in the midwest. If you are following the law now, really would not be much change on your end.

I just filled mine out. I see no problem checking in a deer by smart phone. Beats the 20 mile drive to a gas station I was used to growing up so some kid wrote a tag from the counter.

I think the smart phone app , with a optional phone call in .. I think the system should generate a number for your deer . I think processors should be required to obtain this number .. That way you could get fairly accurate population numbers year after year . Then you could make a good determination if numbers are declining in the area and you could adjust regukations as needed. Also since the system generates a number for the hunter on his deer and the system would get that number from the processor you would have a close estimate as to how maby deer are being processed at home. This would be a way to impose minimal regulation, and give the DCNR valuable information , at a very afforable price . Local wardens would get with the local processors and make sure they were keeping records .. Simple.

Sad thing is this could be done without mandates, if people really cared about preservation. I like loose harvesr regs , but it's not sustainable in a lot of areas .. I think this mandate though should provide good enough info to localize regulations by county .

This should be a simple mandate . Maybe have the processors pay a very small fee yearly , say 10 bucks .. They register with DCNR and provide there address . Get a permit to process.. All processors who process deer for profit, would turn there harbest number records over ( not there financial records) yearly and it would be kept in a computer and backed up based on county. All individual information should be erased at this point. We dont want expanded gov mandates in the future imposing unnecasary mandates at a later time . A very small secretarial exspense. Game wardens could enforce with 1 unexpected yearly visit, 2 at the most, so as not to harass processors, as some ahole game wardens could harass processors in an area and then it would lead to consequential problems. the law should be that your deer must be called in before it is processed . As far as poaching goes , it's a battle we will always fight . I advocate for harsher penalties .

What happens if there is no coverage where you hunt or don't have a smart phone. Before you move your deer, you have to drive to town?

Why can't they contact the processors now and get there numbers of processed deer? Every processor I have been to knows exactly hype many they have processed. They may not have all of the data they would like to get, but are they using way they can get now?

Ehhh, forget deer for the next 8 months, they'll be back.
I spend too much time worrying about it and I'm glad it's almost over.

In our electronic age this seems like an unlikely possibility, but there still are places in Alabama and elsewhere in the Southeast (and US) where you definitely do not have cell service.

I know of one spot in southwest Alabama that is 18-20 miles from good, reliable service. I'm sure there are places in Jackson and Dekalb counties where service is bad. So if you're at a camp there for the weekend, Thursday night through Sunday evening, are you going to drive 10-15-20 miles to make a 3-minute TeleCheck deer registration beep-boop-beebop on the phone and then drive back to camp?

No. You're going to ignore it, or you're going to do it on the way home. That's when a 48-hour window to report is necessary instead of 24 hours.

Would that give a guy time to skin, cut up, package and freeze the meat? Sure, some would do that and not report. If they got stopped-checked, they'd say it was in the freezer and they needed to get it out to take home. But those are the same guys who probably wouldn't report anyway.

But a 48-hour window would be better IMO for a telecheck system.

You will have 48 hours to record your kill. You can do it online or by phone. I think there is also a mail in option. There is no cost associated with the mandatory check-in.

Are you with the DCNR?

And how do you know this is a finality?

Again, with another post in this thread, it appears someone knows this already is a done deal and the survey and "public input" is just a dog-and-pony CYA move.

If the above is true then it does nothing to foster any goodwill and merely is for show. Guess we'll find out in February at the CAB meeting.

I hope that's not the case. Dictatorial moves by public officials is not something the hunting public takes lightly.

There are plenty of areas in Alabama without cell coverage. Check out this coverage map for T-Mobile. Even with Verizon and AT&T if you look at the maps there are holes. T-Mobile has large holes and they serve a lot of customers. It doesn't seem that unlikely to me.

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage-map.html?icid=WMM_TM_CVRGMPEVRG_RQZ41N6NRP3896

I am not a fan of another thing to remember to do but a 48 hour window would be more reasonable. Still not a fan of it at all.

I assume they would keep the hand written harvest record as well to keep people honest until they call in. SMDH.