I don’t really care what biologist or qdma says, I’ve hunted a lot of properties in Alabama, and if you told me to pick 3 places that I felt most confident I could hunt for a week in the rut and kill a 125+, all three places that come to mind, have a lot of deer. Like double digit sightings a majority of the time. Those places also have very few deer killed, one place hasn’t had does killed since 1987. That place, you might see 30 deer on a good sit, maybe only 3 or 4 bucks, but your liable to see a mature deer just about every day. I just have never seen a positive correlation to drastically reducing your does and having better “big buck” hunting in the future years. It’s always been the opposite .
This has been my experience as well. I hunted as a guest with some 80+ yo fellas on 500 ac a few yrs back, they shot NO does and it was that way for years. The does didn't even pay attention to you. It was some of the best hunting I ever had experienced. Saw almost 30 deer in 4 hrs almost every time I hunted with them and multiple mature bucks. Say what you want, I don't care what books and experts say, I know when I was a chasing buck, I looked for where the ladies were at and the more the better.
It's like shooting hen turkeys and wondering where all the turkeys have gone and why their numbers are down.
