Yeah, Matt likes killing big bucks too much to ever agree or vote for just a one buck limit. You can be rest assured he's not on board with that train of thought.

I'm doing my hunting primarily in TN now. It just makes more sense given the short distance I am to better deer populations and wildlife management in general. I'll hunt a few times in Alabama once the TN season is over and the rut kicks in here. The last 5 years of hunting the areas of Alabama I had been hunting nearly drove me insane and definitely proved we have a DCNR out of touch with actual deer numbers and appropriate management plans to help with that. I'll even take it a step further to say that antler restrictions in Alabama are still not restrictive enough.

You're 100% correct but you get the point that I was making. Charles protected the does to the extreme as the herd was getting re-established and long after the population exploded. The herd could have handled a limited doe harvest long before he actually allowed the first ones to be killed. If I remember right, it was a doe day or maybe just a couple days in the initial years, then I think it went to a full week for legal doe harvest. With him at the helm, it absolutely would never have gone to Oct 15th to Feb 10th as the open doe season. Troy, Matt and Nighthunter probably know the allowed harvest progression far better than I can remember.

Good to know. Thanks for setting me straight.

I read this and see that most are in favor of limited killing of does. But I wonder how many does are killed by those in favor of limited does being killed just because the law says you can. I guess what I am asking is do you practice what you preach?

Makes about as much since as a 3 bird limit for turkey season!

I believe that I should kill more does, but I'm too lazy to drag, gut and dress em out

I too used to focus the majority of my hunting in Alabama too (hunted almost everyday I had off) until thanks to the lack of hands on management the State let the deer population get pummeled where I hunt. It now makes more sense to me to drive 8 hours to a State that has much better deer numbers. I hunted less than a dozen times in Alabama last even though I live on 96 acres and lease 1500 acres. There is a good chance I will hunt even less here this year. My hunting enjoyment has less to do with killing alot of bucks, but more with actually seeing deer so with the current direction the State is taking I doubt my hunting will increase any for a long time in this State. Hell I used to love taking guest and new hunters to the woods, but not now because chances are they are not even going to see a deer.

I haven't killed a doe in over 15 years and have never killed one with a gun ever. So yes I practice what I preach.

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I haven't killed a doe in over 15 years and have never killed one with a gun ever. So yes I practice what I preach. [/quote]

And you still don't have any deer?? Sounds like the game laws are not the problem then, you got other problems.

And you still don't have any deer?? Sounds like the game laws are not the problem then, you got other problems.[/quote]
My killing of does has zero to do with what is being killed around me, but yes predators have become just as much a problem as people that have no trigger control the last couple of years.

The good thing I guess is with fewer and fewer people hunting around here eventually the deer population will recover

And there is a lot less illegal deer hunting of all types. No more night hunting or shooting from the road with nothing to shoot at. What I thought I would see with a lower population would be larger bucks. I can't say about body weights because we never weighed them in the past but they appear about the same. Antler size has shown no significant change.

We have been weighing and pulling jawbones on our deer for over 20 years. The net result of having a lot less deer is having a lot less deer lol, but seriously the body weights are up slightly, but as far as bucks just a lot less them killed while the antler size has stayed the same. The deer in South Alabama were never held back from a lack of food with the mild winters there has always been plenty of browse for the deer. So without nutrition being a limiting factor it was basically genetics and age hence any South Alabama lease that already had trigger control on their bucks then the liberal doe harvest that was pushed by the State and biologists only served as a detriment to the hunting experience with zero upside.......hindsight is 20/20.