I'd like to see buck rule changed to 4 or 5. Game check shows more bucks than doe in Shelby so I think the doe harvest needs to be 3 per Hunter.

I don’t like government regulation at all. That being said I would like for my son to still be able to deer hunt when he’s my age. There’s a lot of folks in this state that just kill, kill, kill and they’re convinced that they’re not hurting anything because some other guy only kills one deer per year. I would much rather see hunters get organized and cull themselves than more government regulation but the fact is there’s a lot of bubbas who are just going to do whatever they want and screw everyone else.

Thank you! The worst part is that there have been several examples in Georgia that could have forecasted what was coming for Alabama (south East and east Central region)….Worth County Ga in the 90s, and Randolph County Ga in the late 90s and 2000s. Both were “hot spots” in the state and experienced similar issues (liberal harvest, rapid pine/timber harvest, ag reduction, and unchecked lease practices). Worth County has seen a turnaround but it has taken 25 years. Randolph county is still struggling. It’s taken its toll here.

Flip the script and change the "messaging"

Limit the doe harvest. Plenty of methods for this. Personally I would like to see us go back to doe days. It worked then, it will work now.

Not having a season that is a third of a year would likley help

This would be a good place to start changing that messaging.......

If you look at that chart Swampy posted you’ll see that prior to the doe killing we were averaging killing about 225-250K bucks per season. Then we ramped the doe killing up and the number of bucks being killed drastically declined to about half that number….. That’s when they enacted the 3 buck limit to try and divide up the fewer deer. Why?.....Because we drastically reduced the overall population and there wasn’t as many for folks to kill anymore…..and we are still on a slow downward trend….We’re at 88K bucks killed right now and will be lucky to make it to 100K by seasons end so extend your yellow line on out to current day and you’ll see we’ve trended further downward.

CNC, the Alabama estimated deer population was 1.6 mil in 1998

If I remember correctly the unlimited anterless season started in 1996-1997 season.

This is exactly why I want to kill some spikes and not kill doe's.

Something needs to be done in my opinion. Just not sure what the answer is. We have heavily managed a 600 acre tract for 8-9 years now. LOW density area, around 15-20 deer/sq mile when we got it. We haven’t shot a doe on the property the entire time we’ve had it. There MIGHT be 30 deer on that sq mile now. We did have sone pine wastelands but thinning has significantly helped those areas (thinned last winter).

We can’t really do much else.

That's again why. If I got 30 deer, I don't need more than a couple bucks to breed the doe's.

Lockjaw I would shoot every buck I saw and encourage everyone of you 30 hunters to do the same . I agree that will definitely help your deer population. Why not get 10 new members to help.

10 would be a good start but I think another 20 members would really help those #’s shine.

I agree. If you want better numbers you just gotta kill all the bucks. Then your doe numbers will start growing dramatically

I wish we would go to 2 bucks and 3 does a year but it will never happen.

You know you guys are in one camp. Don't shoot doe's. I have no ability to control members until I hold the lease. Already said I needed less.

However if what I'm saying is really true which is I have more bucks than doe's, then what possible benefits is there to keep all the bucks? I don't need 30 bucks consuming resources that doe's could consume. I don't that many to breed my doe population either.

So rather than smart off, why not say why? If I was overpopulated with doe's you would be telling me to shoot some, so why is that ok but not with an overpopulation of bucks?

This is not the plural form of this word.