I've thought of that too.

I was very much against the buck limit because I thought it would completely change hunting in AL and would accomplish nothing. If we just had to do something to protect yearling bucks, I thought the way to do it was to make the Barbour co AR statewide. On our place, that would protect nearly all the 1.5s and make all the older ones legal. It wouldn't be trophy management at all, and no paperwork would be needed. Of course, it didn't happen.

My perception is that baiting has resulted in a lot more deer being killed. As already mentioned by many, small landowners can bait deer and kill a bunch, when they couldn't before. Repealing this would result in fewer deer being killed if that is the goal. I don't expect it to happen because the dcnr is making money, and that's the point. Deer are just the main product that they sell.

I think the cameras are having the most effect on the biggest bucks. If a deer lives on a big hunting club, every member knows he is there and targets him, and someone is likely to kill him. I don't know if that will hurt the deer herd any, but fewer 3.5s become 4.5s and even fewer live beyond that. On the other hand, those deer are mature so why shouldn't someone harvest them?

I posted years ago that I didn't like what cameras were doing to deer hunting and didn't find many who agreed. I was mainly talking about the fact that they seemed to be bringing out the worst in hunters; don't think that has changed. Getting a lot of pictures of a big buck gives you the sense that he is your deer, and it's naturally disappointing if someone else kills him.

Since there is little chance of repealing baiting, the state had better cut way back on the number of doe days or some places are not going to have any deer. The places with a lot of small landowners need more limits from the state than the places controlled by large landowners and clubs. I am fortunate to be surrounded by a couple of large hunting clubs who do a great job of management. They have more restrictions than the state, so state restrictions don't really matter.