The only conclusion I can draw thus far is about the folks hunting SE AL... them boys down there love to kill a doe at the tail end of the season.... why'd they wait till January? The dern rut is on like neck bone down there and what happens.... the doe blasting goes through the roof? Whut?
I don't think what we are feeding them has anything to do with that that's just trigger control. Where's all the spikes and 4 pointers fellas? Where'd you get that blood on your Jeans Shorts? ..... C'Mon Man!
Florida hunters are who I'm blaming there's a bunch in that area. We need to move this discussion over to the FLDeer message board and see what they've got to say for themselves..
FL hunters dont have anything on Alabama hunters, as far as the killing every deer they see goes, and especially not on the LA boys that ride over to hunt the SW side of the state. I had two LA boys one year on a big lease I had, and they were super great guys, funny as all get out, but they were a bunch of deer killing fools. They shot something every time they went in the woods and when they cleaned a deer, every bone on it was glistening white. Not even enough meat left on a rib to attract ants. My lab, when I would bring her up, used to love to grab a deer leg and run around chewing on it. When those boys pulled into the skinning shed, she didnt even bother walking back there. She knew every shred of meat, gristle and sinew, was going in that big cooler. They'd bring 120 quart coolers and leave every weekend with them full. It was time to go home when the lid on the cooler would no longer close. LOL.
We had a group like that when I was in the big lease. I appreciated them doing the work the rest wouldn’t do.
We had so many hunters claiming they were killing too does when in fact our population was continuing to grow. Fortunately we had the habitat to support and protect a growing herd.
On 5000 acres we would kill 50-55 deer with 30-40 being does. A few years we killed a few more deer overall, yet half the hunters thought we were killing too many does. Perspective is a funny thing coming from each individual. We had browse lines from the front to the back. Greenfields were eaten down and had guys saying the fields just weren’t growing and needed fertilizer. Of course that changed when each field ended up with an exclusion cage. Cost the club some money but those thoughts went away.
I was always intrigued by how each group of hunters expressed differing sightings and thoughts than other groups. One group would only see does, another only bucks. One group would see small bucks rubbing huge cedar trees and we had no mature bucks. Yada yada yada
I mean the list goes on and on when research has shown numerous old wives tells to be just that.
I was in that club for 14 years and we experienced a huge die off from blue tongue in 2006? and deer sighting never checked up. I was so concerned when I was finding all those dead deer that late summer and fall. I called friends that were biologist and was told it seas bad all over the south and thruout Midwest.
I figured it happened locally because we’d gained so much in population that caused more deaths. Less numbers would’ve had deer more spread out maybe?
I’m not denying killing too many does will happen, of course it happens.
I’ve just seen so many hunter preconceived ideas get squashed by research and especially gps studies. I don’t know if they’re as easily accessed as when I was in QDMA and biologist would link research papers in the forums. Haven’t been there in years. Noticed they rebranded I’d assume from all the backlash. 😝
