In order to improve the age structure, we have to get large quantities of bucks back into the 3+ yr old age classes. To do that, buck harvest has to be cut way back or it will take forever to accomplish. According to the study Matt posted about, 40% of bucks will not make it to 5 yrs old, even if not a single buck is killed by hunting. It's nothing more than a statistical and math problem. Based on that, I'd say 0.40 or less would be good......0.41 - 0.60 decent.....0.61 - 0.75 would be an improvement over where we are. Anything between 0.76 and 0.85 would be much better than what is happening currently but you'd still be losing ground every year with regard to improving age structure. Problem is....which bucks are the easiest to kill? Those 1-3 yr olds six and eight points that are still young and dumb. If you have a 120 day season to hunt, and the majority of your buck harvest is almost completely wiping out most of your younger age classes of bucks, your recruitment rate into the older age classes is always going to be negligible. Alabama needs to drastically reduce the harvest of those 1-3 yr old bucks (which probably make up 75-80% of the current bucks harvested in the state) by 50-75%, for a 4-5 yr period at least, in order to give them a chance to make it into those older classes, and remember that 40% of them still will not make it to 5, even if they do not catch a bullet or arrow. Alabama's herd management, season length and regulations have really screwed things up within the state and it is going to be painful to fix. Personally, I do not think that it is possible to fix it at this point without a major culture change among the hunting population, and I know that it is not fixable with Chuckie in charge (he's way more interested in maximizing revenue and playing politics than the health of our deer and turkey) and the appointed CAB, making decisions about wildlife regs, instead of the degreed, boots on the ground, wildlife biologists like Matt Brock and others who really should be the shot callers on regs and management of the herd..
