Opinions

Ive got land in east bullock county and also some near troy. The deer in east bullock have the tiniest bodies, 6-7 year old bucks go around 170 lbs. At my place near troy a 6-7 year old buck will go 210-230+. I realize that the amount of agriculture effects things, but is there a different strand of deer DNA that causes this big of a difference. For instance I took my taxidermist a cape from troy this year and he hung it by one killed outside hurtsboro. they were both nice, old bucks. The head on mine was like literally almost double the size. Just curious to what y'alls thoughts on this is.

There is a difference in deer but to say exactly what strain or where they come from, I don't know. There will be people call you crazy for even mentioning this.

Nah man your crazy, any genetic differences have been filtered out by now. They are all the same.... That is what you will hear from this group, Im here to tell you there is a difference. Same reason some areas produce better deer than others.

Yeah I realize some will say I'm crazy and making stuff up lol. But there is definitely something different with the deer.

Your not crazy, I believe there ARE different strains. I think that is why you see different size deer, different ruts timing wise, and even antler size in some cases. I have some very good friends that hunt the southeast part of the state and their deer are different than ours.

I’d say population and habitat are likely the difference. I think the deer density on some properties around Hurtsboro is probably at a level that it’s effecting body weight some. I found a buck for a guy in that area last year that’s body was so small compared to the rack that it made me wonder if it was an escaped high fence deer at first. It was so noticeable that it just immediately jumped out at you when we found it. They could probably stand to shoot a few more deer around there but this is where management becomes a difference in the matter of opinions…….

Would you deem the deer on the Hurtsboro property to be “unhealthy” because they average less body weight? In order to manage properly, is it imperative that you go in and shoot a bunch of does so that your bucks will gain 20 lbs?......or…….Is it ok that the landowner likes to see a lot of deer? Maybe he doesn’t care that the body weight of his bucks are peaked out.

all of us came from the same man , but we are not the same size , so it is with deer ,dogs , cats,etc.

King's right. Deer are like people. Some are just bigger than others. There are guys that are 6'2" and weigh 210, others that are 6'2" and weigh 150 and there are guys that are 5'10 and weigh over 300. Then Shaw rolls up at 4'7" and totally skews the curve.

I'm really sorry Shaw but I couldnt resist the opportunity. Once I started typing it just popped in my head.

That ain't right😂😂

Ok I had a place I leased between 223 and 29 for a few years it was about 1800ac and ate up with deer, hogs and turkeys. I can't remember the numbers of deer and hogs killed per year but it was ridiculous like 50+ deer and 100 hogs. I planted and did the best I could do but I finally gave up and let a friend have it. The reason is to many deer to many hogs and to much paper company land. I own land in the extreme north tip of pike county at my house and the Fitzpatrick area of bullock. The deer from East bullock are tiny compared to those from my house and they are small compared to my Fitzpatrick place. It's really all about food, deer pop and private land vs paper company land and hogs. I could go on forever about this but east bullock is the most over rated area in the state for big bucks because of it's history. Well it ain't like it used to be nor is the hardaway swamp anymore because of one thing more then any other hogs... I don't remember the last deer killed at my house that wasn't over 220# with several over 230. Now Fitzpatrick I not even going there the deer are longer and bigger then my north pike county deer and I'll stop. I also have no hogs on either of my places or around me. I have actually laid out mature bucks from each area to compare them and the leanght is what jumps out with east bullock last by a long ways. Look east bullock has an absolute ton of deer but if killing big body high scoring bucks is your thing it ain't the place anymore. I have tried myself and have helped friends and managed places in that area and it's been the hardest area to manage and see any significant gains and it's getting worse every year.

you are spot on about east bullock. I only hunted it 6-7 times all year. I see just as many deer in pike co. But they're wayyy bigger. I got tired of watching dinky deer. Now there are good ones that get killed. But on average my pike co. Land is much better imo.

Shh! Ain't no deer in Pike county!

No it's just ain't no deer just north of the Lockheed Martin area of pike county. I think they must have tested something and killed them all especially the biguns. Seriously there's some areas in pike county are turning out some good deer year after year. The point that I was making is just because your in bullock county don't mean that your in the meca. I would take north pike county over east bullock without hesitation site unseen but west bullock is a whole different story. You could really break bullock county down like this east overrated because of name my opinion, central bullock good some great properties and west especially the Fitzpatrick area maybe Jackson county can hang and a couple other spots but it's among the top state wide and how bullock county got and keeps it's reputation.

West of union springs has always put out some toads. East bullock is high numbers scrawny size. China grove in north pike and south montgomery and west bullock are the Meccas for number and size in that area of the state.

On the money Forrest but don't be throwing out names like China Grove on an open forum. Never mind my neighbor situation can't get any worse.

I get the opportunity to hunt in Bullock county a couple times a year and I have noticed sizes being smaller. Especially the does

From the North of the country mall to China Grove has been some hosses killed in recent years.

Of course genetics are different. Deer in Alabama rut form November to February. Lots of different strains.

maybe some michigan genes in that pike county herd?

I know the brundige area has a northern strand. Know for a fact. And you can tell by the deer as well.

Pretty interesting topic. I have no experience hunting eastern bullock county, but I do hunt in western Russell county, close to hurtsboro and not too far from the bullock county line. We aren’t dragging out 250 lb bucks but weve killed a few that are 200-220 lbs each of the past few seasons. And killed some 135-140 lb does as well.

Deer don’t know where the county lines are so I’m pretty surprised that eastern bullock is full of scrawny deer but the areas around them tend to be better

Thats Enon/Sehoy area and it's definitely not the east Bullock I was talking about. Anytime you have large land owners instead of paper companies you are going to have a better situation. It ain't as unbelievable as it was when Cam had it all but that area hasn't dropped much. A lot of money still in that area and it's a top area in the state y'all just need to get a handle on hogs around there before they spread and take over.

Who has Sehoy now? Last I heard it was some kind of military style training facility.

Well it's over 1200ac so several folks own it now and the rest of Enon is for sale.

Is TR trying to sale his portion of enon?

Dax, how many acres was in the old Maytag Plantation?

A lot of it is fragmented now into different tracts. The land on the backside of Sehoy Lake is around 2000 acres leased by two guys out of Florida. I went on a track for them that went right down the base of the lake dam. I’ve tracked on the land behind the airport too and it’s a hunting club now. I think they’re mostly guys from around Alabama. Not sure how much land they have there but it seemed like a good bit. The land beside them has a small guide service being operated on probably around 1000 acres. I’ve tracked for them a number of times. There another smaller tract of 400-500 acres on the road going into Enon that’s leased by some local guys now that I’ve tracked for. It's all becoming more fragmented as time goes on.

The old Midway Plantation is leased by a group out of Florida as well now…..something like 4500 acres leased by only a handful of hunters. I’ve tracked for them. To the north of it is Peachburg Plantation and then a couple more tracts leased by guys out of Florida totaling several thousand acres……high dollar hunting clubs. I’ve tracked for both of them on more than one occasion. To the north of them is Down Under Plantation...I think they're like 2500 acres……tracked for them.... Then you’ve got Scottland Landing…..its something like 3000 acres of private land…tracked for them.....then there’s an old man that’s friends with Pat Dye that owns another 1000 acres beside them....and so on and so forth.....

Where are you getting that info from? There's a lot of hearsay that goes around that doesn't match up with the real release records.

http://www.outdooralabama.com/file/2309

CNC, I don't think those records are 100%. I know around 1967 a good friend of mine killed a buck just a couple of miles south of the Barbour Co. Management Area that had an aluminum tag in it's ear that was stamped "Michigan" with some numbers. I don't know where it came from, but they called Mr. Ezell, the then Game Warden in that area, and he told them to carry the tag to the management area office, which they did.

A good friend of mine’s family owns a lot of the property to the north of the management area. He’s always told me that there were deer from Michigan and Texas released around there…..I believe him but the records don’t show that. Maybe the records of restocking aren’t 100% accurate and they didn’t record many releases. I’ve hunted that property as well as another property about 7-8 miles further down 82 toward Eufaula and another property in Seale. They all had slightly different ruts. We saw really early rutting on the Seale property. The rumor that went around that hunting club was always that it was because of "Michigan deer".

I still don’t think that’s the difference in body sizes between the areas being talked about though. I’ll agree that I see a difference too. That last buck I found this season was a Pike Co deer and probably weighed 230-240 lbs. It’s the biggest deer I’ve ever seen. However, I don’t think the deer population on the Pike Co property was anywhere near as high as the Bullock Co properties. The high deer density properties have trails running everywhere that literally look like something you would see in a cattle pasture. You don't see that type deer density on just every property you go to. Also, the Pike Co property was a farm with big hay fields full of clover. Different habitats and different population densities.

A few locals to there. I believe it was actually Michigan if I'm not mistaken. If I remember correctly they were released a few miles east/northeast of there and then spread there.

There’s a record of Michigan deer being released in Butler Co…..I just wonder how much of this stuff we hear from locals and other hunting club members, etc…..is stories that have “evolved” over time if you know what I mean. I imagine some of those first deer wandered off from the original release site and eventually got killed here and there across the county or possibly even farther out. I could see how that could lead to all kinds of variations in stories of “Michigan Deer” that were released and killed. As the years pass, the stories evolve more and more. I guess it’s also plausible though that there may have been deer released that didn’t get recorded on the records we have now.


Is there a noticeable difference in Butler Co where we know for certain that Michigan deer were released?? I’ve never heard of anyone mention anything different about that area.

There were some Michigan deer released down hwy 31 on the butler lowndes Crenshaw line. Around hanoraville ft deposit area.

Genetic traits can certainly remain, but I don't know if you've ever been to Michigan, it's a little different up there...

Excuse me I it's was 12000ac

Sedgefield was 12000+ac also back before it got broke up. Sehoy and Enon was something like 23k or 24kac together

You are right about the hogs. They are about to take over if something isn’t done soon. We killed 30+ in deer season alone. Got a couple of he remote controlled traps in the works right now, hoping to do our part in keeping the numbers down. Hasn’t affected the deer hunting much so far, but obviously more hogs=less food for the deer