4 month season for 3 bucks

OK here's what I get from many on Aldeer. We want fewer to no does killed and we want 4 months, or more to kill 3 little ol bucks.

sounds about right

I don't understand why folks get so torn up about it. If you like it...hunt. If you don't like it...don't hunt. I don't see the problem with it. Some people just want to make a big deal out of nothing....

Chuck, that you?

On the studies you have read about hunting the post rut, what was the researchers take on the extra stress on the deer when they are at their ",weakest" point?

Hell they are still rutting...........

Mmm Hmmm.

Lets all get refreshed on Chuck's statement at the CAB meeting when it was voted on. It was something to the effect that he would support whatever the board decides , but it wasn't sound management to extend it in NA.( Several of his very on biologist were vocal against it, BTW. ) Knowing all along he had just cut a deal to support it if they'd give him Chucky check. Then he takes the show on the road statewide and makes it sound justified. Pitiful!

If that is the arguing point that you are going to make....why aren't all trying to get squirrel, rabbit, coon and other hunting seasons closed?

I am not aware of studies done on those other game animals. We are talking deer so let's get that done first then we can move on. What was the researchers take on the extra stress of hunting post rut? I know the answer, just seeing if you have any knowledge of the subject you speak of.

Hows about shooting bucks that have cast antlers for does?

The thing that really bothers me is we, as sportsman, should always put the welfare of the game ahead of the hunters wants. In other words, someone who says if you dont like it, don't hunt is not being a sportsman. We have to take care of the game. Does limits do it? Yes. Does no night hunting do it? Yes. Does GC? I can't make the corrulation. I have no problem with the hunters hunting into Feb. In the north zone. But we should make sure the deer are ok with it.

3 bucks and 3 does total limit. Close the season till 23rd of Dec and hunt till Feb 20, all weapons. If small gamers want to hunt during that time they can lease their own tracts of land.

I agree with the fewer to no does part, but where I hunt it would take way longer than 4 months to kill three “mature” bucks. That’s why I don’t have unrealistic goals lol.

Your dates sound good for LA, not for Hillbilly land though.

Agreed, but why is it so hard for the State to be managed in zones like so many other states?

Well T, lets use Chucks own words, " It's laziness".

Enlighten us with your vast amount of knowledge and then you can explain how someone tromping thru the woods deer hunting puts more stress on a deer than someone who is tromping thru the woods trying to kill a squirrel, rabbit, etc. Besides, a deer doesn't know the difference between someone toting a .22 and someone toting a .270. I can't believe there is a bit of difference. Again....if someone doesn't like, they don't have to participate. There is not a rule saying that you have to hunt those 10 days in Feb.

One thing squirrel, coon and other small game brings in no money not many even care about it like they did years back. There's no difference in tromping thru said woods with a 22 or 270 or tromping thru filling up feeders,scouting or running trail cameras. The deer pattern us better than we do them, they watch us come and go they can set their clocks by us. Pressure has increased by ten fold in the last few years. We are lazy, look at how we hunt now days and I'm as guilty as the next. Do I like the 4 months not for North Bama it was added to appease those who were crying about why can they have it and not us. Or it could have been because it's easier to have the state all on one plan.

You have a valid point

The small game comment was just in response to the other person using stress as a valid reason to not have the extra 10 days that we have now. If someone is going to use stress as a reasoning to bash the extra 10 days, why not go the extra mile to keep all extra activity to a minimum?

10-4 gotcha

So deer whisperer, are you going to talk to the deer for us and ask them if they are ok with it?
There is always that one person that wants to tell everyone else how/when to hunt.

You ain't been paying attention. It was a backroom deal with the high fence element on the CAB to get the extension in exchange for passing Chucky check.

I agree we should definetly make sure the deer are ok with it first.😂

Show me where I said that. I say be sportsman and put the game first.Now, why did our state biologist go against it? I'm only quoting or paraphrasing what biologist have/are saying, in and out of state. But, there are always the ones who has never done any research into that knows more than the ones who do.

And if you are agreeing with a Teague, well, that should be your first clue. That " i have no problems with the hunters hunting into Feb. In the north zone" really was just too much for you at one time.

Yea, that was suppose to be deer herd.

Let the damn biologist do their conception studies and let them decide when we hunt, and what we kill, instead of some arrogant asswhipe or some dumbass rednecks. It needs to be based on facts not someone's opinion. Me personally, I think the season is way too long.

That's all I ask for. I don't care if season is open until May. Make sure the deer herd can take it and respond quickly to any hiccups. If we are not going to follow biologist recommendations, which we didnt, the hunters have to step up and just do the best you can on finding out it the extension is ok. And that involves reading past studies, how this state has shifted and why, and your own visual opinion. Just don't hunt blindly, but try to understand the results of every trigger squeeze.

I think we should go back to conservative doe days and let the rough side drag………Why can’t we just manage does conservatively across the board and let the populations be a little more vibrant?. Giving folks the freedom to shoot anything they want to at any given time doesn’t really do any good if there’s no opportunities…..meaning no deer. I just don’t think we’re gonna get wildly overpopulated on a state level now that yotes have moved in so heavily. Sure, going this route may cause a small handful of people to have to get extra doe tags through a DMAP….. but that’s a much better problem to have that what we’ve got now.

Harold, i'm all for that if that's what the scientific evidence support's. Problem is, people who have zero training in how to study deer population controls and conception studies are not the one's who should be deciding. People hunt a piece of property and shoot everything they see, and the deer get educated, and they stop seeing the deer in the same places, like food plots or where they've had a stand for 10 years and they think the deer are all gone, when what it really is, is they've educated the deer and they're avoiding those area's. Hunter sightings are one of the worst tools you can use to evaluate deer density's.

You get it.

If you wanta make big changes , why have a team of biologist and not follow their recommendations. Well it's OK I suppose if we get GC out of it. I see a bunch of irony in that whole deal. It'll be OK because Bubba will get to hunt more. .

There’s a term called maximum sustainable yield. It’s the amount that can be killed and the population still remain stable from year to year. Kill more than that and the population decreases. Kill less than that and there’s the possibility that the herd could increase…depending on other predators. Where should we manage…..running a deficit….trying to keep the population stable……or trying to grow it? I think the only thing we REALLY have to worry about is insuring that we’re not running a deficit across huge swaths of the state. That’s what the 2 a day doe slaughtering did for us. A slightly more conservative doe harvest would balance things better though for most folks. We could slightly under harvest does and be ok. Again, I don’t think very many places are gonna grow wildly out of control anymore with yotes present. It’d be a small percentage of the whole. However, slightly overharvest year after year and populations will decrease. You don’t have to know that we killed 84,034 deer or 75,873……..you just need to makes sure we’re not running a deficit…. Slightly more conservative doe days would do that I believe. That's way simpler than the micro management that's trying to be done now.

I agree with most of what you said, thing is no one forced people to shoot 2 does a day. How many people actually shot 2 does a day, and how many times per season did they do that? I can only think of twice that I did that, and it was for a buddy who wanted some meat.

Go back to the doe day system, but not during the rut. If you're overpopulated, join DMAP. Make it archery only during the rut.

More does and more older age class bucks for everybody.

We used to kill about 10 doe a year off 300 acres, and never seem to make a dent. We have fewer members now and usually there are only 3-4 killed during bow season. Rarely do we shoot one during gun season. I can't tell any difference. Our club is really thick and has changed, habitat wise over the last few years. Area's that were real thick, have opened up and area's that were open have thickened up. We are having to re-evaluate our hunting strategies and stand sites.

I was in my early twenties when they were really pushing the hardest for everyone to shoot does and opened it up to 2 per day all season. I had just moved to south Alabama and got in a club on the Macon/Russell county line where the landowner specifically asked for everyone to shoot a bunch of does. The biologist said we needed to kill 100 from about 2000 acres....or at least that's what we were told... I killed 13 one year…..12 the next and something like 9 the third year……It wasn’t just me though…..Lots of people started hammering does back then. You can go back and look at the harvest numbers from the survey from years past and see the big increase in doe harvesting. It has declined now but I suspect a lot of that is due to decreased opportunity for many folks….Lots of areas just couldn’t sustain it.

My question, Harold, is were the harvest numbers down because the doe numbers were drastically reduced, or were the harvest numbers down due to people putting so much pressure on the doe's that they became as smart as mature bucks and were not as easy to kill. I would think both. A lot of people I know just don't shoot doe's anymore. They shot the crap out of them when it first became legal and after years of doing that the new wore off and they just stopped shooting very many at all. It also could be a combination of slaughtering the does and coyotes killing a lot of fawns. Bottom line, is I have no idea what is going on. Only opinions. I haven't seen any drop in deer numbers where I hunt.

You left out processors cost causing folks to practice trigger restraint. Really though, the reasons for people not killing more deer is probably just individual to the person.

Here’s one thing interesting about the hunting club I was talking about where I shot all the does. It’s an old hunting club that has been in existence since the 70’s. They had their yearly kill totals recorded on a wall on the inside of the clubhouse dating all the way back the beginning. They had actually killed some pretty hefty totals over the years. Some years killing well over 100 deer total……Seems like they killed 130 one year….I think the biggest monkey wrench though was coyotes moving in more heavily during the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The biologist that recommended killing 100 does may have been right to say that a decade prior……but not after the yotes moved in. We put the double whammy on them.

I think doe harvest numbers are down today for a couple reasons..........lack of as much opportunity due to decreased population.....as well as the mindset of many hunters beginning to change back to the old ways of thinking.