Game Check numbers the past few years

This isn't going to be pretty to look at but you can see the comparison. Copied from an excel spreadsheet. Totals are up 10,000 from last year.




Reported Deer Harvest Totals
2018 - 2019 2019 - 2020
County Bucks Does Unknown Total Bucks Does Unknown Total
Autauga 681 528 0 1209 794 611 0 1405
Baldwin 1249 823 0 2072 1568 1136 1 2705
Barbour 1096 999 0 2095 1335 1005 0 2340
Bibb 755 620 1 1376 907 693 0 1600
Blount 388 183 0 571 465 187 0 652
Bullock 1050 1070 2 2122 1086 1158 0 2244
Butler 793 633 0 1426 945 788 0 1733
Calhoun 572 335 0 907 629 405 0 1034
Chambers 678 548 0 1226 657 458 0 1115
Cherokee 713 531 1 1245 845 611 0 1456
Chilton 698 532 1 1231 840 673 0 1513
Choctaw 754 507 1 1262 770 614 0 1384
Clarke 1011 611 2 1624 1046 626 1 1673
Clay 469 277 0 746 510 270 1 781
Cleburne 394 272 0 666 455 225 0 680
Coffee 597 319 1 917 713 376 0 1089
Colbert 584 365 0 949 582 389 0 971
Conecuh 602 542 0 1144 774 631 0 1405
Coosa 932 712 0 1644 1075 744 1 1820
Covington 658 517 1 1176 909 655 0 1564
Crenshaw 659 516 0 1175 922 647 0 1569
Cullman 521 233 1 755 549 322 0 871
Dale 564 321 0 885 701 338 0 1039
Dallas 1266 1330 0 2596 1302 1472 0 2774
Dekalb 655 428 0 1083 805 544 1 1350
Elmore 582 409 1 992 658 457 0 1115
Escambia 686 566 0 1252 841 663 0 1504
Etowah 316 170 0 486 358 203 0 561
Fayette 819 639 0 1458 1023 789 0 1812
Franklin 783 499 1 1283 855 605 0 1460
Geneva 400 197 1 598 483 298 0 781
Greene 572 550 0 1122 579 566 0 1145
Hale 478 418 0 896 514 433 0 947
Henry 892 588 0 1480 1029 652 0 1681
Houston 410 293 0 703 636 379 0 1015
Jackson 1471 848 0 2319 1776 1072 1 2849
Jefferson 486 240 0 726 577 303 0 880
Lamar 860 908 2 1770 1053 994 0 2047
Lauderdale 1006 666 0 1672 1086 665 0 1751
Lawrence 459 155 0 614 537 187 0 724
Lee 598 533 0 1131 613 541 0 1154
Limestone 631 371 0 1002 708 480 0 1188
Lowndes 701 521 0 1222 706 606 0 1312
Macon 726 644 1 1371 780 698 0 1478
Madison 907 616 0 1523 1101 723 3 1827
Marengo 797 398 0 1195 799 521 0 1320
Marion 933 766 0 1699 1060 912 0 1972
Marshall 372 101 0 473 469 176 0 645
Mobile 425 300 0 725 453 343 0 796
Monroe 729 564 0 1293 909 721 0 1630
Montgomery 720 519 0 1239 729 594 0 1323
Morgan 353 157 0 510 443 204 0 647
Not Specified 883 501 13 1397 249 138 2 389
Perry 638 509 0 1147 726 595 0 1321
Pickens 967 796 0 1763 974 863 0 1837
Pike 795 578 1 1374 940 669 0 1609
Randolph 495 343 0 838 552 376 0 928
Russell 997 1012 1 2010 1073 1048 0 2121
Shelby 668 481 0 1149 768 548 0 1316
St. Clair 425 260 1 686 494 319 0 813
Sumter 695 482 0 1177 688 502 0 1190
Talladega 545 375 0 920 743 436 0 1179
Tallapoosa 952 680 0 1632 911 709 0 1620
Tuscaloosa 1108 794 0 1902 1264 887 0 2151
Walker 895 603 1 1499 996 665 0 1661
Washington 634 449 0 1083 760 517 0 1277
Wilcox 882 674 0 1556 1028 692 0 1720
Winston 720 438 0 1158 811 429 0 1240
Season Totals 48750 35363 34 84147 54936 39756 11 94703

Does that mean reporting is catching on or more deer where killed??

I’d say its the reporting. There are still plenty of folk who don’t bother. I know one guy that shot over thirty and didn’t report any.

I mentioned it to him as he left red dirt tracks to the beer cooler then argued with the clerk over an item on his receipt marked “Tax”, which he said he didn’t purchase and ain’t in the bag.

reporting sure as hell ain't up, the kill is WAY up from last year. Just ask ANY processor how this year compared to last year. WAY up.

I have heard the same thing from processors.

So, then, what does THAT mean? Are there more deer? Are deer hunters less selective? Maybe it was weather? I still can't wrap my head around what more dead deer mean.

It means there are more lumbersexuals hunting and using processors. The rest of us quarter and

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/wild-game-recipe-caveman-inspired-roasted-leg-venison/

Well if you look at Dallas and Baldwin Counties, both counties I frequently hunt in, both counties that have a noticeable increase in deer harvested this year than last, both counties had almost no acorns so the deer naturally flocked to food plots. Both counties last year had a great acorn crop. That's my theory anyway. Deer had less food so they had to move more and thus got themselves kilt because of it.

I cant speak for anyone else, but our club killed half as many deer this year as last.

I’m lowering my opinion of % of deer reported after this year. 25% max imo in Lamar and surrounding counties.

I am trying to evaluate this also.
The info seems inconsistent.
And a little odd.
It doesn't make sense that there would be a big jump in deer kills from one year to the next.
Certainly, the reporting does not show such a jump at all.

can ya'll spell C-O-R-N? no one thinks the extreme widespread use of corn skewed the results at all?

It sure as hell wasn't an increase in reporting when every processor I talked to had a huge increase in deer brought in. SOMEBODY was killing them.

Troy you are probably right but I'm just in denial.

LOL

Duh, they're insinuating it's the corn. I don't buy it. I think more people are reporting. Maybe there are less processors out there so every one is getting more? Maybe more people decided to take their deer to processors instead of deal with it themselves? The numbers aren't really that different in Pike county where I hunt - 235 more deer killed pretty insignificant. The fact is nobody knows for sure and it's all just speculation. Going to have to see the numbers year over year after reporting has been in place for a while. So if the number go up again next year, still the corn? What about if they go down?

I hunt in Chambers and there were 111 less deer "reported killed" this year than last.

I have no idea what that means but there's a bunch of land and a bunch of hunting going on around here.

Tried to make it more readable(not sure it worked b/c the text is smaller) and I added a column to show the difference.

Not County had one helluva drop.

Wait i thought Jackson County didn't have no deer 🤣

Guess people finally figured out what county they lived in

Once again I have to ask how in the world can you kill a deer and not be able to tell if it was a male or female? I realize that antlers or lack thereof don't always tell the story but a goober or cooter should.

I think it is a glitch in the system sometimes David.

Looks pretty accurate to me. There are a bunch of counties in East Central AL that don't have chit for deer and the above numbers reflect this. They have a lot of small landowners and someone hunting on every 40 acres.

One county I hunt in where people seem to blast every deer they see.... numbers above would reflect this. It is a top county in either sex kills. Both sex categories. Blast quickly and often.

Another county I hunt in where there seem to be larger clubs that are managed for older age class deer.... above numbers...... They reflect a significant % more bucks killed than does. That's a big assumption at the quality of the deer being shot but the numbers suggest lower doe slaughter and middle of the pack overall numbers. No shortage of deer though. I probably see just as many or more deer in this county as I do the one where hunters shoot anything that comes by.

Looks accurate based on the 5 counties I hunt in. Maybe not in total kills because many hunters don't report and don't ever plan to...... but for sure in product mix.

I don't think there is an increase in reporting. Those that never reported didn't all of a sudden have a change of heart. The hunters that were reporting or were going to report shot more deer would be my guess. Last season we had really unfavorable weather most of the season it was really hot.

I wonder if they will ever publish the Bait License purchased numbers?

Well there are certainly a lot fewer deer processors.
We have had at least two close last year in Montgomery Country that had been in operation
a long time.

It would certainly be considered open public records information, just like total license sales, so someone needs to
send them an open records act request.

A citizen should be able to get at least the basic info by calling and asking, or take it deeper via a formal public records request for total numbers, county breakdown, amount of money and so forth.

What if..... The actual reports were up (to match the processor intake) but the dept heads were not releasing the factual data, for some other reasons?????

The whole thing is a crock. Don't waste time trying to make sense of it. Not bashing just sayin...carry on!

Up because of CORN, CORN, CORN, CORN, CORN. But don't worry that increase didn't impact the herd at all. Making it easier to kill more deer and killing more deer never hurts the herd, it only makes watching and shooting deer less effortless, because hunting is just too hard!

Not everywhere

Counties I hunt look accurate, but we killed fewer deer on both places this year. That said, EVERY time I went to processor deer were laying everywhere. We probably saw fewer deer ( club legal bucks by our club standards) this year than the last couple. We DID NOT bait during season; not sure about our neighbors kill totals or mature buck sightings. we are pretty sure they baited all season long. All members both places I hunt reported their deer. I can think of 8 members between both places that did not shoot any deer.Most do not want to shoot does, and two missed what they said were big bucks. 3 of the 8 did not hunt at all last season.

I felt like deer numbers were up a bit in my neighborhood and corn did make them easier to see.
Going to do a “survivors inventory” here in the next week.
I know a lot of does and young deer survived the gauntlet. Just not sure about shooter bucks.