I hunted that area 35 years ago. People were hunting with the 'if its brown it's down' management technique and it really decimated the herds in the eighties and nineties. When we first started hunting there you would see doe groups of 12-15 every time and just a few years later you only saw mothers with one or two fawns together. We had a 2800 acre club and were killing 100-120 deer a year on the property.

In the 70s and early 80s the black belt was the only areas I know of that had high density. As a state it seems the populations are much more fairly distributed. Almost every county has an area that most of us would consider “high density”.

Yep..guntersville state park...very high density..fine place to hunt

Didn’t the state park go through some major changes over the last couple decades as a result of that unchecked deer density?

I would guess that is an unsustainable long term plan.

It completely depends on the habitat and how its managed long term as to what is sustainable…..The amount of forage and cover will be what dictates how many deer any given property has the potential to hold…..Maximizing understory vegetation by allowing sunlight to reach the ground across as much of the property as possible is how you go about reaching the properties full potential….Areas where I track deer that have the highest population densities are those that receive 90-100% sunlight reaching the ground. These areas also have the successional growth reset every few years using fire. There are other tools as well for resetting succession like mob grazing cattle. This method promotes more fertile soil conditions long term than fire and therefore increases the potential for even greater population densities of wildlife. Both are acceptable tools for management though.

I appreciate everyone's comments and helpful insights. Good discussion!

Stay as far away from Blount county as you can. No deer or turkeys here.

I am in no way being sarcastic...marshall county is a worthless void...do not waste time or money here if you wantin somethin to hunt...ducks..mehh...fish yes..deer an turkey..waste of recources..an it will only get worse

No deer down here. Nothing to see....move along.

Same thing, same area, slightly more acreage. It honestly needed it for a period of time (at least the place I was on did). When we took it over, weights were way down, with mature does weighing only around 85-90 lbs. Visible browse line head high across the entire place. They were like cockroaches. We hammered them for the first 3 years, shooting around 150/yr. Planted pretty much everything that was wide enough to get a disk down. The avg doe weights jumped up to about 115 and then we backed way off and maintained killing roughly 50 does per year off it. The more we planted, the more deer we would suck in off the neighbors. Like you're saying, it was nothing to see 30+ deer pretty much every sit. I can remember one afternoon watching a 40 acre cutover and had somewhere close to 50 deer in it at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Hunted several times as a guest on a 15,000 acre very exclusive lease that adjoined the Boykin's private place there in Washington County west of HWY 43. I've seen 120+ deer at one time in a 30 acre field, several times on that place. That was back in 88-89. The only thing that outnumbered the deer on that place were the turkeys. It was absolutely unreal.

I see yall stingy heffers kilt all the deer for ize born...preeshyateit😁

Yer welcum.

My hunting partner and I have hunted together for 32 years, literally since we were kids. We've moved around a lot trying to stay on high quality land and some of the areas that stand out for sheer numbers of deer in all of those years are as follows:
1) A 1200ac lease of Buchanan land we had off of 41 between Portland Landing and Elm Bluff.
2) A 1600ac lease of private ground we had between Myrtlewood and Marengo County 17. Hwy. 69 split our lease. Hogs on the river side, none on the east side. Tremendous numbers of deer there. Had 22 in bow range on a water oak flat at one time, came away from that encounter with nothing. Too many eyes on me to get a shot.
3) A 2500ac lease of private ground in Macon County on Caleebee Creek, just north of Hardaway. Swamp Chestnuts in the bottoms and white oaks on the ridges. That land never disappointed. Had to have a pair of waders to hunt it after November, but there were tons of deer and some real bruisers in there. Hunted 75 days one season and killed 13 deer with my bow.
4) Cahaba River bottom around Suttle. Hunted there a couple of years ago and saw deer most every sit. Water oaks line the river on the east side of the river with pine plantations on the west side. Watched a bunch of them swim over to our side to hit the water oaks. Never saw a hog on the place.

Just my experiences in these areas. I'm sure there are other spots far better that we haven't had the opportunity to hunt.

The closest place to B'ham is down past Tuscaloosa in West AL. Greene and surrounding counties. Easy to get there you can drive it same day. High deer density and good genetic potential.

Many of the counties that people would traditionally think are still the mecca for deer hunting are a far cry from what they were 20-40 years ago. They are like Allbarn football coming off a National Championship and going 8-5. The agriculture is long gone and they are still living off the stories of big deer from the 70's and early 80's when 1/2 the county was in Soybeans. That's been long gone. Other areas of the State are better for genetics either way.

Of course your worst nightmare is investing money and a ton of time into 40 acres only to have a pack of doe killers move in by leasing a piece of property nearby and blasting everything they see. That happens with regularity.

Wasn't many spots better than the Portland/Hit and Miss area back in the 70's

We hunt in the Tallapoosa River area, and we are loaded with deer.