I know I am going to probably take a beating on grammar and punctuation but, I have been reading these forums on aldeer and everyone seems to be very knowledgeable. I have hunted in Autauga county and Elmore county for the last 25 years and have recently started hunting in lowndes county as well. I am no trophy hunter but, I have killed several good bucks over the years. My question is since baiting has become legal why have the body weights of the bucks dropped off by about 20 pounds. The antlers have gotten better but, I used to shoot bucks 175 to 205 pounds and now a mature 8 point and even an 11 point weighed 150 and 160 pounds respectively and I have not seen a buck brought in to any of our camps over 160 pounds. Any ideas or input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Sounds like the natural vegetation they eat all summer is getting less available. Or you have more deer competing for the same amount of food. Unless y’all are feeding protein in large amounts feeding doesn’t affect weight that much.

You can’t compare individual body weights to previous years, but you can look at trends with many data points. If the trend is that the average of all bucks in the same age class has decreased then one of two things is happening. One, the habitat quality and quantity of available natural browse has decreased OR the population has exceeded what the habitat can healthily support.

I have seen the exact opposite on nearly every property I hunt or assist with management. Not due to corn, but habitat quality and the wet spring and summer we had. It led to excellent herbaceous growth and deer were in great condition heading into fall. High acorn production in most places kept them healthy and this led to some of the highest body weight averages , and individual body weights I’ve seen recorded in a long time.

Also, timing of harvest can factor into body weights on bucks. A 200 lb buck in mid December May weigh 165-170 in mid to late January. A 175 in December will weigh 150 or less right now.

Sir I totally understand that about timing the problem that confuses me is the bucks this year were sot in late December early January and the heavier ones in the past couple years were late January I know they usually run down quite a bit after rutting for a month or so. Thank you for all the input so far

Sir,
Thank u for the information and perspective. I guess in my ignorance I assumed the supplemental feeding would increase the weights of the deer we harvest. Going to try to add some serious spring food plots and see what affect it has in next couple years. I love to hunt and love to eat deer. I have always been more impressed with size and weight of deer than antlers. Thanks again for input.

I bet "supplemental feeding" is a very small component of a deer's total caloric intake.

In studies supplements only add 1-2% to average antler scores in deer that have dietary options and although I can’t recall the increase in body weights it’s not what you’d think. Deer spend more time eating natural vegetation when given the option. If it’s not available then they’ll eat all the feed you can provide. Don’t forget people have been feeding deer in AL for decades. Just because it was made legal don’t mean it greatly changed how much was being put out. It really didn’t change the way most people feed.

True supplemental feeding would definitely increase the weights but what is happening in 98% of Alabama is not supplemental feeding, it is "baiting a kill spot", and as Matt mentioned above, has been going on at pretty much the same rate as today for the past 50 yrs even though it was illegal. The two are totally different with different objectives. Supplemental feeding is generally a year round endeavor and a lot of work, that is there to provide the deer with additional nutrition, outside the native browse and raise the nutritional plane for the resident herd. Supplemental feed is generally high protein feed such as pellets, soybeans, roasted soybeans, cotton seed and the like. Corn scattered on the ground or placed in a feeder during deer season only is bait, and is placed soley to attract deer to a spot so that they can be shot. There is little to no real nutritional value in corn and the uptake by deer is generally not sufficient to put weight on them given the time of year.

Time of year, especially when the rut is factored in, can bring on a pretty heavy swing in body weight. I have pre and post rut phots on a buck i harvested from last year that shows at least a 25 to 30 pound loss from December to Feb.

I killed a 9 point Saturday it weighed 130, I've got pictures of him from November, he had to be 175-180lbs, shot him at the end of the rut

In 2019 our weights decreased 25% across age classes, bucks and does

I attributed it to two straight complete acorn failures

This year we had acorns and the weights came back up but still down about 10%.

I got plenty of planted food.

Apparently acorn failures alone is enough to knock them back.