I have not been around here long. And to Matt's point & CNC's questions... You could not find 5 of us IDOTS to agree on ANYTHING about deer management/Buck or Doe harvest limits/licensing/season length/ and the list goes on. We don't need to re-invent the wheel. I hope someone with the true best interest of the resource ( primarily deer and Turkeys) as well as predators threatening all our game takes a look west to see how you do it. We might end up with something I don't agree with, who knows, but i will abide by the law. Seems at times we have a "too many cooks are "spoiling the broth" situation so to speak. No one on here has enough self control to accomplish anything on their own. Neither do your /my club members or adjacent landowners. I don't see anyone paying $5500-7500 to hunt free range Deer in Alabama, because you could never justify a 10% kill ratio for those that bought the opportunity here. maybe no one wants out of state folks coming. TX and Midwest long ago figured out how to monetize deer hunting. But the harvest concepts are solid.
Maybe we need a benevolent dictator calling the shots . We cannot decide what is best due to self interest. and operating cooperatively is a lot of hard work and denial of self interest. At about a $3.2 Billion dollar or more impact to Alabama, we need better qualified people than we have making decisions. Experts are expensive, but damn amateur's will ruin it for you.

Please don’t break the rules. With all above been said…..Do you practice what you’d like to see happen? If clubs would set tighter rules and stick to them. Just because the state allows 3 bucks set the limit your self to 2. Tell the club setting new guide lines no hunting til — date and we will not hunt after —-date. No does killed after ——date. If a member want the 3rd buck to tell his buddies about he limited out. go to public land get #3 its not happen on the club land. yeah members may leave but new ones will show up. Be your own man.

Do away with zone C split doe season. I see just as many in zone C as I do in zone A. Also on the land I hunt in zone C the 2nd part of doe season falls in line with the pre rut and rut. Alot of people aren't going to shoot there live decoys. The 2nd split doe season is just to satisfy
kids being out for Christmas break imo. Just open up doe season all season and do away with that split junk.

After reading a few fellers comments on here, i can see why the fun is just being SUCKED RIGHT OUT OF HUNTING.

A lot of people on here are adamant about keeping the 3 buck limit and actually feel that there should not be any buck limit. There are also plenty of proponents for essentially unlimited doe killing and a deer season lasting 4 full months with 3 of those months being gun season. This is an exchange of ideas, so y'all step up and change some minds. I'd like for some of y'all to step up and please explain why there is a need and why it is so vitally important that someone should be able to kill 3 bucks in a season, and exactly how that and how keeping the current regulations actually help Alabama's deer herd and protect and improve the resource, not only for our hunting over the next 2-10 yrs but for future generations too.

I've got no problem with someone shooting a 2 yr old buck, their first buck, their best buck, or whatever. I'll be happy for them, even if it was something that I'd never think about shooting, and it should be celebrated if the hunter is happy. But explain why a grown man needs to shoot a 90" 2 yr old 8 point (no problem there, if that buck floats their boat) but then they follow it up with a 1.5 yr old 4 point and a 2 yr old 6 point. Like I said, how does that help improve the state's already piss poor buck/doe ratio and buck age structure, or otherwise maintain or improve the overall health and population of the state's deer herd?

Yep! Don't want to hunt after January 31, don't. Want a 2 buck limit, don't shoot the third one, Walk the walk...quit worrying about everybody else. It's getting worse than a bunch of old women on some of these topics. I like discussion but some of you folks ideas don't match mine. At all.

Before anyone even remotely considers a 2 buck limit there needs to be enforcement of what we already have now.......Without it you're only changing things for the really, really honest hunter

A lot of people shoot what they want and use the excuse “well if I don’t kill him my neighbor will.”

I don't see all the lawlessness people talk about on here .

Back the way it was when I first started hunting in Alabama (Limestone & Madison Counties specifically). Buck a day and gun does day ended 1st week of January. Maybe the herd wasn't as "healthy" but at least the hunting seemed to be better back then (at least where I hunted).

When did you first start hunting those areas? A LOT of the ag in those areas is now subdivisions and a lot of the parcels have been broken up. Ten-fifteen years ago we had permission on a few parcels but zero now. Some developed others broken up and sold. The fragmentation and loss of habitat have to be contributing factors.

There are old school hunters/ new school hunters/stone cold kill'em all hunters. Probably some overlap between the three. Is there middle ground we can find to gain some agreement in those 3 broad groups? in any event , we have to have leadership that wants to find a solution in a way that is good for management. Said people are not in charge now.

$2,000 a year. Your allowed one mature buck over 5 years of age and no more than 5 does a year. Who’s in? 900 acres and only 6 members.

2000 grand a year isn’t bad but with 6 members I would add that anyone shooting a buck under 5 years old certified by a wildlife biologist they would have to pay the lease for the next year minus the planting expenses. 6 people I will bet someone will high grade a young one. Non of my business and best of luck on your operation

I know so many people who sign out bucks in someone’s else’s name it’s a joke

A lot of people who complain about low deer numbers/piss poor quality are also shooting 50-70 inch deer the first chance they get. Im definitely not in the camp of telling people what to do on their own land but a little restraint would go a long way.

i heard these words come out of a guys mouth once ,,,,,, all we ever killed is spikes and four points we never see any big bucks . . they had killed 14 young bucks that year

Yep. And they kill em with the excuse of “if I don’t someone else will”

I get zero enjoyment of seeing, much less killing, a 2-3 year old buck. But that’s just me. I know some people love walking up on that 13” wide skinny horned 8 point that looks like a doe with antlers. Everyone wants to kill bigger bucks but no one wants to make the sacrifices to get there.

Camp house and turkey rights included?