You can't manage deer in Alabama effectively without a fence. Some are able too to some degree but that's it. When one person shoots a 3 yr old deer it has no affect on anybody else 10 miles down the rd. There's 5 of us that have land that border each other. 4 of us are on the same page and the other shoots every deer he seems to get the scope on.

If the 4 have decent sized properties, have food , cover and manage pressure, # 5 ain't gonna kill many of them.

No 5 killed 2 2.5 yr old 10pts this yr. No 5 has only 30 acres (he leases) that dead in the center of us 4. He actually has an easement through my neighbors land. Bad thing about him is he only meat hunts and we've got enough does to feed Ethiopia. But it is what it is.

I’ve seen 20 acre properties have more bucks killed on them in one weekend than the 3,000 acres around it all season. Some ppl really take advantage of a situation they are in. It does take a lot of land. That’s why I push cooperatives. It can work very well if everyone can agree to get on board.

I totally agree that a "one size fits all" mentality doesn't work when it comes to deer killing in general and to killing bucks, simply because of hunters objectives varying.

For example, I'll share about a hunter that I know very well, my wife's oldest brother.

My brother-in-law kills 5-7 deer per year. I said "deer", not bucks. When bow season starts he lays down his crappie pole and goes to deer hunting with his crossbow. His objective is to kill, as soon as he can, 5-7 deer, to put into his freezer. He is strictly a "meat" hunter. He will kill the first thing that gets within range until he gets what he needs to fill his freezer. It makes no difference to him if they are spikes, does, young rack bucks, or a 140" mature 4 or 5 year old. To him, they are "meat" and his only objective is to have fun and fill his freezer with "meat". As soon as he gets them killed, he puts his crossbow away, picks up his crappie pole, and resumes his crappie fishing. He is done deer hunting for the year. I might add, that he kills most all of his deer on Alabama public lands.

I don't hunt like he does, and I also don't criticize him for the way he hunts. I have a different objective with my own deer hunting than he has. Just because that I hunt differently than he does, doesn't make my way right or his way wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way he hunts or the objectives that he has that drives his hunting. He is an honest, law abiding, ethical hunter, that hunts for "meat". I, on the other hand, like to try to kill "mature" bucks and a doe or two a year. Different hunting objectives don't equate to one or the other being right or wrong.

If the Lord allows, on March 20, 2024, I'll turn 62 years old. I started deer hunting as a kid and have deer hunted all my life. I look back at how I used to hunt and how I hunt today. There has definitely been a change, a progression, as far as my deer hunting has gone. I went from just learning to kill a deer, to killing big numbers of deer, to killing better deer, to trying to kill 8 point or better, to now trying to kill mature bucks, no matter what they have on their head as far as antlers are concerned.

I don't know what's next in my deer hunting progression but I do know this. What is right for me at my stage of deer hunting life is not going to fit every other deer hunter. I'd be so very wrong to try to force it upon them.

I went duck hunting with a distance cousin of mine many, many years ago, on his personal property. Early that morning as we were headed to a slough where we would hunt, I asked Jeff if there were any rules that he had that I needed to know about before we got there and started hunting. Jeff replied to me with a statement that I have used for many situations throughout life, not just in deer hunting.

His words to me were "Cuz, you just shoot your gun, and I'll shoot mine".

Age or score based buck killing?

I'm okay with following Cuz's advice.

I mount 2 deer a yr for a guy I know. Not one has been under 135 and he's got 28 acres. We've got a bad situation with this one guy because all the rest of us are on the same sheet of music. I've actually tried to buy that piece and the lady just won't sell. We still manage a good deer off my part each year but it could be better.

Get your decent neighbors together and high fence his leach arse. I came very close to doing it around a 5 acre parcel that is about 1000 feet into mine but the issue got resolved before it became necessary

I had young buck that just showed up in Jan on 25 acres that was a 130” ten point as a 3 year old……I let him walk and killed him the next year when he showed back up at the same time in January as a 154” four year old…….I’m guessing he’d have been in the 160’s or maybe even 170’s in two more years.

I always wondered where he was coming from and where he hid out all the other months of the year. That’s the reality of it for you though……Wherever it was he was living, he left there each year during the rut.

I've got a spot that's just like that. Bucks just come out of nowhere the last 2 weeks of season every year. I buck killed each year the last 3 yrs and all 3 have been mature deer we've mounted. I killed 2 and my daughter the other one.

I’m assuming that wherever he spent the rest of deer season that nobody else likely laid eyes on him or he’d been shot before late Jan…..Not many folks letting 150” deer walk……That’s really what it takes to grow big deer in most situations……Hidey holes where bucks are living that hunters arent hunting. Those have become fewer and fewer.

I have debated doing this.... or at least doing it to the degree that it stops the deer from going their way.

The reason I haven't... I am worried they will just hunt the corner at the end of the fence and shoot everything that comes around it. I own my land so I'm not going anywhere. Still contemplating it.

The other thing I think I am going to do is make a road down their property line and start using it instead of the main roads that exist today... to put all the traffic down their line.

^^^^

I like the road idea. That’s pretty smart