I know, I know. This dang hot weather and with the leaves hanging on longer than normal seems to be bringing out more people in favor of hunting in February and dropping the early season except for bow only.
Just saying.

There are no shortage of deer in Alabama. They could extend the season two weeks into Feb for the entire state.

Try hunting around Tuscaloosa Co...not many deer

I have no interest in hunting deer in February here in Jackson county,I hope they leave us alone!

I am tired of it by the end of January, hope they keep it where it is now or even shorten it by a couple weeks. That would save a bunch of deer.

I'm glad we have the 10 days down here. It starts to get good at the end of January plus it is usually a good bit colder.

X2

I am not against them shortening it.....as far as I am concerned they can just start it on January 1 down here.

Speak for yourself

I wish they would open bow season earlier since they have pushed it back ten days I haven't killed a buck yet in bow season. Normally I would kill one every year in al with my bow. Here around the house it comes in October the 15 and we do really good the first two weeks after that its hard to get on one.

About half of the states in the union hunt for a pretty good while after the rut. Just makes me wonder why conception date studies mean so much here. Those other states don't have problems, but Alabama would if we did it. (Small game hunters, go in together and lease some land) Costs deer hunters a few coins, you can do it too.
If you can't take the extra days of hunting, physically, go at it a little easier, don't stay in the tree so long, skip some days and make the wife happy, hang around camp, go fishing, just run cameras, whatever cranks your tractor.

If we are gonna get to wish.....

I wish bow season came in later and the 'split' was closed longer AND included bow hunters, too.

I have not had great success in the Feb Season. But, I am not against it by any means.

Also, if we are gonna have buck limits; we ought to have doe limits, too.

Well said Hogwild.

Delaying the South Zone for 10 days to start bow season sucks. That is all.

Does anyone ever wonder why the south Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina etc has a gun season that last 3-4 months ? States like Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, or any other state you want to call out in the midwest has a gun season that lasts 1 to 2 weeks. I know they have the genetics and agriculture but the short gun season has a lot to do with it as well. As for numbers the south continues to decline while the midwest does fluctuate most states stay on top of it and limit doe harvest to assure the populations stay strong.

The DNR in the south is like gun hunt 1/3 of the year kill 3,4 or 5 times as many does as bucks and all is well. Were living the proof of what a mistake this is. 3 to 4 months of gun hunting and overharvesting the does has decimated the herds in the majority of the south.

I just came back from Ohio about a month ago. I traveled anywhere from Ft. Wayne, Indiana to Marysville, Ohio and saw less wooded area in two weeks combined than I see in one day in the county I live in here. It is nothing but corn fields and flat land. Their gun season is so short, I believe, due to safety considerations. It is easier to hunt there too because he deer are much more inclined to step out of woodland to eat on a field of soybeans or corn.

FullPotential - we have discussed that here quiet a bit. I see you are fairly new to the forum. Rest assured it has been brought up a bunch.

Yes, a few southern states allow gun hunting which includes rifles for 2/3 of the entire season or longer. With deer numbers apparently decreasing, it is a problem that most don't want to talk about because it is viewed as taking something away - and I understand that. It will likely never change and it is very political as well as economically driven.

It has been discussed, and a majority don't want any gun days taken away. For whatever motive.

I'll give up all of December.

Yes sir, I fully agree. I was born and raised in Georgia and the deer population there is about 20% of what I was in the 80s/90s. I have had many debates as to why the DNR wouldnt man up and reduce the doe days but as you said its political. My question which caused quiet a stir a DNR meeting was when are we going to have a hen turkey season ? They were outraged that I would even ask that question and assured me that there would never be a hen turkey killed legally in the state of Georgia. My next question was how many chics are raised per hen vs fawns per doe ? ( In my area we have far more turkeys than deer ) They tried to dodge the question so my next question was..Could this possibly have anything to do with the fact that there are more insurance claims related to deer than turkey and at that point I was pretty much told that I was out of line and that they did not want to hear any more of my false allegations.

End result is that DNR is political puppets in the hands of the insurance companies. They can make the season 6 months long and encourage us to shoot every doe that we see, ultimately it is up to us as hunters and sportsmen. I help people manage properties and I hunt multiple states every year and my best advice for everyone is to lay off the doe harvest. In todays times in most all of North America, if you are harvesting more does than bucks, you are making a big mistake.

We dont have to take away gun days. Limit the does that are taken. Lets go back to the "doe days" from back in the past. We had 7-10 days of either sex season. That is when hunting was the best. If that doesnt work, then limit the season. Whatever is done it needs to be done in a hurry.