For those that hunt it some and have for awhile whats your opinion on the deer hunting? Has the hunting as far as seeing and killing deer gone down hill in the last 10 yrs. Do you like all the either sex rifle hunts?

I do not hunt it anymore,but I know enough about it to say they do not need to kill so many does over there,archery,and primitive weapons would be plenty.I would love to hunt there but just can't justify spending valuable time there chasing ghosts.

Myself and several friends have hunted it for years. We don't see the numbers or take nearly as many deer as before. I think there is too many either sex rifle hunts. I find myself going less every year.

I'd love to know the number of does that end up button bucks.

I would like to know that as well,I would almost bet on 30%!

I will just come out and say it. The area biologist has managed the place like it was south ALA since he has been here and its sad. Two does a day on every gun hunt up until this year has ruined the place. Archery and pw would be more than enough.

x2

Agreed. Hunted the early ML season and then one gun hunt. Saw one deer last time I was there and I was like "Damn, I saw one. Yesss!" Pulled off and did something else. I'll probably head up for the buck hunts just to see if the buck sign I found in turkey season reappears. I think rifle hunts need to be buck only for a couple years to let the herd recover.

I've almost exclusively hunted little coon and jacobs mtn for the last 6 years. Jacobs mtn has been a slaughter fest for 2 years in a row and the place is suffering from it now. I wish they'd do away with the either sex rifle hunts myself as well. Bow and MZ only for doe harvest and just leave it at 1 deer a day. I compare our biologist to Mark Richt. No one does less with more than he does.

^^^^ You got that right. I think he was upset over leaving Barbour when he got here and just took a careless attitude. I know he put a lot of effort into Barbour but dang man you got handed probably the finest WMA in the state at that time.

This year they have had a gun or mz hunt every weekend so far if I ain't mistaken. There's 2 weekends in Jan they aren't having a hunt. Wish they'd do the no gun weekends early Dec or something and give us all the weekends in Jan. I know some folks probably wouldn't like that but hey, a guy can dream can't he?

Haven't hunted WMA but a few times and seen very few deer. Thought that adding Jacobs Mtn. would present more opportunity, but the only difference I saw was more hunters. All total there is just over 60,000 acres and on any given gun hunt there are 65,000 hunters(exaggeration). But it sure seems like that many.

Last time I hunted there, I went through the thickest, roughest mess you could imagine thinking I could have some privacy. NOT When it got light enough to see, I spotted four other hunters with the closest one about 60 yards away. I left and haven't been back.

When it gets to the point that management land is all I've got to hunt, then it is time for me to quite hunting. I have no desire to get shot by some idiot that doesn't have a clue what he is doing.

Right on. I had a pretty good chat with Bowtarist about Skyline one evening and trust his opinion. I think the early pressure probably diminishes what it could be in January. I may bowhunt the 2 weekends no gun hunts in January. We need some bow weekends in December too.

As you know, I have hunted Skyline all of my life. The last few years, I have gone on a few hunts on various places within my old stomping grounds. The lack of deer and deer sign is downright sickening. Until something changes drastically on the doe killing front and they let the herds recover some....I will never set foot on it again.

I used to kill deer there every year. Now I seldom see any.

need to limit the doe killing at skyline

With Skyline having 60K acres, I think there is a large variety of opinions on how good the hunting is there. I see a lot of hunters parking and only going a short ways into the woods. I think that leads to hunters being frustrated after the sun comes up and seeing other hunters in proximity.

I grew up in Scottsboro until I went off to college in '86. My dad and I hunted some private land on Crow Mountain and over in PRV. We never hunted Skyline WMA, which was smaller back then. Back then it was even tougher to see a deer and it was bucks only. I think I only saw two or three deer before I moved away.

I moved back to AL in 2004 and started hunting again in 2013. But I didn't get serious with it until last year. Last year on three hunts I shot one buck and one doe and saw another buck. This year on two hunts I have seen 6 does and zero bucks. I did take a doe on 12/12. I have seen much more sign this year than last, but I am learning where to look.

I think with Skyline you have to be willing to go a little farther off the dirt road and look for the areas they aren't getting pressured or look for the routes they will take when they are pressured. Unfortunately, that sometimes means you have to get there earlier, go farther and when you score, you have a longer, more difficult task to get the deer out.

To paint Skyline with broad strokes when it is such a vast landscape is wrong in my opinion. I think there is a lot of acreage where you won't see anything but orange. There is a lot that's inaccessible without a very long walk because it is bordered by private land. But there is some good hunting that will require you to walk a good ways and may involve a change in elevation of several hundred feet. For me, I cannot afford a hunting club and don't know anyone with land willing to let me hunt so far. So I absolutely enjoy the resource I have in hunting the WMAs and appreciate that our state has made them available.

Skyline is about the only place I have hunted for 3 years now. All other areas I've hunted (except TVA Guntersville) butt up against Skyline, including the club I joined this year. The last two seasons I was a ridge hunter and had no issue with spending a lot of physical energy getting to hard to reach places. I saw lots of deer and took 3 each season. If I had been a more experienced hunter I could have easily tripled that take.

This year is different. I see very few deer. I have hiked up to within 100 ft of the top of Little Coon ridge 3 or 4 times and I have seen only 5-6 deer all season. My knee is going out so I cannot justify that kind of effort any more this season since I've had no success.

Now, that being said, I've seen a huge amount of deer in that area on trail cameras at night. I don't doubt that the management practices are screwing the area up, in fact I fully agree that this is happening. BUT ... Part of the problem this season, in my opinion, is simply the danged warm weather. The danged lazy deer just ain't moving during the day

Sorry to hear about your knee Rocket. Did you ever do the hike/hunt down toward Walls of Jericho?

Not this year, can't handle the pain going down hill any longer.