Is it just me or are there more people looking for new clubs or land to lease than ever? Seems like there are a lot of unhappy people with their previous situations. I wonder whats going on?

Deer populations are down across the board. Most people arent seeing much. And are looking elsewhere

I figured that had something to do with it. Too many does have been killed for far too long.

I think more people are hunting than ever too. They want us to believe its a dying sport and youth hunter numbers are down but i just refuse to believe that. Ive never seen so many kids and bee hunters as i see now.

I'm one of the ones looking myself. The last 2-3 seasons have been steadily declining for me in terms of deer sightings on my properties I've been hunting in North AL. The '15-'16 deer season is the first in 20 years of hunting that I went without seeing one deer at all in the stand.

I'm personally going to put in a lot of sweat equity throughout the Spring and Summer on these places I've been hunting to do anything I can possibly do to attract and hold more deer.

This. And it will continue to be this way until something is done about doe harvest.

Amen from me on that as well.

Amen from me too. The years of doe harvest have created an absolute mess. The deer aren't nocturnal, they're not moving because it's hot, the DEER POPULATION has DRASTICALLY DECLINED!!!

I'm just saying the heck with it. I'm actually lining up some visits to look at some property in Georgia. It's probably going to cost me about 3 times what I pay in Alabama, but I'm not wasting another year hunting in Alabama until I find a group that believes in taking care of deer as a whole, or our state DNR wakes up and realizes what a freaking pile of wet turds they've created.

What part of North Alabama are you having touble with?If you don't mind saying.

Franklin/Lawrence county line roughly.

I see..I am hearing Colbert co is loaded..I have some good friends hunting Red Bay..They struggled until the middle of Jan.Then they killed 9 racked bucks in two weekends between 10 members..Thinking of joining with them,but have not decided.

Were you in a club or hunting pvt land?

I was thinking the same thing. I don't think there's a deer hunter that lives and or hunts in Etowah,St.Clair or Jackson County that's not looking for a new club or lease.

Yeah the Freedom Hills WMA portion of Colbert down Hwy 247 to Red Bay in Franklin is great deer hunting. As a kid was in a club in that area that was great. I should have spent more time on the WMA honestly this year in retrospect.

I have hunted either as a member or a guest in a club on the Franklin/Lawrence line(South of Hwy 24 and North of the State Forest) for the last 5 years that, when I first began hunting, was one of the best places I'd ever hunted. You'd see at least 4 or 5 does almost every hunt and saw or had a shot at a management buck each season at least once. Good antler restrictions in place, didn't shoot many does either. The last 2 or seasons have progressively gotten worse in terms of deer sign, seeing deer at all, especially deer harvest. As far as I know we had 0 management bucks killed this year. One was shot at but not recovered. We are all a bit perplexed as to what happened. Not sure if folks around us are shooting too many does, feeding/hunting over corn(my suspicion), or what has happened.

Seems a lot of people had a different kind of season than they have had in the past..I think that weather and corn are gonna be the biggest factors..Corn being the biggest.

They should either make corn completely legal to hunt over or completely illegal to have out at all during the season. I vote the latter.

im gonna go with weather this year, I know clubs that have always put out corn, and this season sightings were down. Too much browse growing. Folks always try to blame it on the corn.

I agree, I hunt in FL where there has always been corn and it has been a horrible year for NWFL as well.

Weather did play a lot in the hunting equation this year. But there are more factors than that. Alabama hunters were told for many years by the wildlife dept. to basically go out and shoot anything that moves. And people did for a long time. Now the state has put some brakes on the killing. About time huh? It may take some time for some of areas to recover. And we don't have everybody on board in keeping their finger off the trigger. I mean it is very easy to beat the system as far as that goes. Another factor and there are many concrete studies and field test data to back up coyote problems. The fact is they kill a lot of fawns. And there are not many good solutions to deal with them. Alabama deer populations are spotty. Some areas still have good numbers but there is a lot of areas they lagging. The magazines would have you to believe they are behind every tree. But those of us who hunt a lot can quickly correct them. We live a lot off of our past reputation .True the county I hunt in was once a deer factory..... in the 80 ' s and early 90's. I hope we can somehow build our herd back up. It may never be like it once was but I believe we can really improve upon it.

I think ya'll oughta quit whining I had a great year. The people that I know that always kill good deer killed good deer. The majority of them on public ground.

We are not talking of a small circle of friends or people I might know. As far as that goes I still take good deer here and some of my friends do. But on a state level things are not up to par. And when the discontent starts to reach the levels it is now it amounts to something different than being labeled a whiner. I and many others that still kill good deer here believe we have some serious issues at stake. If a person feels everything is a wonderland and has no concerns about our hunting; so be it. I also hunt in another state where the deer hunting is tightly regulated with very strict harvest limits and very limited gun days and believe you me, it has very high payoffs. One of the best things that could happen in Bama in my opinion is for the amount of gun days to be cut pretty harshly. Now I like to hunt as much as the next guy but over 2 months of gun days ? Come on. A lot of you guys don't realize how that much pressure changes deer behavior . The other state I hunt gives me 7 days. And guess what I can do better in 7 days there in what I can in 100 days here. I still enjoy hunting here but I will take quality time over quantity time everytime.