I wouldn't put too much stock in the numbers

No wonder I never kill anything. I hunt in Marshall dadgum County.

I'm not sure about the other 3, but Etowah and Marshall have very low deer density.

What percentage of deer taken this year have been reported on game check?
60%?

but we do not have the overall quality a lot of the states you are referring to because of ag crops

Same mentality as refusing to vote for anyone who isn't a democrat or republican. If you keep doing the same things you WILL get the same results. If 80% of the 2 1/2 half year olds lived to be 4 1/2 years old ,instead of the maybe 10% we have now we would have LOTS of big bucks.Can you imagine what the hunting would be like here if there were 8 times as many 4 1/2 year old bucks? Maybe not as many 170's as IOWA but plenty of 140 class deer. I will never understand killing a spike or 4 point when you can legally kill a doe? Yet some people kill several every year, yes they don't report them,haha. Talked to someone just this week who killed a spike and a little 5 point in the same day and reported them both as does on different days.

There ain't any deer in the black belt. Y'all need to hunt in nirth Alabama.

Willing to bet less than half of kills are reported. Wouldn't surprise me if it was 25%.

YES!!! I've said that 10,000 times!!! Why wouldn't you just kill a doe?

I am thinking the same percentage.

I think 25 is optimistic. I don't know a single person who has even downloaded the app

Sometimes, people are new to hunting, and try for multiple seasons before they kill a deer. Sometimes, a deer finally walks in front of them, and it is a spike or a 4 point. So then that hunter kills the deer, and they are super happy, and then the whole point of hunting is accomplished.


I haven't killed any, and had the opportunity to, but that is an extremely understandable reason why someone would kill a spike or a 4 point.

I think 25 is optimistic. I don't know a single person who has even downloaded the app

YES!!! I've said that 10,000 times!!! Why wouldn't you just kill a doe?

Sometimes, people are new to hunting, and try for multiple seasons before they kill a deer. Sometimes, a deer finally walks in front of them, and it is a spike or a 4 point. So then that hunter kills the deer, and they are super happy, and then the whole point of hunting is accomplished.


I haven't killed any, and had the opportunity to, but that is an extremely understandable reason why someone would kill a spike or a 4 point.

Like I've said over and over, let the season play out. Y'all know what is true about all the top counties except Dallas? They all have an earlier rut than the blackbelt.

Can you imagine if they actually try to pass some things to push the management agenda with these numbers??

I thought we all agreed to report our kills in Jackson county!? I know I am.

I have personally logged in 3 of the deer in Lamar co and I'm one man.
There have been some studs already killed in Lamar this year. I have pics of several good ones that have been killed but I don't have permission to put them on here. One is 170-180". I'd say 15-20% max reported.
I just wish we'd had a little of this disdain with the buck limits.....
I felt much worse about it than this game check. Reason was though, Buck limits was socialism, game check affects everyone. I'm kinda glad, misery loves company.

I thought all Marshall Co hunters came to Jackson Co, lol.

Posting these county numbers are just one more tiny step to loss of hunting choices.

I mean that with every little rule, every little law that passes, it seems that we are restricted more, not less, in the way we can hunt or fish or carry on with our lives. Every time the Government gets involved in anything, we end up with less freedom, not more. Usually that starts with an innocent little questionnaire or survey. Then some experts on a panel (a hand-picked, non-partisan one with no allegiances to the moneyed interests) get involved, and ultimately decide some sort of action needs to be taken to solve some crises that has been discovered. Do you see what I'm saying?

There are substantially more posts on this board saying we have less deer today than before. Most replies from the LFTT threads report very low sightings. Yet it appears everybody wants complete freedom to use an Apache helicopter with a mini-gun to kill every living deer in the state. What gives, fellas? You don't get more deer by killing more deer. You don't get larger bucks by killing smaller bucks. So we have a 3 buck limit...We could have a two week shotgun only season and one buck tag. My word, the State gave 10 days in February (for Pete's sake!!!!!!!) because apparently we're such bad hunters we couldn't see a buck the other 3.5 months of deer season. You can pretty much still kill every doe that walks out, just pile em up holocaust style! And we're complaining and fear-mongering about the State wanting to get a better grip on our deer? And then use some straw man argument about stripping us of liberty? Abuse will ultimately strip us of hunting liberties, not governmental dictatorship.
I'm very close friends with the biologists on our military base...he often tells me he'd like to do some different things, but cannot trust the majority of our hunters. Not in the sense he thinks they're unlawful, but they can't be turned loose to use their own judgment because they'll just stack up whatever moves all season long.

Based off of your posts in this thread, it sounds like to me you are the typical "trophy hunter," and there is not a thing wrong with that. But, you also sound like you think that your approach to hunting is the only right approach, and that simply isn't right. If a hunter wants to go out and shoot 3 small bucks a year, that ought to be his right to do so. Nobody should be forced into the QDMA crap because the group in charge forced it into regulation. That's not what hunting in Alabama has ever been about. It's always been left up to the hunters to have fairly liberal seasons and limits to make choices that they see fit. It's been that way for decades, and we still boast some of the largest deer and turkey populations in the nation. Sadly, it looks like those days are coming to an end with all these regulations.

What percentage of deer taken this year have been reported on game check?
60%?

I agree with Deadwood.


What I don't agree with is Anarchy. And that's what we've got here in Alabama. God gave us rules to live by. Having rules is nothing new in society.

Someone from another state said it best on ALDEER a few days ago.... they'd never seen such a blatant disregard for game laws and personal property as they've seen in this state.

I would unequivocally agree with that.

There are substantially more posts on this board saying we have less deer today than before. Most replies from the LFTT threads report very low sightings. Yet it appears everybody wants complete freedom to use an Apache helicopter with a mini-gun to kill every living deer in the state. What gives, fellas? You don't get more deer by killing more deer. You don't get larger bucks by killing smaller bucks. So we have a 3 buck limit...We could have a two week shotgun only season and one buck tag. My word, the State gave 10 days in February (for Pete's sake!!!!!!!) because apparently we're such bad hunters we couldn't see a buck the other 3.5 months of deer season. You can pretty much still kill every doe that walks out, just pile em up holocaust style! And we're complaining and fear-mongering about the State wanting to get a better grip on our deer? And then use some straw man argument about stripping us of liberty? Abuse will ultimately strip us of hunting liberties, not governmental dictatorship.
I'm very close friends with the biologists on our military base...he often tells me he'd like to do some different things, but cannot trust the majority of our hunters. Not in the sense he thinks they're unlawful, but they can't be turned loose to use their own judgment because they'll just stack up whatever moves all season long.

This entire thread 100% proves my point I made earlier. I clearly stated that I would get reamed out for saying Alabamians are NOT quality management minded. I think my exact words were something like "if it's legal, then blah blah blah". And 575 dozen of y'all said it. I cannot understand this subconscious association with hunting regulations stealing your fun???? I am not a trophy-score hunter, heck I hunt local WMAs very often!!!! The whole "new hunter" argument is a straw man too. Nobody is deer shaming, we've all done it. I still kill does, always will. I guess the word I'm looking for is "discriminating". I am discriminate, with herd management in mind, when I kill ANY deer. And I don't think it's unreasonable to train children and new hunters to be this way--THEY ARE IN THOSE "TROPHY" STATES WE ARE JEALOUS OF. We aren't trying to grown genetically giant deer like Iowa, but we could substantially improve our herd and hunting experience in Alvabama with some modern mentality!

It's not a problem with the system, it's a problem with the hunters.

Far more people in Alabama (heck, just look at this site) are angrily against Game Check. We don't have a bad system, we have a bad mentality. By and large we have a population of hunters who are ignorant about deer in general, and (at best) apathetic about deer management. Way more "if it's brown it's down" hunters than "trophy" hunters in Alabama. In Iowa you're in the minority if you kill a 1.5 yr old 4pt, in Alabama you're in the minority if you are against killing 1.5 yr old 4pts. See the difference?

It's a regular thread on here for a someone to criticize killing young bucks, and lots of other hunters will pile on him about "if it's legal, why do you care blah blah blah". We are far less management-minded here. Until Alabama hunters overcome this mindset, it won't matter what kind of system is in place.

Right now I hunt a military base that's about 20K acres. It's been on some style of DMP for about 10-15 years, and it's the most incredible herd I've ever hunted. EXTREMELY close to 1-1 ratio, substantial percentage of old-class animals, and it's a target rich environment where you can see 20+ deer on some hunts. It's dang near perfect because quality people are running it correctly!!!! As of this past weekend we reached our stated doe harvest numbers (100) and shut off the doe killing. Now, I personally wanted to shut down two weeks ago around 75 does. But 75% of the fellas out there are beside themselves!!!...they are pissed off about shutting down the does. These are also the same guys who continually bring in 2.5yr old, 13" wide 8pts (because hey, they're legal--4 on one side). We'll never overcome this mentality.

Based off of your posts in this thread, it sounds like to me you are the typical "trophy hunter," and there is not a thing wrong with that. But, you also sound like you think that your approach to hunting is the only right approach, and that simply isn't right. If a hunter wants to go out and shoot 3 small bucks a year, that ought to be his right to do so. Nobody should be forced into the QDMA crap because the group in charge forced it into regulation. That's not what hunting in Alabama has ever been about. It's always been left up to the hunters to have fairly liberal seasons and limits to make choices that they see fit. It's been that way for decades, and we still boast some of the largest deer and turkey populations in the nation. Sadly, it looks like those days are coming to an end with all these regulations.

No we have not always had liberal doe seasons and highly doubt we still have some of the highest deer and especially turkey populations in the nation anymore.

ikillbux

i thought you said one time that you didnt eat deer meat and was a horn hunter?

I did not say anything about doe seasons.

On populations, see for yourself ->

http://www.northamericanwhitetail.com/trophy-bucks/20-best-whitetail-states-for-2015/

https://www.nwtf.org/hunt/article/2016-spring-hunt-guide

I don't care what game check says, you're exactly right. Marshall south of the river is almost devoid of deer, especially after the 2 a day ALFA pushed slaughter fest.

Seriously.... I'm discussing the merits of Game Check and deer management with folks who think insurance companies influence deer regulations. Like I told you before, I have never in 16 years heard one single breath of such silliness. And in the scheme of claims costs, deer don't even blip the radar screen.

A thread like this sorta evidences the problem with something like Game Check and/or any other regulating measure...

You have every kind of personality and skill level from A-to-Z, and trying to satisfy all of them is impossible. You state a fact, some hate it. You state an opinion, some hate it. Really doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. One hunter is a novice on some crappy public land. One hunter is seasoned and accomplished and has a very expensive private lease filled with deer. Those two guys won't easily agree about much, but the DCNR has to govern both.

I've said forever, until we have the ability to set regulations at a more local level (maybe by county), we have no choice but to govern in the middle. Can't work for everybody.

It's not a problem with the system, it's a problem with the hunters.

Assuming deer are being killed at the same rate as last year, the Game Check registration rate is only 24.6% as of today.

A thread like this sorta evidences the problem with something like Game Check and/or any other regulating measure...

You have every kind of personality and skill level from A-to-Z, and trying to satisfy all of them is impossible. You state a fact, some hate it. You state an opinion, some hate it. Really doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. One hunter is a novice on some crappy public land. One hunter is seasoned and accomplished and has a very expensive private lease filled with deer. Those two guys won't easily agree about much, but the DCNR has to govern both.

I've said forever, until we have the ability to set regulations at a more local level (maybe by county), we have no choice but to govern in the middle. Can't work for everybody.

As someone who has monitored a lot of different survey data through the years, and as someone who understands response rates and how data should be gathered from a mandatory program, ... that number indicates total failure of the data collection instrument. For a mandatory legal survey instrument that number should be in 65-75% range to be considered marginally successful.

I dont no why but my whole life deer hunting has always sucked in Geneva county. You can lease 500 acres of Rover bottom and see three fresh tracks a day.