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.