None of the places you named is anywhere close to what I call LA just sayn..........

It ain't worth much because the land I hunt on is and has been managed by a wildlife biologist hired by our landowner for over ten years with very little hunting pressure and the rut has always and looks like always will be the last week of Jan and on into Feb.

So, "lower Alabama" wouldn't be anywhere near Montgomery, Selma or Uniontown?

What's "lower" ... Baldwin County?

Well that is definitely lower Alabama but I would add Mobile too at least! But seriously no Montgomery is not lower Alabama.It is lower than you are but its over three hours away by interstate from my home in lower Alabama.

Well, I will say that I never have shot more than one or two does in a season. And neither have the folks in our club. And probably not the folks around us. As a matter of fact, i don't know anybody that waylays does the way some of ya'll are making it sound. Maybe I just run in the wrong circles.

If anything, I think my property has too many does. We always get four to five does on camera for every buck we get. This year I definitely haven't seen the number of does that I've seen in the past, but I saw more once I got out of the shooting houses and started trying to figure out where they were. Turns out they were using natural browse this year and not our food plots. After we changed strategies we saw more does. And as far as the rut, after ten years hunting my place in Dallas county, I've seen the rut occur anywhere from the week after Christmas into early February. If it were up to me I'd move season back a month, but if they don't, I won't be crushed. I still kill a deer or two every year and enjoy getting out there. I see far more than I shoot.

If ya'll want to go back to having three or four doe days a year thats fine by me. Won't affect the way i hunt in the least since I don't usually shoot many anyway. I am amazed though how folks seem to want to make a one size fits all rule based on "what I'm seeing on my place this year." AND wanting the state to regulate it even though the general consensus is that we all want less government and more control over our own lives.

I don't expect to ever see 20 in a green field again. Don't need to see 20. I'd be happy if my son could see a deer or three at least 50% of the time. I agree that the answer is in the middle, but we are nowhere near there. Good bucks are killed every year. As each year goes by it seems that the average hunter becomes a better steward of wildlife by providing better food and better habitat. That produces better bucks. A deer herd that is below the carrying capacity should remain relatively healthy and produce large racked bucks. If the area you have can provide high quality browse and habitat to easily carry 50 deer per square mile, that area will produce no larger deer than if it had 25 deer per square mile.

For all the nay-sayers.......

Just a simple test!

Go to a local, well-established deer processor that has been in existence for a minimum of 6-8 yrs.
Ask him a few questions:

1) How are your overall numbers compared to years past?
2) What is the estimated buck:doe ratio of the deer brought in?
3) What has been the consensus opinion on the deer herd by the hunters who visit?
And for fun!!!
4) What percentage of the deer brought in have corn in them??

Now, I know full well that 'everybody' doesn't have their deer processed.
BUT, it does provide a good comparison and 'real-world' opinions!!!

Anybody who says the rut begins ANYWHERE in Montgomery County
in early January is full of chit. Ours hasn't even started yet and it is Jan. 24. No seeking, no monitoring, no chasing no nothing. Zip. Zero, Nada. Rarely see a chase and never before the last 3 or 4 days of January. It has always been like that in our area. AND DESPITE MASSIVE DOE KILLING AND
QDM THE TIMING AND INTENSITY HAS NOT CHANGED ONE IOTA.

Never even heard anyone claim an early January rut for
Montgomery County.

Really? Because I've been hunting a 600 acre bow only club out on 13 bridges rd and they have been wide open since first week of January and several monsters have been killed chasing.

I think a matter of mere miles can make a big difference.

Really? I've seen bucks chasing does since between Christmas & New Years Day. In fact, they're starting to wind down a little. I did see a terrible fight yesterday between two vicious spikes.

My son killed a nice 8 on New Years day walking across a green field and grunting with each step. Neck swollen, leg glands stinking......... Is that signs of rut? LOL

It absolutely does but he emphasized ANYWHERE. I Also hunted a 1000 acres out on trotman rd last season and they were done by 3rd week in Jan. These were intensely managed properties and probably as good as hunting gets in Alabama.

Seems like the property in Montgomery Co I hunt is slowing down but there has been chasing for the last 2 weeks anyway. Saw 4 different bucks chasing 3 different doe groups in one hour this pm. Necks swollen, grunting, chasing each doe one after another, scrapes and rubs actively being worked, etc - seems like a "rut" to me

Shuter, no way that is the signs of the rut, you have to see them chasing, then mounting, then kicking back smoking a cig for it to be "THE RUT". Or, that's the way it seems by some of the posts. Oh yeah, when good bucks are being shot in food plots in Counties south of Montgomery down to the FL line starting in early January, those good bucks are just hungry cause no signs of "THE RUT" (see definition above)have been seen and its not February yet, when they reeeaaaaallllyy rut.

My thoughts on when the rut is on--When I start seeing doe tracks bigtime in the scrapes. Happening now at our place.

and seeking, monitoring, chasing, bucks cruising
etc.

Looks like a couple folks are hunting the
central part of the county betwen Woodly, Mt.
Zion where I have heard that rut is more mid
January. This is the first I have evey heard
anyone make a claim of early January, so I am
very skeptical.

Ive been hunting the same 220 acres in Autauga County for ten years. Ive observed a noticeable decline in numbers of deer over that period of time. I realize that the population goes through natural cycles, but the decline I have seen is drastic. This year I hunted 14 days and saw a total of 3 deer, one doe, one yearling, and one buck. This is BY FAR the lowest number of deer I have seen in a season. This is also the first season since I began hunting this property that I have not fired a single shot. Maybe it's coyotes, maybe its the liberalized doe season, I don't know. I DO KNOW that there are far fewer deer on this property and in the area around it than there has ever been. Some folks can regulate themselves and control their trigger finger, but enough can't that it is having a detrimental impact on the herd. It is very frustrating to spend hours and hours in the woods and see very few deer and even more when you are afraid to kill one because you don't want to make the situation even worse.
I would like to see either a shortened season or a decrease in the number of doe days. I realize that not all areas of the state are experiencing the same problems I am, but is it too much to ask that state biologists do deer herd estimations and change the seasons accordingly? Practically every other state in the SE U.S. has made changes to their seasons in response to changes in the herd.

I think you just have to go by what you see on your property , I hunt 3300 acres on the marengo/Clarke county line , we have a club rule that each member can kill 4 does (18 x 4 = 72) but we never do , some people dont care to shoot any. I think this year we have killed 24 doe and 9 bucks so far, and if history holds true we will kill about 4 or 5 more bucks this last week and maybe a doe or two. Seems like some of you are contradicting your selfs though, you dont want people to shoot young bucks , but you dont want people to shoot does either , everybody is not in it for a trophy , me and my family eat at least 5 deer a year easy, I cant count on seeing a couple of 4.5 year old bucks every January!

Let me play devil's advocate.
Suppose the following limiting factors which could affect deer sightings, either does or bucks, are in effect statewide:
1) warmer average temperatures, which may:
a) keep deer bedded down during daylight hours while its warmer
b) boost an earlier spring green up meaning deer may travel
shorter distances in search of food during typically cooler
months
c) initiate more frequent weather fronts which suppress deer
movement I believe this to be true

2) bumper acorn crops providing more food than in average years
away from greenfields

3) higher than normal rainfall amounts which could limit or
alter deer travel patterns where flooding can occur This is true on our place

4) increased human pressure due to more hunters in the woods in
expectation of rutting behavior

IF these are indeed in effect collectively, then I have to consider that fewer deer sightings would be atypical. I would have to think that with no way to know the actual number of deer in the state, there is a reasonable explanation for fewer sightings (the limiting factors suggested above) and that there is the possibility that numbers have not been drastically reduced due to an overly aggressive doe harvest.
My point is, even though individuals have personally witnessed fewer deer, less deer sign, heard tales of hunters and or clubs taking large numbers (however you define ‘large numbers’) of does for several consecutive years, maybe the deer are there but they’re not appearing during shooting light for myriad reasons and the herd is not in a downward population trend as it might first appear.
I’m not arguing that the things people have mentioned on here are not valid; I’m only suggesting that it may be more complex than merely 'shooting too many does'.
I know this logic is riddled with holes, I’m just sayin… my two cents.

^^^ I believe some if not all your points are true. I agree 100%, this years reduced doe sightings are due to much more than over harvest.