Well. I hunt on properties it’s working quite well on. Unbelievable actually. Can’t compare those properties to unmanaged properties when it comes to rut intensity, deer observations, hunter satisfaction, etc. Healthy herds and shorter more intense ruts are not only more enjoyable to hunt, but also have healthier deer overall.

I’d guess and I did say guess many just used a general baseline. I know I projected my experience on others and guarantee others did as well. My experiences were based on clubs of 1500 to 5000 acres. That is way different than those guys with 20-100 acres ESPECIALLY when every one around is going at it alone.

I projected my experiences from having 25 club members and each and every one seemed to see something different than the other guys. Personal biases skew stuff quickly and when I asked them if they’d all work together to see what we actually have on the club whether we worked together with a camera survey on a grid or hired BSK to come to do one for us

The resounding answer was HELL NO. They all already knew what we should be doing although none were similar. I heard things from deer dropping counts in fields to subpar bucks with stickers yada yada yada

Herding cats is impossible

Here’s where it can go awry I’m guessing. At the farm we’ve lost close to 25 acres of beans this summer. The farmer to the north last year killed 51 does he said. Supposedly we had almost that many killed on our place and that’s on 125 acres of so.

I wonder if the lack of browse and acorns last winter pushed deer into the creek bottom ag lands? Wil those guys in the hills not see any deer this year?
They’ve taken on a strict QDM standard so we will see. I know a few of them so I plan on asking the hills is a lot of natural regrowth at 10-20 yes of age with hardwoods and pines in various ages so it’s a decent mix of habitat for deer.

How many places in Alabama have deer herds above carrying capacity? How large are these tracts that are above carrying capacity?

ive hunted in a whole lot of places , ive never saw a browse line or unhealthy deer. i've never found but just a couple dead deer that i couldn't explane why it died. i have a hard time with the idea of bucks dieing from over screwing ,,,,,,,,, in alabama .

More corn here too

i know ill be spreading the hell out of it this year , im gonna set in my heated little hut and lay them down . kill me about 5 or 6 does i dont care much about the horns no way, cant eat them and i aint spending that kinda money on a mount

There was a lot of browse lines last year at least in my neck of the woods it was as high as the deer could reach on thei hind legs.
Deer weights were down, matter of fact probably the worst I’ve seen health wise for the does
Mature does gutted weighing 60-70 lbs. normal years they’d weigh on average 80-100lbs. Hip bones and ribs were not only showing but pronounced. Spines projecting out and that was early in the year. Bucks were in pretty decent until the rut.

The drought really hurt browse and mast around here.

I’ve seen both severe browse lines (as in nothing edible) from 4’ down and underweight deer on multiple properties in several counties in AL. Can’t paint the whole state with one broad stroke.

never said it didnt hapen , i just aint i never saw it . never heard of it either.

on these place you saw, could guess the number of deer per sq mile

I know some of these areas have deer approaching 100 deer per square mile, which is close to what even the absolute best habitat can support. Most habitat is not in a condition to support those numbers.

One of the things that I found interesting was the coyote study versus fawn recruitment. 55% recruitment on the property coyotes weren't addressed, mid 80% on the property they were. For me that math doesn't work around here to have a wholesale doe slaughter and expect the population of deer to remain the same.

I explained this to my club guys like this. If you shoot a doe, we have to have another doe survive, get bred, and deliver a doe fawn that survives to 1 year. There is a 45% chance that doe fawn gets killed by a coyote. So in essence, you need 2 doe's to survive, get bred and have two doe fawns between them in order to replace the doe you just shot. If I have 10 guys, and we kill 20 doe's, we need 40 left over to replace the 20 we killed. We can help by killing coyotes.

I don't really care what management plan you are on, if your density is low, then you have to limit doe kills.

sorry i meant sq miles .

iits up there pretty high here but so far so good they still healthy . the last year i ran cams ratio look pretty good too .

i've seen places with those numbers but we slaughtered a lot of them . shame to kill deer that way just to burry and lime over them .

Matt, what keeps that many deer in an area? Why are they not moving to land with better habitat? We all know deer travel a good distance, just curious as to why they would stick around. Unless the entire area and county are in the same boat

Im tellin yall…if you got too many deer feed more corn…if youg got too few deer feed more corn to bringem in..corn is the answer..corn is good..corn is life…corn is everythin😮

Skinny should sell “Corn Life” stickers.

I’m curious about this as well. Is it because doe groups do not disperse as much and most bucks try to stay in the areas with groups they know?

Bucks typically disperse anywhere from 2-20 miles between their 1st and 2nd birthdays. It’s not always where the habitat is better. It’s often where they are socially accepted. Doe groups don’t disperse much at all. Once deer of both sexes find somewhere they want to be they’ll remain incredibly loyal, even if their physical fitness suffers. Also, if there are areas with an abundance of resources and other deer try to move in, they’re often not accepted by stronger, healthier, more fit deer. Moving to areas of better habitat is not as easy as it sounds. Keep in mind, deer are not migratory animals. I’ve kept data on properties that were geographically not far from each other. One had great habitat and well above average body weights. The other had poor habitat and less than average body weights. Deer populations were estimated to be about the same. Although the deer on the poor site were lighter, smaller antlers, and less recruitment, they were still in good health and they were surviving just fine. They don’t have a clue that 4 miles down the road bucks outweighed them by 35-40 lbs. That’s not something they are cognitively aware of. They just know their basic needs are being met.

Corn

Matt , yeap how much fat is on a deer can tell you some thing but you gotta skin just a few here and there to see it .