The good thing is all those things are controllable. Grow good food plots or hunt near great ag lands, dont go into your thickets except to recover one, prosecute all trespassers and road hunters, and DO NOT over hunt and pressure your land. It is literally that easy!
Actually it is not that easy. I have my own place too. I lease most of the land I own. If you have less than about 2,000 acres your success is directly impacted by the hunters around you. If you have a bunch of people hunting within close proximity that blast everything they see your hunting will suffer significantly. I'm not saying you still can't kill a big deer but you are fighting a completely different battle than a guy that has 1000 acres and surrounding that are landowners with similar trigger habits. If you have that you have a paradise and you should enjoy it. But at the same time you should also recognize that many hunters in this State only have 50 acres. In my opinion there are a significant number of people out there that fit that category who can't effectively manage their property under our current guidelines. Those people get turned off to deer hunting the same as the guy that just feels the need to kill something every time he puts on his camo.
What do you do... I don't know. I'm not offering any solutions only a different point of view. Those of us that have a hunting paradise tend to think that everyone else has the same. And that could not be further from the truth. This is part of the mentality "it's all about me". I see and hear this first hand because people are in leasing smaller tracts of land from me in several parts of this State. When they say they had a good deer season but they sure wish Bo and Luke Duke up the highway would stop blasting every deer they see because they can't get anything with horns to grow. You hear that season after season out of more than one group and at some point you realize it's not just all about me. Everyone else deserves to have a good experience too because the vast majority of the hunters in this State don't hunt on a 2,000 acre tract. To me right now in this State the meter is reading in total favor of the people that want to blast something. Chew on it. That's all I ask. I'm not trying to be right or wrong.
Yep, I totally understand. You like to shoot good ones. I do too. We are fortunate in our places to be able to control things to a degree. I dont have a lot of land..I only manage around 160 acres, and my one neighbors 100 acres...so just 260 total, luckily all thicket that holds deer. But it is surrounded luckily by thousands of acres of big ag land where luckily my neighbors dont blast everything.
I also have friends that hunt else where in the state that dont hunt hard like you or I do. They go a few weekends a year and they just want to shoot a deer...any deer. I understand where they are coming from too.
And while there are many guys here who only shoot good ones, there are way more on THIS VERY SITE that just hunt and arent worried about size of antlers. Id say the majority of guys here to be honest. Dont get me wrong..they WANT to shoot a monster, but they realize that their chances where they hunt for a real good one is very limited.
When I was young I was taught "Dont try to hold people to YOUR own standards or youll be highly disappointed". And they were wise words and Ive tried to live by them.
Thats why I try to congratulateEVERY SINGLE GUY I can that posts their deer on here. While I might not of shot it, I get to hunt a lot and managed land. But they dont , and to them that is a trophy, and Im happy for them being successful. So I congratulate them.
KUDOS to them on accomplishing THEIR goal of getting a deer. It feeds their families and they are happy.
A lot of these guys here hunt state land , or clubs with lots of people. A lot struggle just to see deer, much less ANY buck. So to them just getting to harvest one is an accomplishment..
So what Ive seen is that if you want to hunt BIG BUCKS in Alabama, you need to have great neighbors and land and put a lot of time and MONEY into habitat. OR , you have to shell out BIG BUCKS to join a very well managed club like Squeaky and Hogwilds or others Ive been in.
The sad part is those type clubs are VERY VERY Expensive. So in the most part in Alabama you have to pay BIG BUCKS to shoot BIG BUCKS. There are still the outliers like people who go to Bankhead and get one, or some of the other public land opportunities that have big bucks but their chances for success are admittedly much less then the guy hunting great land.
Whats the answer? Thats the Million Dollar question!
Im typically a small Govt, low regulation conservative and hate laws that prohibit people from enjoying what they like. And while I like the idea of antler restrictions I feel that 75% of the people in the state..heck on this site , are against them. So I go back to what I was taught: "Dont try to have people live up to my standards" or in this case IMPOSE my standards on people through implementation of restrictive laws.
Let them go hunt, shoot a deer and be happy. I'll try to keep shooting good ones, but as I get older (almost 60 now) even my priorities have changed. Heck , right now Id rather be FISHING then hunting..LOL. Hunting takes work...fishing I just sit in my boat and relax. Im getting lazy in my old age I guess.
( I just bought that little bass bought in August and learning to fish...man its way more fun then i thought!)
