It would take a significant reduction in the length of the season before it would begin to have any substantial impact on total harvest…..assuming we’re not cutting out rut hunting. It would take reducing it down so much that I doubt anyone here would be ok with it. Most hunters kill 0-2 deer. That won’t change much simply because the season is 2 or 3 weeks shorter. All that would be accomplished from shortening the season a little bit like many are suggesting would be a reduction in the amount of opportunities you have to go hunting.
Bullschit! Shortening the season would take SOME pressure off the deer in the beginning. Breaking up the shortened season with a couple of closed weeks mixed in would further take pressure off and mature deer sightings WOULD increase. This would enhance the ACTUAL rut, regardless of where you live/hunt. I'm not for a one size fits all by any means but unless pressure is taken off the deer, seasons adjusted geographically based on SCIENTIFIC data collected thru RELIABLE means, Alabama will always have what Alabama has. It IS the definition of insanity.
I’m assuming that by removing pressure you simply mean keeping hunters out of the woods and not anything to do with less deer being killed. “Pressure" is a very site specific variable that can easily change from one property to the next. Its not something that the state needs to manage. There’s really not any significant negative impacts to the deer herd due to “pressure”….it just alters where and when deer move in the specific area where there is a lot of perceived danger. Just the simple presence of a human does not always equate to pressure either. It comes through the deer associating the human presence with negative experiences which is basically you shooting at one when others are around to link the negative experience to a human or maybe linking the danger to a certain location. I’ve had whole herds of does that didn’t care that I was in my stand because they didn’t associate me with danger….therefore my presence alone was not pressuring them and altering their patterns…..and when the rut hit the bucks were there in the daylight with them. You would be surprised how hard it is to run a buck off of a hot doe when the doe isn’t scared of you and doesn’t leave.
The only person who could have a significant negative impact to your property through pressure is you and possibly your immediate neighbor and that’s assuming you only have a small parcel to hunt. If its something the size of many hunting leases such as 1000+ acres then you control most of the pressure on your deer and how they respond to any around you. YOU and the folks you hunt with determine how the deer perceive your property. They can either see it as a safe area to avoid the surrounding danger or they can see it as full of danger just like the neighbors. Its your tactics and management practices that determine that. Much of the quality of the rut hunting will revolve around how your doe groups perceive your presence and how pressured they have become by mid to late Jan or whenever your rut may be. Bucks will typically follow suite during the rut with whatever the doe does. If she moves during the day then he does too. He might not walk out in the open like she will but he’ll still be on his feet with her. The state should in no way reduce hunting opportunities for everyone in an attempt to reduce pressure to all properties, YOU staying off of your property while everyone else pressures theirs is how you deal with it. Only shooting lone does that come out early in the evening and not blasting one right at dark when the field is full of deer is how you deal with it. I know this tactic all too well and I do it with FAR less land than what many here hunt
