Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Disappearing Bucks

Lol I don’t care if they outlaw baits and cameras and anything else. I ain’t got No right to tell anybody how to hunt. The club I got up by the moody brick most of them old boys have to work all week. If some of them get a chance to kill any deer they are happy. I hardly ever hunt it but I keep it to provide mostly friends a place to hunt. Had it for 30 years. Boys I spend more time in the woods than the average person. I ain’t seen as many deer hunting this year as I usually do. But I went to check on some late millet I had planted yesterday evening I now know where they are at. Like I said they are somewhere

Well, as of right now Jackson Co is dead last out of 67 counties when it comes to the number of bucks killed so far this year compared to last year……Many counties are already at 15-20% of last years total while Jackson is at 7%.....Again, its early so we’ll see how it plays out from here.

Check that......They are 66th out of 67......Clay Co is actually slightly lower

Something kinda interesting is that the vast majority of all counties, including Jackson, are currently hovering right around 25-30% of last year’s doe harvest with only a few exceptions….So everyone is killing does about the same rate but some counties are killing bucks at a much slower clip

Did you take into consideration that plots are brown here

Will somebody post a couple of pictures for be I am dumb as a rock on computers

2 Dogs post them 2 pictures I just sent you of an 8 pointer I cut up this week. I did not kill it but it was killed here . Now does that deer look like he is hungry

Yep, deer are in the woods ( bumper acorn crop) and a lot of these new fangled hunters don't know how to killem in the woods. I wish I had a dollar for each time I've heard someone say" I just can't kill 'em when there's a lot of acorns , they just don't move much."

I don’t know the answer but grown men gonna have to stop shooting 2 year old bucks. I understand a kids first deer that part is what it is but the adults that see horns and hyperventilate is what happens a lot. I’ve got a 3.5 yr old 10 I could’ve done shot a dozen times and he’s pretty impressive and neighbors may kill him but all I can do is let him go and hope for the best. The way I see it is he is good seed.

Here's 'ol fatty. I suspect corn, soybeans and acorns helped him bulk up .
There might be some 200 pounders killed this season. That's 200 lbs field dressed BTW.

Our deer are in as good a shape as ever. We’ve killed 3 bucks at 192, 195 and 199. That’s a hefty average. Does are gobby fat as well. And if you’re not hunting A’kerns right now you’re messing up. All I’m saying. 😂

Those field dressed weights Matt ?

No sir. That’s live weight. But I’ll also add those are certainly not the big bodied deer on the place. We have much heavier deer. It’s actually thrown me off. The deer we’ve killed I had all estimated at 175-185 live weight, and if they are weighing right at 200, that means our heavier bucks are going to weigh well in excess of 200. Our heaviest bucks recorded have all weighed in the 240s live. Never killed one that broke 250.

From my trail cams, it appears our deer are as healthy as ever. I haven't took count of singlular identifiable bucks yet, but its a big number compared to what I’ve thought I had in previous years.

So what you may see in some counties this year could be a fairly significant decrease in the number of bucks killed but yet an increase still in doe kills as folks start shooting more does to “fix the ratio” like they’ve been taught to do……Take Blount Co for example….They’re only at 9% of last years buck harvest currently, fifth from last…..but they’re already at 32% of last years doe harvest which is the 7th highest among all counties and well ahead of the average right now……When hunters stop seeing as many bucks but are still seeing decent groups of does, a lot of folks are gonna start shooting the females saying they have a ratio problem,,,,,, and that’s when the issue of over harvest of bucks will compound on itself…..when the number of baby makers decreases and even less bucks are produced to go around........this is how average is going to go to poor for areas like these.

Again though, its still early so lets not jump to any conclusions just yet.

Let's not jump to conclusions.

It’s them dang beavers making ponds out of Good acorn flats.

I wish I had one of those bumper akern crops

I’ve noticed that the bucks on our land travel in bachelor groups and then start to space out and travel alone in November when the first rut starts. I popped a 9’er that was the dominant buck in the area on Wed before thanksgiving (he already had a solid scrape line in place and was chasing does). On Friday evening, we started seeing a bigger 10 point that we’ve never seen before on the game cam near the spot where I bagged the 9. The 10 is still nocturnal, but he’ll probably be out in the daylight when the “real rut” starts.

IMO - if you have does and the bucks will seek them out and start showing up (It’s like fishing with live bait). I think it’s just easier to pattern bucks in late August or September when they are in groups and tougher when they need their space and seek something besides food