I can speak for parts of Franklin, Winston and Marion. As many or more deer than ever in the tracts I’m familiar with there.
On one 600-acre tract where there’s only a few weeks of doe season, we’ve killed 6 doe and still seeing 20 on a heavy day.
There was an abundance of acorns this year compared to last year and the drought wrecked greenfields in NW Alabama.
Acorns combined with little to no greenfields equals less deer killing for the average Joe.
Also it seems like now that there are more deer and it’s zero challenge to killer a doe, less folks are interested in killing does. Everyone is waiting on that 2-3yr old 8pt to daylight on the cell cam at the feeder.
15 years ago when deer weren’t nearly as abundant. I would hear 10-15 shots on opening day of season (also opening day of doe season). Nowadays I’ll see 20 deer on opening day and might hear 2 shots.
The deer are still here, folks just not interested in nanny whacking anymore.
