Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Doe numbers

CNC will beat the ever living shite out of a dead horse

Exactly, and I bet you would say the same thing about corn and cameras, it ain't going nowhere. So it comes down to hunters doing the right thing.

^^^This^^^

If we want to control does, set a bag limit to limit the doe take in parts of the state that need it

Seems like this is starting to get into fair chase with corn and cameras.

Fair chase died with a guy looking 100-200 yards out over a field or food plot in a shooting house with a 15x scope on a tripod. It's about the furthest thing from fair chase that there is, and that's how probably 80-90% of hunters in AL kill deer. In my view, set a bag limit then let people go hunt - if that means the guy is stalk hunting with a thermal monocular, I don't care - he only gets his 1 buck 2 doe. Using corn? Same thing. Big greenfield with a high powered rifle and scope with 20 deer in the field? Still 1 buck 2 doe. 25 cellular cameras... same thing - you get the picture.

And for the record I don't have any of the above (other than the rifle) and do most of my hunting on WMAs. I've sat one field/greenfield the last 5 years and was bored out of my mind. Fair chase is all relative. Somewhere there's a guy that deer hunts with a stone spear and traditional stone arrowhead bow who cringes at even the most hardcore compound bow hunter.

The two exceptions I have to that are dog hunting (because dogs run onto neighboring landowner property) and night hunting (because it's outside of legal hunting hours, and I don't love the idea of gunshots going off all night).

You don't have to shorten the season, just put a cap on the number of does per person. In GA it's 2 bucks and 10 does, granted they have better genetics than us for whatever reason but something seems to be working for them.

Remember kids...

Matt Brock, Wildlife Biologist.

CNC, Not Wildlife Biologist.

Then make a graph with his 64 color Crayola set.

CNC works the night shift at the Holiday Inn. Sleeps in the back. That's the situation. He's got a dead horse out back by the dumpster and dead stick propped up beside it.

I’d recommend that everyone interested in this topic listen to the southern U podcast episode 5. Really good in depth info about deer density.

Georgia has a different type wildlife management structure and evidently a different type of hunter than the majority of Alabama. Why, because they have a significantly better age structure within their herd and it is by design. 2 bucks per year, one of which must have at least 4 points on one side and a 15" outside spread. That 15" outside spread reg, all by itself, would save 50% of the bucks killed in AL every year. They have 9 counties within the state that are considered trophy managed and county wide in those 9 counties, no bucks, zero none, zilch, can be taken possessing less than 4 points on one side and a 15" outside spread. 4 counties do not allow any firearms hunting at all. State is divided into 5 management sections for doe harvest. Doe days by section are as follows: 8, 13, 32, 85, 85. You're allowed a maximum of 10 does per year, so in total, you are allowed 12 deer period. They are also more serious about enforcement and fines. If you are caught hunting over bait on public land or anywhere where baiting is prohibited, the fine is $5000 and/or up to 12 months in jail. Heck you could probably shoot a GW in AL and not get that. It's all about attention to detail, enforcement and doing what is best for the wildlife resource and the people using it. I'll also mention that baiting is allowed on private land and there is no baiting permit BS. Hogs can be hunted at night, with a light, year round and there is no night hunting permit BS.

In short, GA is waaaaaay better managed than AL and the hunters over there follow the regs a whole lot better than the hunters in AL. Most likely because there are real fines and real penalties for breaking the law over there. Whereas AL hunting regs remind me of Joe Biden's catch an release border policy. Break and game law in AL and you'll be fined, maybe a couple hundred bucks and court cost, and you can go straight back to breaking the law and doing whatever you were doing that got you busted. And........that's only if you actually get caught by our severely understaffed wardens that are being asked to patrol entire counties and sometimes multiple counties here in AL. Bama's game and fish management department (not the wardens, the management. I've never met a what I would consider to be a bad GW in Bama that didnt take their job seriously) and the CAB are both really nothing more than a joke.

Poor horsey .

What he really likes Is to beat his chest and listen to himself talk.🤦‍♂️

This combined with a tighter doe limit (zone dependent) would completely change improve AL hunting.

Make all the rules you want, without enforcement nothing will change. Only the honest hunters will follow the regs.

So you couldn't kill a "big 6" that everyone wants? And spread ain't nothing but air, air is everywhere.

Bullock Co has already added another 6% onto the doe harvest in just the last 2 1/2 days......The doe numbers in Bullock is likely gonna end up 30-35% over anything in the last 4 years.....That's roughly an additional 600-700 does being taken out across the county

I am short a deer and we in rut but season almost out. I gav away one of my deer w confidence i would kill another buck. Doe gonna b n danger starting next week - almost done and looks like more rain next week and rain tomorrow - maybe only 3-4 more hunt-able days and maybe not that. Doe fixing to be in lot of danger come monday r tuesday

What about that 6.5 yr old 20” spike?

We will never have what the upper Midwest has. Those trips to WI took the wind right out of my QDM big dreams back home. Look and smelling that soils as all harvest a needed.

It’s like this. I rarely and I mean rarely saw a 1.5 yr old or 2.5 yr old that wasn’t an 8 point. Saw only (1) 1.5 yr old spike in several years. As told they were very rare. We weren’t even in the best part for deer in WI either. Didn’t see crappy racks traveling thru Missouri and Illinois.

Opposite experience here. Rare to see the racked 1.5 yr old and see way more 4-6 pt 2.5 yr olds than 8 or more 2.5 yr olds.

Not saying Alabama is like that everywhere because there are pockets of great deer. Also by getting the deer ratio and carrying capacity in check will definitely help. But no amount of regulations will make us like the Midwest.

Bullock Co has added another 4% onto doe harvest just since I posted yesterday……That’s 10% in less than 4 days…..Whackin and stackin