Just for fun, let's assume our co-op mentioned above was in Choctaw county. Us starting to shoot needed does, and checking them in at a rate of 30-35 per year would've caused Choctaw county to show a percentage increase in doe harvest of 2.75 - 2.8% in the year we started doing it, and that would be the effect of just one tiny 5000 acre contiguous block of 4 separately controlled properties. Meanwhile, Choctaw county is made up of 581,000 acres of land, yet one group of guys on just 5000 acres can change the total harvest for the entire county by almost 3%. Just 10-15 big or even decent sized clubs, changing hands, changing membership, changing management practices, changing reporting participation, in any given county, can have a massive effect on what the trend lines look like. Likewise, if clubs are not seeing the numbers of deer they think they should be, or want to see, and do what we did the first 6 years and say, we are going to build up our herd numbers, and completely quit shooting does or severely restrict doe harvest, which I know some have done, you'll see the harvest numbers start to fall off and you'll think you have a more significant problem than you actually do. Taking 12-16 years of harvest data and breaking that into 4 yr averages and comparing it might actually show something but looking at trends over just the short period of time that game check has been in place, when we know that participation was minimal at best in the early years, simply cannot be used to establish anything that is ultimately useful for determining anything other than the number of deer checked. I understand your concern, but there are just too many variables and unknowns to make any blanket hypothesis that all the deer in Alabama are now being killed off because of corn piles, or out of state hunters. I'm sure that Game check has the ability to provide how many deer are checked by out of state hunters versus Alabama residents. You ought to petition Chuck to release that data. I may be wrong but I think when you look in the mirror, you'll see that they problem is yourself, as in Alabama residents doing 95% of the killing. Yes I'm like you and I too think that too many bucks are being killed, but way too many bucks have been being killed in Alabama since the Charles Kelly days. It's why the state's overall age structure and herd is pretty much abysmal in comparison with reaching its genetic potential and it has pretty much sucked for the past 50 yrs. Too many young bucks being killed, overly extended breeding seasons, late dropped fawns, overstressed bucks, etc etc. I dont know what the solution is because it is quite apparent that most of the state of Alabama, likes to shoot any buck they see with a rack on his head and nobody that does, has any plans to slow down or stop doing it.
Last edited by abolt300; 12/27/24 02:58 PM.
