Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Charts and Graphs

Yeah, like giving liberal doe bag limits and leaving it up to landowners to manage their properties.

I think you’re trying to extract meaningful insight from likely poor data. Without tags and high fines, I don’t believe any of the published data. I don’t even believe you can find “trend” from chite data.

Maybe......it does pretty accurately reflect when the rut hits in different areas though.....I guess its got that going for it

Arguing at himself...again !

I'm adding this here just for the sake of having easy reference to it....

https://www.aldeer.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4214154&page=3

I tell you why its down in Jackson County . You will twist your ankle on acorns if you are not careful. The fire has gone out of us old guys on here. We are just going to wait to gun season to get our meat supply. I have a bunch of cameras out and feeders. Got less pictures than i ever have. Just means they have shifted food sources.

CNC, Overall ? I'd agree. But in regards to doe management, I'ts the way they used to do it, and it worked.

The five year trend line on does for Jackson starting with last year.......2287.....1794.....2360.....1669.....1875......


Looking at the up/down pattern it would be time for it to be a down year if it hold true again.....What was the akern crop like last year in Jackson??

I think the acorns are probably part of the story…..The other part is that hunters have been wearing the does out for 2 of the last 3 seasons…..Its probably a combination of less deer this year combined with a lot of food is why your camera is not picking up as much.....Madison Co next door has the same pattern....Dekalb does as well on the other side.....

Madison.....1320.....961.....1347.....1007.....1181

Dekalb......1330.....1082.....1206.....942.....988

This is the truth. You need not log your deer kills as long as you don't process them. If you have your own land and handle the processing yourself, then why log any? Other than a game warden might pay you a visit, I just don't see it as an effect method.

2 doe's a day is a ridiculous limit. I just don't get the mindset that the wholesale slaughter of doe's is an effective deer management tool.

Well…..it accurately shows the rut timing and now it seems to be accurately reflecting acorn crop booms and busts……Where is it that y’all believe the data is failing to show fairly accurate trends??....or is it just a generalized "I dont believe" but have nothing further to add

The limit does not mean you should shoot that many. It allows hunters and landowners more flexibility in managing their properties.

It is inaccurate in that if you are a private land owner, and process your own, your only reason to complete a harvest record is fear of the game warden paying you a visit. Not that I do this, but I could also do it on my lease. Kill a deer, skin and quarter it, and roll on to the house to process it. The only way it would be a problem is if the game warden stopped me.

Before they had the game check on the app, you could order your license online, print a copy of it, fill out every kill, and then go print a new one and start over. Again, the only way you would really be caught is if you got checked multiple times by a game warden.

There are plenty of people who kill more than 3 bucks a season too.

2 doe's a day has nothing to do with herd management. My bet is it has everything to do with the insurance lobby. 40 years ago, we had doe season. It's not like hunting land has increased in availablity in Alabama in the last 40 years. A crap ton of hunting land in and around Auburn when I lived there is now subdivisions. We didn't have Yote issues back then either, and somehow, 7 days of doe killing, or using archery equipment kept them in check.

Everyone is all happy, they can go kill every doe they see. I am just now starting to see my deer pop on my lease rebound. To many years of people killing every doe they see does alot of damage, especially when you can't manage the habitat. Have to kill Yotes or it takes a long time.

Hardly any acorns last year

Based on what?

I will give you an example. I had a state biologist come look at my lease once. She spent about an hour on it. Looked around, said, kill 15 doe's this season, and then we can age the jawbones and make a recommendation. We have not killed 15 deer a season out there since I have been in the club beginning in 2018. To replace 15 doe's, how many do I need to remain and get bred? 30. Assuming all 30 have twins, and all the fawns survive.

Deer density in Shelby Co, when I can find it, was 30 to 60 deer per sq. mile. I have 1.6 sq miles on my lease. So that means I have 48 deer on the low side and 96 on the high. I am certainly not on the high side based upon what I see. If my ratio of bucks to doe is 3 to 1, then I have 12 bucks, and 36 doe's, on the low side. It the ratio is closer, then my buck number increase and doe number decreases. 36-15 is 21. That is not enough doe's to replace the 15 killed.

Not with coyotes and no ability to manage habitat.

You can't tell me a limit of 236 doe's to 3 bucks works. That's how many a person could theoretically kill in Alabama. But go to most hunting clubs, and guess what, people will kill 2 doe's a day, every day they can. And then in a few years wonder why they don't see any deer or bucks.

We’ve touched on this a little in past conversations but what is likely happening in Jackson Co is folks are wearing out the does on bad acorn years…..The last two rounds of bad years they’ve just worn them out another 30% harder than usual…..Now on this good year you cycled on, you have a few less deer with tons to eat and they spread out a little……Doe groups arent gonna stay heavily concentrated on any one piece of land for long when this pattern is occurring over the broader landscape around you…..Folks say let me manage my does as I please but yet the reality is that the group is managing them just as much as your individual decisions

Just because some hunters don’t check their deer in though doesn’t make some of these patterns untrue......There will still be a big rise in the number of legal bucks killed during the rut and it will accurately reflect the timing of it…..Are the hunters who don’t tag them effected differently by the rut??....No….they most likely kill more too…..The pattern in the data for rut timing is true……Same for the up/down pattern of Jackson county due to mast crops…..Do mast crops effect hunters differently…..No……It doesn’t require every hunter to report their kill to see a lot of these patterns form and be true…..Its not an all or nothing situation where just cant trust anything like some want to make it be…..Most of what its showing is an accurate reflection of the ups and downs occurring on the ground…..

It is so property dependent, it's hard to really quantify anything. For instance, I only have 125 acres and I have a minimum of 30 deer hitting my fields every night. My neighbor owns 5,000 acres and I have as much or more acreage in food plots than they do. Heck, he has a 700 acre pine thicket that directly joins me with one little 1/4 of acre plot. Where do you think a lot of their deer are coming to eat? I'm really not sure how to manage that situation. I do know that I want my resident bucks to have plenty of food but that is looking to be a challenge with number of mouths I'm feeding.

Sounds like you need to start smashing some does.