Lockjaw if the limit was infinite on both bucks and does, it would work on our club and surrounding properties.
In other words, there’s almost no one around us that kills all 3 of their bucks and all their does. We shoot does because we have to, not because we want to.
Your property is not the norm in Alabama.
2 does a day gives us the opportunity to kill the does we have to kill to manage the herd in a more timely manner. It lets the woods rest before January gets here.
If no one in Alabama killed a doe everyday if the season, why would you think someone would kill double that?
I have been on 3 different leases. 1 in Bibb Co, 2 in Shelby. All Timber Co. All the same. Poor habitat management. All had yote issues. A liberal doe harvest means every doe that walks out on a greenfield gets shot. Then you roll into the rut, and the bucks go looking for doe's and the ones left are gun shy and buried up in the thick stuff no one can hunt. They (members) get frustrated they don't ever seem to kill a nice buck, and stop seeing doe's to shoot, and they go to the next club, and do the same thing. It gets to the point if you have a 6pt or better rule, every deer that has 6 or more points gets killed. People go, if I let that buck walk, the next guy will kill it, so I better kill it.
I have just summed up most hunting clubs. Someone tell me I am wrong.
What I noticed on mine was killing doe's led to a situation where I had more spikes, 3pt's and forkhorns. As in probably 2 to 1 ratio. It frustrated me. Some of you may remember me fussing about it. I had always been told the deer would reproduce to fill the gap. I finally emailed Dr. Grant Woods and asked him about it. He said that was false. Deer have offspring in a 50/50 split. He said the best I could expect was 48/52. Then I saw the GA study on predator control and fawn recruitment. That gets me to the math that can't be ignored. On your typical timber co lease, for every doe you kill, you need 2 to survive and have twins. Half of the 4 fawns should be doe's, and Yotes will kill 2 of the 4. That leaves you with a buck and doe fawn.
If I kill 10 doe's, I need 20 to survive, be bred and have twins. If I kill 15, I need 30 to survive, be bred and have twins. If I kill 20, I need 40. See where the math goes? I have 10 members, if all 10 kill 2 doe's (which is the limit), then I need 40 to survive just to replace those deer. How many bucks do I have on the lease? 1050 acres. I have (supposedly) 1 mature buck per 250 acres. I have alot of spikes and buttons, because we aren't kills 20 bucks a season. The herd will eventually get way out of balance. Which mine was a few years ago. This is the first year I feel like I am back to "normal". I have been running the club for 4 years now. That's how long it took. We probably killed 4 or 5 doe's in that time frame. More bucks.
So at what point do I exceed the actual carrying capacity of the lease? The more doe's I kill, the more I need to survive to replace them. There has to be a balance, and allowing people to kill 2 a day isn't going to make that happen. That's why I would prefer a tighter limit and people use Dmap to deal with excess doe's.
This year was a PITA, I had to replace 6 members. It's hard to keep people if they hunt and don't ever see a deer. I bet I had 10 people say they would take a spot, and then never pay. If they hunt and don't even see a deer, what's the chance they will renew? ZIP! Everyone wants to kill deer. No one seems to want to manage the population. And this 2 doe a day limit makes people think we have enough deer to sustain that.
