Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Where have the deer gone ?

I’m all for educating hunters but education isnt going to get folks to follow a buck limit……Hunters from Alabama go to other states all the time and follow the laws and it isnt education that drives them to do so….They do it because they know better than to dick around in other states…..

I know of some that go to other states and don’t follow laws as well. I don’t think it’s an either or thing. Do both. Increase penalties DRASTICALLY. Increase enforcement DRASTICALLY.Increase education DRASTICALLY. But who are we kidding? It’s never gonna change. And since it’s never gonna change, I’m glad that we have the freedom to manage the property I hunt the way we do.

I understand completely what you’re saying and it’s not that I disagree. I just don’t think it’s right for a man to get “tags” based off the land he has access too in globes example. That’s a slippery slope. I understand all about the above scenarios. I’ve been very fortunate to hunt well managed places and even where I hunt now I choose to hold myself to a certain standard. I don’t need rules regulations to do that. But I also understand my standards may not be enjoyable for the next guy. Not trying to be argumentative Matt. I agree with about 99.9% of your opinions

I with agree with you too. I don’t think tags should be assigned based off acreage hunted either, but I do understand the thought process behind it. I don’t have the answer. I just know there’s a better way somewhere.

You do know that Alabama already does this don’t you. They pretty much match what other states charge us to hunt and fish there. Reciprocal agreements between the states.

It’s costs me almost $480 for the license and baiting permit. That’s a pretty good chunk of change for anyone to pay for the “privilege” to hunt in Alabama. However that is just a small part of the total amount of money just our group adds to the economy in the area we hunt. I’d really hate to put a pencil to what I spend in a year in Alabama. I’d probably get sick to my stomach. Our place is way more they a place to hunt. It’s our get away from the insane world we live in now and a place for the kids and grandkids to run free and enjoy what we have there. That my friend, you cannot put a price on. Deer killing is way down on the list of things at the camp.

Yeah I’m not in favor of increasing OOS license costs either. They’re high enough.

Especially when you compare what they are getting with regard to the quality of the Alabama hunting experience that they’re getting for their money when compared to other states. OOS hunters bring a ton of money to small communities, stores, restaurants and landowners all over AL. Lots of stuff and places will dry up, if they start disappearing. Probably a nice chunk of revenues for WFF too, which is already severely underfunded.

8 pages of nonsense- where have the deer gone? They are in the woods. It’s too hot to hunt. It will be cold again end of next week. Go hunting then. You will see some. There are plenty.

Twaldrop4, nah man it doesn’t have anything to do with being rich or poor, it’s about reasonable limitations. You can’t honestly say that 5 guys with 5 acre house lots (that join each other) SHOuLd kill 15 bucks and unlimited does on 25 acres “just because it’s legal”.
If you think that’s ok, there’s no need in even talking about it.
I tried to give a reasonable example, even the 5000 acre club would have limitations of course.
All I know is the current set up of unlimited deer on unlimited acreage is a problem (that I see).

This. I hunt a 350 acre parcel in Mentone area. We have throughout the years had multiple people split some of the surrounding tracts from 50 ac to now multiple 5-15 ac tracts. They shoot everything. After years of planting etc, the landowner who I’ve hunted with has said screw it despite him having unlimited money. He has gone to #2 after years of us passing up buck after buck only to never see etc. Plus, half our group are meat only hunters but we’re kept at bay from shooting small buck until recently. He no longer plants fields just bushhogs and dumps corn now. He now is fine with anyone shooting whatever because “the neighbors will kill it”. It’s sad and sucks. Now, the property is a shell of what it was and what it can become.

Yep

Hey look its the guys that hunt 5000 acres and 7000 acres telling everyone else there's nothing to worry about.....That rich.

No. I don’t think a guy with 5 acres should shoot that many deer at all. I usually have land across multiple counties kill 1-2 bucks a year total (last year didn’t kill a buck) and usually 1-2 does I think that guys with small acreage for sure kill more deer than they used to but I don’t think that a guy with a small acreage is limiting out in that acreage every year. Sure there are exceptions but in my opinion it is the exception.


I guess I didn’t articulate my thoughts well. What I’m against is any government entity further restricting what I can and can’t do on property that I own. If it’s mine it’s mine and it’s no one else’s business what I do. My reason is if they can restrict what a small landowner does then the door is open to further restricting what a large landowner does. If the state wanted to fix it all that has to be done is physical tags and harsh penalties for violators.

The 3 biggest deer I have access too right now are 50 yards from my bedroom window. One of them is a big deer. They’ll all live if it’s up to me. I want to shoot them but neighbors like seeing them and I don’t have but a couple acres so I’m not going to rock the boat. I get what you’re saying globe. If we sat and talked I think I could explain myself better. I basically think any and all regulations the state has done is waste. The 3 buck rule is stupid and unenforceable. You can still legally kill 2 spikes. That’s not helping much. Physical tags would fix alot of the problems but there’s not as much money to be made in that as selling privileges. I say all that non sense to say I don’t think government intervention will ever fix anything with game laws

I don’t understand how years ago when you could kill a buck a day for the whole season, that the buck population wasn’t wiped out. And don’t tell me it’s because they weren’t feeding corn. I’ve been around Alabama hunters resident and non resident, since the early 80s. Everyone of them was baiting and everyone around them was baiting also. They shot every buck with any kind of hard antler on its head. They would always say the more they shot, the more they had. And there were still lots of big deer killed back then. I think most big deer that are killed are never heard about because of the fear of losing their hunting areas to big money. We still kill several fine bucks every year on our mediocre pine plantation property. Yall see some but yall don’t see all of them. Also there’s a ton of big bucks posted on Social media and in YouTube videos that are killed in Alabama. So there must still be some bucks somewhere. The only way to fix whatever problem with the deer population is to fix the problem with the mindset a big portion of the hunters in Alabama have. No tag, enforcement of buck limit, or making corn illegal to hunt over again will solve the problem. The mindset of those hunters is to far gone. You’re not going to change it.

That’s easy to answer. Back then killing deer was a random occurrence. Now it’s targeted removal. Bucks of all ages were being killed in 80s, and management was not a thing for most. Coyotes were only beginning to make an appearance so recruitment was through the roof. Now, most deer are killed because of a camera. Hunters at minimum know the deer on the landscape and they have targeted removal of only the deer they want. In most cases it’s the absolute best 2-4 year olds. It leads to high grading and I see it everywhere. So those higher end bucks are not being recruited into the age classes needed for them to really show out. The bucks that are making it to 5-7 years old however, are the ones on the lower end of the bell curve. I see properties all the time that actually have a decent percentage of mature deer, but it’s all the ones nobody wants to shoot, but they’ll run each other over and step on their own momma to kill the 130” 3 year old old 10 point. 😂

First time I’ve heard an explanation that makes some sense

twaldrop, I always find sense in your posts, I just believe that we don’t have to invite “increased” government to fix existing bad government. I’m referring to replacing some bad wildlife regulations with better regulations.

That makes sense Matt. We no longer run cell cameras for that very reason. I like the element of surprise. I’ve had seasons where cameras had dang near costed me the whole season chasing 1 particular buck. And once I killed that buck, I had no interest in hunting any thing else. I was consumed with that deer. Yall have seen him. It was that wide 10pt from a few years ago. Which was younger than I thought he was. After that I’ve gone back to my old way of hunting. Trails, creek crossings, road crossings and clear cuts. I’m not even interested in hunting around corn anymore. It helps to see numbers of deer but I’m not looking for some deer, I’m looking for the deer. I’ll know what that deer is when I see him. Last season was the first season I didn’t kill a buck in the 15yrs I’ve been hunting in Alabama. I saw several bucks that I had the safety off but couldn’t make myself shoot. And this year I’ll be a little more selective since I killed one here at home. I still put corn here at home because I’m the 40ac guy trying to pull a couple decent deer of the 6k acre rice farm that surrounds my property. However we’ve only killed 3 bucks here in the past 10yrs. Bayli killed here first deer, a 9pt and I killed an 8pt a few years ago and the 10pt this season. We see lots of deer but are very picky because bucks around here tend to grow pretty old. Very few deer hunters around here and only a couple employees of the big rice farm bow hunt with recurves so a lot of bucks get passes.

Thanks. I really try to see both sides of an argument. I’ve learned that most of the time there’s logic and reason that causes the person to formulate opinions. I believe that to a point cnc is dead on what he says and see in his region. I feel that he projects what he lives on the state as a whole though and then refuses to hear anything differently I know a lot of people that hunt. Of the ones that I know literally 100s most won’t hardly shoot a doe period much less 2 a day. Of the people that I know personally that hunt I bet less than 20 does total get killed. I do feel there are people that globe alluded to and cnc alludes to that absolutely take advantage of liberal bag limits, but you’d have to provide me some hard factual evidence (like hunting club kill sheets with names assigned) to prove to me that it’s an widespread problem. Game check is entirely inaccurate for the most part. It’s to easily manipulated and I know folks, especially older, that just aren’t going to use it so those numbers are a waste in my opinion. Most people would hate my regulations if I was in charge so it’s a good thing I’m not lol