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I listened to it……Here’s the thing about “acorns”……..Its getting thrown out there as a blanket statement explaining everything that’s occurring……That’s not the case though……It’s A factor but there’s a lot more going on from one area to another……

Consider for instance that Houston Co is coming off a year last season where doe harvest was nearly 20% above average and as it currently sits they are running 9% ahead of that right now……..Acorns don’t seem to be slowing them down…….Meanwhile just on the other side of the state…..Washington and Choctaw are both coming off of 5 year lows in doe harvest last year running -15% below average and are currently this season running another -10% behind those numbers…….Is that acorns or is that just hunters choosing to shoot less does??......I doubt there's a shortage of deer in those areas

Also look at counties like Marshall, Blount, Etowah, Lawrence and St. Clair…….All of those counties are coming off of a season last year where doe harvest was at five year highs 40-50% over the average……..When those folks arent seeing deer this season, it’s more than just acorns……Heck, most counties in North Alabama had 5 year peak doe harvests last year

This acorn idea is being used as a catch all……Its true but its not everything that’s going on……Its not that simple

I agree that it’s not that simple and there are nuances. I just thought it was an informative podcast that touched on how much processing is down, corn sales down, etc. The main host owns and leases large tracts and spends all his time managing for wildlife. If properties like that are not seeing deer, it just shows the impact that an abnormal acorn crop can have.

I kinda think that for a lot of areas the effect of acorns is the same this year as any good mast year and the fact that we’ve been killing the chit out of them is having just as much of an impact……Let me explain what I mean…..

Lets just say we take 10 deer and drop them off in a county like Marshall, Dekalb, St. Clair, etc……..It wouldn’t matter if it were a good year for acorns or a record year…..you’ve exceeded the threshold for “all you can eat”……..Make it 100 deer and we’re still in that same scenario……The fact that there is an excessive amount of acorns on the ground really doesn’t do anything to further change behavior from what it would have been on any given year with good acorns……The concept here being that the lower your deer density relative to the amount of oaks the less this record year matters over any other good mast year…..For a lot of these north Alabama counties will low to average densities I think its likely more than just record acorns…..Its a perfect storm combination of a good acorn year hitting in line with population decline……..But the latter half of that equation will be completely ignored……Some will ignore it on purpose and some will ignore it just being naïve. Look at last years map above and tell me that isnt a factor.....not to mention the fact that last year's harvest was just the peak of what was a 5 year increase to get to that high level we're now falling off of

Weren’t you saying that we were going to see an INCREASE in doe harvest this year due to the bag limit change?

Now you are saying that the DECREASE in doe harvest is due to over harvesting?

Was there any outcome that could have occurred this year to make you believe there isn’t an over harvesting happening?

Ok… so this last cold snap has shown something. For the past few weeks, my does and bucks have been sporadically visiting my food plots that also have a feeder on them. One day there might be eight does… the next three… the next five, etc. In the past two years we had no acorns… and every one of these plots had a pretty static number of does visiting from October on. One plot in particular had 14 does last year and the most that’s been there this year is 8.

Boom… the cold snap happens over the past few days and does start showing back up at plots and feeders. There’s obviously something about cold weather that caused them to leave the acorns and come to the corn - and we still have a LOT of good acorns in the woods. IMO, though there might be other factors in play, it’s THE biggest factor.

They need more calories when it’s cold and corn helps that. We saw more deer this week too. But more during the middle of the day with this moon.

Over abundance of available food is 90%+ of the drop off of sighting and corn/bait usage in my area...........PERIOD. Every species of oak on my property hit bigly this year , even Chinkapin , which is the lowest tannic acid , ice cream acorn. I put out 55 gal of corn in two locations 20 days ago , as of yesterday there was corn visible from the stand on top of the leaves. In a normal year , at those two same locations , in 10 days , no corn would be visible and a very large bare dirt spot would be showing with few to no kernels left. My self and another fellow saw 39 deer yesterday in combined morning and afternoon sits, that's no deer shortage for woods hunting.

I'm not gonna sit here and tell ya what's happening in other counties I've never set foot in , but I can say with 100% certainty what the driving factor is up here. 55 years a student of the animal and the local terrain should speak for it's self.

Another minor, short lived factor up here was the abnormal warm spell , but that was temporary. Also I understand we have a bunch of ducks this year and some may be taking advantage of that. Lota folks up here hunt both. There may not be hardly as many folks in the "deer woods" this year , effecting checked deer numbers. Those two do not point to a shortage of deer up here in OL' Hi-Jackson, possibly fewer deer checked in .

I’ve seen more than one processor post about being at max capacity the last 24 hours.

Just sat a stand on a place that’s got brown it’s down all around it and we saw 10 deer. Cameras don’t indicate there’s 10 total deer on the whole property.

Things will return to normal.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

I can whole heartedly agree with that 2dogs……We got hoo-dooed into thinning down the herd back in the early 2000’s and now we’ve been hoo-dooed into doing it again

I suspect it won't be near as "successful" this time. I'm not worried.

I think most people learned a valuable lesson the last time there was a 2 doe/day limit. I know we dang sure did.

For me, the new rule hasn't changed anything about the way I'm taking deer.

It hasn’t changed the total number for us but it has changed how we do it. Now we can kill 2 in one sit. Legally.

Well we have now surpassed 100,000 deer being checked in......That means we have about 100,000 more to go between now and Feb 10.....A lot of deer should be hitting the ground over the course of the next 4-5 weeks

They are. They’re magically starting to appear again around here.

Weather patterns have already saved a lot of deer in south/southwest central part of the state this year, with the pattern of being warn weather and rainy weekends. Going to be in the 70s all this week with good rain coming back in Friday and all day Saturday. Deer still move in it, but not good. Most importantly, it’s keeping a lot of fair-weather hunters out of the woods. Most people work during the week and hunt on the weekends and every weekend that this occurs, between now and the end of the season, it is saving the lives of literally thousands of deer. Combine the weather and the smorgasbord of food available in the woods, and we should be carrying a whole bunch of additional deer into next season

The weather is really no different than its been any other year here recently…..This is the way it does every year……Actually we’ve probably already had more really cold snaps pre-Jan than we typically have in a normal year……

I agree with that. The only difference would be if the temps were unseasonably warm at the wrong time such as when kids are out of school and more families hunt or during the rut. For the most part where I hunt if it is cold the first week and a half to two weeks of season around Thanksgiving and cold during rut, the other weeks being warm would not make a significant impact.

Camera hasn’t taken a picture since 1:35 last night.