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We had a 6 buck limit here in Louisiana for as long as I could remember until hurricane Rita came through. We never ran out of bucks. Back in the day we had a competition to see who could kill the 6 biggest bucks every season. And we didn’t/don’t have the deer population Alabama has. Certain areas may but not statewide.

A shorter season and lower bag limit in places like Kansas has been mentioned in comparison to Alabama. Then, deer hunters compare the "quality" of bucks in Alabama to Kansas and say Alabama is inferior because we kill too many, too young so we need a shorter season and lower bag limit.....like Kansas has. What no one ever mentions or looks at is that Kansas has 69,870 square miles of farmland (7078 square miles being soybeans) compared to Alabama's 13,437 square miles of farmland (562.5 square miles being soybeans). Then you look at Kansas having a deer population of 8-9 per square mile vs Alabama's 25 deer per square mile. If you look at the number of deer vs the acreage of nutrition in each state, it's a no brainer as to why the deer are different there. Yes, Kansas has a much shorter season......because they have a third of the deer we do. If we had a season like theirs, what would our population look like in a few years?
Comparing Alabama to places like Kansas and wanting our deer hunting to be the same is like me wanting the duck hunting to be the same here as it is in Canada. No matter what you do, it will never happen because the circumstances are not the same.

Yup, it's an apples va oranges comparison.

Driveby, I think this is where my position is misunderstood. I’m not comparing all of those things. You’re 100% correct about the land dynamics and population differences. You mentioned comparing “quality” of bucks and I agree that is foolish too. My point is that no matter the ag percentage or census differences, you can absolutely accomplish more comparable age structure in the state’s deer herd, albeit through much different season regs.

Just wanted to clear that up and anyway I think Pwyse has convinced me it’s a moot point. A desire to manage intensively will have to be through other alternatives.

Yep.....was just about to say the same thing.....The conversation was about the ability to enforce rules.....That has nothing to do with the amount of farmland

Yep T-hatchie...... from my previous post. "Alabama is not the Midwest, Texas, or the Mississippi delta by any means, but I think people would honestly be shocked at what can be grown with just age, on timber co land, in relatively poor Alabama soils."

CNC is correct. Rules on the books are designed to promote maximum harvest and maximum dollars coming into the state, while quality and what's best for the overall health of the herd, is not even an afterthought in the equation. Rules that we do have on the books are not even remotely enforced and on the rare occasion when they are, the penalties imposed are honestly so weak that it is laughable.

And as a response to what someone else said above: Yes that Genie could absolutely have his butt shoved all the way back into that bottle. People will have a fit but it can happen if the regulation and enforcement side is 100% supported and actively engaging those attempting to circumvent it happening and the penalties are serious enough to get attention.

Supposedly, there are about 230,000 deer hunters that hunt in some shape or fashion in Alabama. I wonder how many deer hunters really care about what they are shooting. Most of us on here do, but we care a lot about trophy hunting for the most part. We want to shoot big ones. I'm just not sure that's the majority of deer hunters, little less the vast majority. Even on here, a lot of the bucks killed/posted aren't close to mature nor trophies, but the shooter sure was happy with it, or he wouldn't have posted it. I don't think unless you own or control a really large tract of land (and funds to manipulate it) that you have much of a chance at managing on any scale. All you can do is manage yourself and what you control.

I have a serious question. I’ve been a full time non resident hunter in Alabama since 2009. Years prior I was a part time NR hunter but know a bunch of people that has been hunting since the 80s. I probably made my first trip in the mid 90s. I remember the bucks that would get shot pretty regular on the places I would guest hunt. They’d shoot anything that had hard antlers. Thinking back to the bucks we would see our first few years compared to what we see and kill now is a world apart. My question is, are yall seeing the same size bucks you’ve always seen before the 3 buck rule began or are yall seeing bigger bucks since? Even with the ones the neighbors are shooting. Is the class of bucks being seen no better than when it was a buck a day for the whole season?

Mine are better but i got out of clubs. Clubs were always small deer with few big mixed in - clubs always pull trigger on small deer

I got the pressure way down too. One of my best spots never gets hunted much cause u need an east wind. Only hunted handful of times a year - got multiple spots that hardly get hunted
The spot i got set up where i can sneak out without being noticed i hunt more - but pressure essential the same because i slip out undetected

You saying someone should stick to a topic in a conversation is like Hunter Biden telling someone they shouldn't do blow.

But......The reason we are talking about enforcing rules is because someone wants more rules. The reason they want more rules is because they want "better quality deer". When wanting better quality deer, Midwest states, i.e. Kansas, are brought up for comparison and their shorter season and lower bag limits are mentioned. I was pointing out the main reason for the better quality deer in those states was the different habitat and lower deer population, hence the different rules on season length and bag limits. Rules that some say are enforced better there. You see, farmland does relate to the conversation. It's a circle. Try to keep up.

I killed my first Alabama buck a few miles NW of where you hunt Marsh in 1975. In my observations the most big deer (weight and antlers) were from about 1981 through 1992. There wasn't as many hunters in this area, but no one hardly was letting anything legal walk. You could kill a buck a day. Many people that I knew including myself were killing 15 to 20 deer a year. From about 1982 til mid 90's, I averaged about 12 a year with over half being bucks. Some really big for our area, some really small :-) A big scoring rack then would be very similar to now, mid 120's. Occasionally, a bigger one will show up, but that is very rare. I've seen no significant change in the number of deer nor largest size thru the 40 years Ive been hunting this area, with the caveat that there are less big bucks in general. I.e. you don't see as many large racks but plenty of bucks in general. I know plenty of really good hunters in this area that have never seen a 130 buck in person in this area in basically the same time period.
There is a big club in the area that is one large isolated chunk, 5-6000 acres. They have had that land for over 20 years, very low pressure, are very particular of what they shoot, few members, plenty of money to feed and plant year round and is ran by a president that will run his mother out for breaking a rule. Have been on a management plan for at least the last 10 to improve age structure, body weight and antlers. The body weight has gone up but antlers have not.

Brock made a great comment that before baiting and cell cameras, “good potential” young deer and “poor potential” young deer were killed at the same rate. Now a higher percentage of “good potential” young deer are targeted, which basically high grades your herd over time. It has a negative cumulative effect. He can clarify if I misstated.

That’s 100% correct. I see it all the time. The very best (highest scoring) middle aged deer are selected to kill and the lower end of the bell curve is selected to walk. That puts the lower scoring deer in the upper age classes, while the higher scoring deer are being removed between 2-4 years of age across the board. I see very large acreages losing near 100% of 2-3 year olds on the upper end of the bell curve every single year. They don’t lack mature deer. But they certainly lack the better mature deer. That ALL changed with legalized baiting on small properties and cameras. Selective harvest over random harvest.

Another repercussion from corn and cameras . Who'da thunk it?

And add 10 more days to get it done, while our natives are beginning to drop antlers.

What were the other repercussions??

That’s been my experience even in a lease where we were paying at least twice as much to try and achieve utopia

Things I learned, we’d never have what the Midwest has. We had a few gooduns but we had way more dinks. Just don’t have the nutrients and genetics. Seeing black soil for the first time was eye opening. Our cherty hills can only produce so much. Besides, folks paid good money and wanted to kill horns. Even with many more than the norm reaching older age classes still couldn’t hold out for 4.5 or 5.5. A few of us could but that’d cost 10 k a person. Nope!!!!

I’ve put my hands on enough bucks to realize we just won’t on average produce anything near what is produced in the Midwest. The dinks there were 1.5 yr old 6 points or less. Never saw one that was 2.5 or older that was a dink.

Kinda like driveby spoke about ducks. We’ve had hunts here in Alabama that have rivaled any duck hunts in arkie except green timber. Sorry that’s the pinnacle. However and it’s a huge however. Day in and day out nowhere here compares to elsewhere like arkie or other true flyway states. But that has changed hugely as well


What’s funny and I mention a lot, when we started our club we had a half page of rules. I left 13 years later and we had 10 pages. I was president for numerous years but I didn’t write rules, I was the tie breaker with the board.

Folks get pretty petty and jealousy rules. It’s just how it is.

I supported buck limits big time. Still do but 3 is plenty enough with one being an AR requirement.

Baiting and cell cams have ruined the art of woodsmanship and actually hunter sentiment. Many don’t realize it but actually harmed peoples mindset and anticipation in the hunt. That WAS a huge motivation for what could it be. Naming bucks and putting them on the kill list just diminishes the overall experience.


That’s one thing about duck hunting and I believe the reason for all the popularity. It’s like a box of chocolates and as long as you’re not a mallard snob it’s kinda cool experiencing all the differences between the different ducks.

We had a group text started this morning from a few our guys that are going up at the end of the week. Their main concern was where they were gonna put out the corn at. I gave them a list of areas not to put it. And none of the plots or regular stands was on the list. They will not hunt anything that doesn’t have corn which is great for me. Leaves probably 60% of the property to me to hunt as I wish. And the best part I wouldn’t be anywhere near anyone to chance messing them up or them messing me up.