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?
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.
