Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Bucks back together

I live in North Georgia. Our season closed Jan 11, and I have videos this week of bucks fighting and chasing does. I have also seen antlered deer in early March here.

I have killed bucks in Sumpter County, AL in early February with no sign of loose antlers.

I am not a biologist, nor do I question Mbrock's statements. Just adding to the discussion.

Simple fix? Start all weapons, doe and buck October 1st everywhere. Cut off doe season in a few selected areas two weeks before flrst sign of fetuses then continue with buck only until February 15 or 30th depending area of state. Just make some lines across state with select counties on one side or the other. Still some discrepancies, but don't worry about few small pockets unless area can be easily defined. Don't make it complicated like other states! Let folks have the season to get out in the woods and enjoy the long season when they want to. Go to 1 buck per person each year 6 points or more for 5 years to get some big bucks growing! Last sentence will make lot of folks mad! Would put some bruisers the on the wall though!

Ya'll talk about baiting like it hasn't been going on 40 years before they started selling the baiting privledges....
People have always put corn out. You guys act like you never heard the saying "100 yards away, or out of sight"
I heard that for years before i ever started hunting from everyone in the county!
Point being, baiting is not a new thing...whether it was legal or not......

I'm a fan of the Feb. season. Keep the first 2 weeks of December and let me have Feb.

I hunt in Marion junction and our rut is just getting good. Our deer will breed into late February . Typically drop their horns mid to late March.

Phill dawg I'm in between Platersville and Valley Grande and got a lot of new bucks on Camera the last few days

This is about the peak for the late Jan does

Definitely seen a big uptick in bucks on camera the last 48 hrs.

Mellow valley/New Site area here. Club about 5 miles long from N to S. Chasing on the N side and grouped back up on the S side. Per say cameras.

I guess all my bucks are early risers, they’re beat up and all eating at feeders together for the last week now.
Yeah groups of 6-7 does back together too.

some zones closed yesterday didnt they? Or maybe the day before?

I am not far down the road from you. This week and next week has always been the best times to kill a big one. I do hate how it is the last two weeks of the season, a time when I am always wore down and quite frankly a little burned out but there is really no denying that this is the time that the bucks are the most active.

I killed one a few years ago in Houston county just after the February extension that had already cast his antlers. We pretty much quit hunting on January 1 since.

My experience is similar to N2turkeys, I see bucks with antlers chasing does every turkey season. I used to see more when the season came in 3/15, but still see some. I think most have dropped by the end of the first week of April.

I thought ending the season 1/31 was the perfect time for our place in Perry county. Phases of the rut are still going on then, but I see no reason they have to be hunted til the end of the rut.

I was looking at the fetal study data and found it interesting that they sampled 42 deer from the Stimpson Sanctuary in Clarke Co where many of the restockings came from and found that the earliest bred doe was Jan 23

Right, and those does have been sprinkled all over the state in various places.

Be nice if the state used our hunting fees and sprinkled some mid-western does all over the state to give a better genetic strain.

Mbrock correct me if wrong, but didn't most of GA herd come from Wisconsin and Tex.? I think they have a little more concisely timed rut from this all across the state?

They are dropping them in Lauderdale some now but with the acorn crop I suspect most will hold this year.

But January shedding in Lauderdale isn’t rare either.

I'm seeing 2,3,4 yo running solo, just cruising . That's in the woods , not fields or plots .

Got a 5 year old last two nights pawing scrape out .