Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Deer in decline

We shoot them with no problems. We don't limit it, but we are respectful of how many we shoot...just don't put it in writing. I've taken one, and we've had 4 total shot this year, with a good 20+ deer sightings in only a handful of hunts. Conecuh County.

I haven't killed a doe on my property in 5 years. Population still continues to decline.

The yotes are knocking a bigger dent in the herd than most people realize.

Same at our place the past four years.
Numbers don't lie.

You guys need to start yote hunting year round. They are your biggest enemy.

I haven't seen but one yote during deer season and couldn't get the gun on him fast enough. I got an electronic call for Xmas and plan on trying it out in February.

we've killed 2 does in 5 yrs on 3500 acres. Never bought into the idea of slaughtering the does to equal out the ratio. More does mean more bucks in my book and if they got plenty to eat no problem. We have a very visable rut and it seems to work out just fine.

Clem in my case, that would be very possible. Probably 80% of the SE portion of Marshall county has ZERO deer. The deer are in pockets. When those pockets are owned by 10 landowners and 5 of those landowners shoot 2 or 3 does each, it doesn't take long for the population to drop, especially when combined with very high coyote numbers. That's what we've seen here, and my opinion is not based on hunter sightings, it's based on year round trail camera numbers.

It is ridiculous ludicrous insane which ever adjective suits you to have the same doe harvest limits in every county in this state. Every person on this forum along with the people that sets the harvest limits know that there is a large disparity between certain counties and certain regions in this state on the size of the deer population. They need to go back to the way it use to be when they actually set a certain number of doe days for the counties based on the deer population in that county or region. For the folks that hunt in those counties with limited doe days that have a higher than normal deer population for that area or a large tract of land with few hunters you can get on the DMAP and get permits to harvest more as is needed for your particular situation. This stuff isn't rocket science I think someone said on here the other day. My .02

Our problems are all the one stated above as well as summer crop damage. We got one who brags about shooting 89 this summer around my club. Hard to recover from that. And there are more who claim to shoot this many as well. Lying?????? maybe. Still when you don't see many it makes you wonder.

That's absolutely ridiculous if that's really the case... That's not an ethical hunter if you ask me... I hate when it's just a numbers game to people!

I wonder how many the coyotes are taking out during fawning? We got a bad coyote problem out our way. No matter where you gut a deer there won't be a stain next morning.

If you think about it... where alot of us hunt are in poor counties, poor areas of these counties at that. How many of you here shots being fired at night......locals killing deer to feed their families? Say this goes on all year long when we aren't spending as much time down at "the camp". Who knows how many deer are being taken out....

It absolutely amazes me the difference in places around the state. At my place this past weekend (Wilcox county) 6 of us saw a minimum of 19 on every single hunt (Friday pm - Sunday am). Not 19 total, that was the least seen by one guy, I had 29 on me sat afternoon. I hunted Tuesday and Wednesday in Dallas county and saw a minimum of 21 on each hunt. My buddy had 41 from 2:00-5:30 on Wednesday afternoon. I'm not bragging about these numbers, just trying to give you an idea of others hunts. We were talking this weekend at our place how we thought this was one of the better years we've had.

I believe an auburn professor wrote an article about research of a predator pit, basically between humans and yotes there are a lot of deer killed. I believe this could be a problem in areas for sure. I don't think the research was complete when I read the article because research was on going but it gives you something to think about. I'm in a 3200 acre club that kills about 20-25 does a year and we've only killed 3 bucks on the place and 2 of them didn't meet club minimums. Deer sightings are way way down from previous years. There is a large healthy pack or 2 of yotes that roam the property, I have several pictures of them and you can see there crap In the roads where they are running them at night to sneak up on deer on food plots. I think they have really hurt the deer population. I hate yotes hate them.

[quote=Offshore]It absolutely amazes me the difference in places around the state. At my place this past weekend (Wilcox county) 6 of us saw a minimum of 19 on every single hunt (Friday pm - Sunday am). Not 19 total, that was the least seen by one guy, I had 29 on me sat afternoon. I hunted Tuesday and Wednesday in Dallas county and saw a minimum of 21 on each hunt. My buddy had 41 from 2:00-5:30 on Wednesday afternoon. I'm not bragging about these numbers, just trying to give you an idea of others hunts. We were talking this weekend at our place how we thought this was one of the better years we've had.

How thick are the coyotes down there?

I haven't seen 19 deer all season on my property, much less one hunt

We killed 3 coyotes last deer season, 1 during turkey season and 1 this year. However, at my place, we are covered up with hogs and have been for years. I also have hunted with a buddy of mine in hale county and they haven't seen 20 deer all season. It's truly amazing to me the differences. None of the places I hunted are managed differently or have a big difference in rules/guidelines or a big difference in terrain. All the places I mentioned are a mix of pines, hardwood bottoms, agricultural fields and believe it or not all privately owned.

My numbers are down at my farm this year. I usually see several deer on every sit but this year haven't seen anything. I got the answer to my question a couple of days ago. The cotton grower that leases all the land around me killed over 100 this summer with his crop damage permit. When he told me I just about threw up. If I had known he had killed all those deer I might not have invested near as much money as I did. He has no plans to end this practice and I'm torn between his right to protect his assets and my right to enjoy hunting deer. Probably won't invest in off season or in season plots anymore. Why fatten them up just to be killed and rot in the summer heat.

I didn't even know that deer would eat cotton plants.