Anyone who has ever spent time hunting in Alabama knows that it is very difficult to arrow a mature, large racked buck anywhere in the state. I realize that we aren’t going to grow the quality of bucks that come from IL, IO, KS, and MI ect. b/c we just don’t have the soil or terrain to support large amounts of bean and corn farming. I think the real problem comes from too many yrs of liberal hunting regulations. Until two yrs ago we could shoot a buck every day from Oct.15th- Jan. 31st. Guess what that means? People did it! I can remember as a child hunting, you could sit on a food plot for an evening and see 20 or 30 deer and never lay eyes on a buck. Back then we only had a 10 day doe season during Dec. ( just as the so called rut ramped up), genius right. Because of the way our state has been hunted, our doe to buck ratio has been so far off as 12:1, which is why we don’t have a true “rut”. Two yrs ago the state mandated a new law that limited us to three bucks per season with the 3rd buck having 3pt on one side or better. I think it’s a good start, but the state has no way of enforcing it, besides honesty and good faith. We have no tags or reporting system in place. My 1st question is, how does you’re state handle the accountability of harvested bucks ? (I’ve hunted TX & IL) 2nd Do you think this limit will wake people up so they will be more selective towards the bucks they take? (STOP SHOOTING BABIES!) 3rd do you think this law is enough to start to swing our ratio’s back in the right direction, and if so do you think it will be noticeable in this lifetime? Any suggestions of what works in you’re state would be greatly appreciated.
I hear you say this allot but If no one shoots a doe and just shoots bucks year after year the ratio Is obviously going to go up In the favor of the doe's.
I would like to understand that because ie: if on average a doe has 1 buck and one doe fawn each year then we are 1:1 but if year after year many more bucks get shot mindlessly by these BAMA hunters than do the does, it seems only natural that our ratios are going to be lop-sided. Please explain your theory... I'm iinterested.
Not trying to doubt you GMMAT. Just interested in how the theory works. I believe that no matter how many yrs I hunt or how much I think I know, Ican always learn something new from someone else. I believe thats how you can always grow as a hunter and as a person.
I love Ohio regulations, 1 buck per year, up to three does in the early season in my part of the state.
Lets look at It this way once Jeff for an example- Assuming each doe has a bb and a doe fawn each year. Say It's 2009 and I have 2 doe's that each have a bb and a doe fawn and there's also 2 adult bucks here too. The ratio before the season started would be 1 doe to 1 buck (Including fawns). If there's 1 buck shot this year (2009) that leaves me with 4 doe's still but only 3 bucks Instead of 4 and the ratio then would be 1.3 to 1. The following year 2 more bucks were shot which would leave me with 5 bucks Instead of 7. The doe count would be 8 and so the ratio would come out to 1.6 In favor of the doe's. 12 to 1 I think would be about Impossible but I could see how a 3 or even 4 to 1 could happen If this trend continued.
Yea Jeff we have a one week Slug/muzzy season in the beginning of Dec, and a two day shotgun season before christmas, when new this year we have a four day muzzy season in jan.
Yea i am very grateful that there is no rifle hunting around here, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. And im def not a big fan of rifle hunting anywhere.
Its tough to argue with math (i'm not good with #'s ). I checked the states web site and the numbers should now be better than I refered to (12:1) when hunting as a child. Harvest #'s bucks does 88-89 season 242,000 81,000 07-08 season 144,000 198,000 I now hunt in north AL were the numbers are fewer but deer are larger and the ratio seems much healthier, but still for two years Myself and my hunting party (who hunt very hard and who are very choosy about what they shoot) kept a log of every deer that we saw and the numbers there came out to 5:1. I just gave the credit to much less hunting pressure in north AL.
in our area of AL, the local DNR agent told us they estimated the doe population at the beginning of any given season was around 18-20:1... sounds high i know, just repeating info I've been told by what I'd consider a reputable source... and from what I've seen myself, I'd say he's a bit high, but not terribly... eta - most of the idiot I've seen around our area will shoot anything with antlers, even buttons/spikes before they'll take a doe... personally I don't understand it, its a mentality/testosterone thing i think...
Our rifle season starts Nov.21st and goes through Jan31st. Its too much! Although I do pick up the rifle from time to time to take my little boy, but the season could be shorter. Our rut is hardley noticible in AL though. It seems there is know competition for the bucks to breed. Thats another point about the ratio's. The chances of getting a response from a rattle or grunting sequence in Bama is slim to none compared to IL and TX.
You can't eat the antlers. I have no problem with small child shooting a young buck from time to time, Thats what its all about (fun), but I outgrew that a long time ago. If i'm hungry i'll shoot a doe. I'll shoot a buck if its going on the wall.
I totally agree, but most of the "good ole boys" don't believe that... though some are starting to get the hint a little...
The mentality of the older gen. is one thing that has hurt Bama ( no offense to the older gen. I'll explain). In the 50's and 60's there were very few deer in Bama, so it was a cardinal sin to shoot a doe back then, Those numbers show in the earlier post from the 88-89 season.Obviously since that time the deer pop. has exploded in Bama, but the mentality remained. Even the club I belong to in central AL still puts strict limits on the does harvested.
Now....... if you throw in a hunting season where they were killing 3 X more bucks than does, what do you get? I have hunted herds where buck/doe ratios were worse than 3 does/buck. When I first started hunting, hardly anybody shot does. Then they went to a party tag for a doe, 1 tag per group of 4 hunters. When people have killed almost nothing but bucks for YEARS, how can the buck/doe ratio not be worse than 3/1 ? I don't see it??
IMHO that is absolutly insane to have a rifle season that long, i know if ohios shotgun season was that long there would be way to many deer killed and thats hunting with shotguns i can't even imagine what it would be like if we could use rifles.
I agree, totally insane... bama could grow some BIG deer if they'd manage their herd better... shrinkin the rifle season to about 2 weeks would be a HUGE culture shock down there but it would do wonder for the herd... and I'd also agree they need to limit buck tags a bit instead of the "one a day" limit they impose now...
I feel your pain on the season length. However, Georgia helped us out a couple of years ago by putting a restriction on buck harvest. We can take anything that walks for our first buck but the second has to have 4 on one side one inch or longer. I know you're going to have poachers doing things wrong but at least it's something. Most of us (QDM people)will never use this tag for the small buck. Our rifle season begins Oct. 18 and lasts until Jan 1. I can honestly say that it seems to be making a difference at least where I'm at. We also have a few counties now that restrict buck harvest to number of points and width restrictions. It'll just take time and us all doing our part to let the babies walk.
when I'm finally living down there on a permanent basis I'm going to go on a quest to make our area better... using QDM and educating the locals on how to do it... hopefully we can make some headway and turn our little corner of the world into some great hunting areas...
