Cool Hand Luke
Senior Member
I think in the nineties you had 1.5 to 2 million deer in the state and places were over run with deer. People hammered the bucks and doe days were limited, so in most of the state you had tons of does to one buck and most bucks were low in age class. The tags were increased to 7 then a limit of 12 with very liberal doe days. I think the DNR accomplished what they wanted and got the population down. Do I think there are places or tracts of land that have been over harvested and can't recover because of hunting pressure, lack of habitat, and coyote pressure, yes. But overall the deer heard is way healthier and balanced now that in was in 1990. Just look at the age and number of mature bucks killed now compared to 20 or 30 years ago. If I have said once I have said it 1000 times, the 12 deer limit has absolutely nothing to do will people not seeing deer because 99% don't come close to killing 12 and most don't kill 2. It is the 10 people hunting 300 acres all trying to kill one or two that is the problem. People need to quit blaming the insurance companies and realize most places can't survive one hunter per 25 acres even if the limit was one.
I am not complaining nor did I ever mention deer population although Georgia has never hit the 1.5 or 2 million mark. Pretty sure it was at an all time high in 1998 with about 1.4 and has decreased but stabilized since. This thread is about managing wildlife for the benefit of our deer herd or hunter satisfaction. The DNR has done an exceptional job with research and implementation of programs and when QDM was introduced in the early 90's, hunters began to realized what a valuable resource we have to maintain. Every member in my club could have easily limited out last season but we choose not to.