Found this interesting. Due to decline in herd they are proposing shorter gun season (which they'd raised due to abundance), shorter antlerless only season and bag limits, archery tag to 1 buck vs 2, and allowing crossbows for all.


http://www.realtree.com/brow-tines-and-backstrap/missouri-deer-season-to-change

It will be interesting to see how that pans out....

I've said in the past that when archery hunters in Indiana consistently account for a higher percentage of the overall harvest, the Indiana gun season will likely be shortened/moved in some fashion.

The late antlerless season can be added/removed on a county basis without going through the rule change process and thus the IDNR can add/subtact gun days as they see fit without the drama.

is shortening gun season by 2 days (from 11 to 9) really a significant change??

Most of the deer are still going to get whacked in the first 48 hours of gun season...

I don't see where it would....

Got a kick out of the bowhunters comments... Just like some bowhunters here... Don't mind them as long as they are not allowed while THEY are out hunting...

Always afraid someone else might get "THEIR" deer... :rolleyes:

Personally I think if everybody is worried about a huge decline in the deer population in Indiana they should allow each hunter regardless of equipment used to take one deer only. Don't shorten the seasons except for maybe the archery season. Make it two days only, December 24 and 25.

I like their arguments about why moving gun season out of the rut makes "Biological sense" =)

So, what happens in a state the already has a short, post rut general firearm season and crossbows (i.e. Ohio):

Cleveland Plain Dealer-

By D'Arcy Egan, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on January 15, 2015 at 4:44 PM, updated January 15, 2015 at 5:07 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio's white-tailed deer hunters are mad as heck and want to tar and feather the Ohio Division of Wildlife decision-makers for encouraging a major slump in this year's deer hunting success.

Sportsmen's complaints will be heard at Deer Hunting Summits, held at five ODOW district offices around the Buckeye State on Saturday, Jan. 24 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. That includes the Akron District Office, 912 Portage Lakes Dr., Akron.

Before you go, reserve a seat by calling 330-644-2293 by Friday, Jan. 23. There should be room. On Wednesday, only a handful of people had registered for the summits.

Don't expect Mike Tonkovich, Ohio's head of deer management, to agree the Buckeye State needs a lot more deer. Tonkovich and his crews will develop new deer management goals this spring after this year's complaints, promising to look at loosening the controls to allow the herd to grow a little this year. But not too much.

Deer hunters complain the ODOW has simply allowed too many deer to be killed in recent years, depleting the population.

"The criticism we've received is an expected reaction," said Tonkovich. "Hunters are dissatisfied, but so were farmers with crop damage and motorists who had hit deer. We live in an agricultural state with 11 million people.

"The first time the deer harvest hit the 170,000 mark (in 2001), it was a record and everyone was excited. After harvesting more than a quarter-million deer (in 2009-2010), the harvest of about 170,000 deer this year is being considered a shame and a disgrace, the end of deer hunting in Ohio as we know it."

Tonkovich said a buck harvest that had peaked at about 90,000 antlered deer would shrink to about 65,000 this year. Ohio hunters may have been killing more bucks in recent years, but there was a sort of disconnect in 2006 and 2007. More bucks were being harvested, but the number of bucks qualifying for trophy status with the Ohio Big Buck Club did not increase.

Deer hunting in Ohio has radically changed over the last couple of decades. While gun hunters once killed 90 percent of the deer during their short week-long season, bowhunters now harvest more than 50 percent of the deer aided by a four-month campaign. More deer are now taken with crossbows, which were first allowed in 1979, rather than compound bows or traditional longbows.

No one seems to remember a promise made long ago that the crossbow hunting season would be trimmed if crossbow hunters began to take more than their share of deer.

Making Ohio hunter success more difficult has been a loss of public hunting grounds, from mismanaged wildlife areas to vast southern Ohio tracts once opened to the public by timber, coal and electric companies. The situation is so dire that ODOW surveys of resident hunters show only about 5 percent now hunt public land only. Resident hunters who sometimes hunted public land fell from 49 percent to just 32 percent from 2000 through 2012.

There was a reason Indiana bowhunters pushed for that crossbow license. When (not if IMO) Indiana is faced with cutbacks...it will be interesting to see where support for that lands.

Our current deer regs are entirely too aggressive. We have both long firearms/ML seasons and full crossbow inclusion. Too much...too fast.

Bowhunting provides maximum opportunity with limited impact on the resource. That is a FACT. Crossbows in bow season change the landscape. It won't be long before there are more deer killed in this state using crossbows than with archery equipment.

Sorry...double post

Tags, tags, tags. Control the tags and you control the harvest. Yes, then manage the number of days afield and you have more control. Weapons then create an affect also. But, if you have no tags, weapon choice doesn't matter.

But they have to sell the tags to create revenue....... And they have to have something "worthy" out there to generate tag sales.

If you give a hunter 30 days .... Or 10 days..... They will still buy the tag if there is something in the field they want.

If there is nothing or very little in the field they want..... It's not going to matter how many days you give them .... They will NOT buy the tag.

Which is why once "Quantity" is diminished from a position of "tag worthiness".......... "Quality" will be the next jump left to create tag sales.

But we can't get to "Quality" proportions with a 30 day gun season.

That will change.

pav I've been saying that if archery hunters can kill more deer on a consistent basis the gun season will likely change....As a matter of fact, I said that very thing in this thread.

jjas

I don't think there is quite the relationship between the number of tags sold and the "quality/trophy" nature of the deer herd. I still believe there are a lot of guys, likely the majority who would love to shoot a big buck, but who will buy tags and shoot whatever comes by. In that sense, I don't really believe deer managers are under that much pressure or need to produce an older age structure.

But we can't get to "Quality" proportions with a 30 day gun season.

[/QUOTE]

Gunseason and the days allowed to shoot a BUCK has been the same for many years....the herd has/was grown with a 30 day gun season.

Delaney is correct...its all about antlerless Tags Tags Tags!!!

It seems some don't want many folks to be able kill there "ONE BUCK" when hunting...SMH

The have "grown" at one point...it is no longer growing and is on a major decline in many areas.... as Ive said, just wait till the **** CF's kick in...

That has to do with unlimited antlerless tags...

BTW...Heard the Head man of IDNR say at the HPR meeting in Jan...."HPR's are only a social issue We control the herd with tags"

The Directors comment of "social issue" which has been said to me directly in a call recently with the downtown office, is an interesting comment, and one that I would have advised otherwise. The point being that if the IDNR does wish to deal with any social issues, then any engagement of the agency other then the number of issues tags is worthless and unwarranted. In essence, the agency has no business setting season lengths, weapon use of any kind, any aspect of restricting hunting near houses, buildings, DNR facilities and/or having any role in rule setting in any manner. His comment tears apart any sense of the agency having a role other then specific biological aspects of wildlife. Actually, in a sense, it also negates any reason for the agency to care about any overpopulation of the deer herd because that in itself is purely a social issue. Not really sure the Director favorably positioned the agency with such a comment. And frankly, his comment encourages everyone to work more directly with the NRC and the legislature then the agency. Very, very perplexing to me.

Gunseason and the days allowed to shoot a BUCK has been the same for many years....the herd has/was grown with a 30 day gun season.

Delaney is correct...its all about antlerless Tags Tags Tags!!!

It seems some don't want many folks to be able kill there "ONE BUCK" when hunting...SMH [/QUOTE]

Delany may have been refering to antlerless tag sales..... I was refering to overall revenue made with all tags available both buck and doe....

We may be talking about two different things.

Revenue vs. herd size is certainly two different issues with compelling difficulties for the agency.

I truly agree....but I also believe many folks would still Hunt(buy tags)to have any type of successful chance just to KILL any type of Deer....be it one or three... Big or Little!!

For many it just takes ONE Deer to make them a happy(successful)Hunter!!!