I'm happy it's over too John.
Not as optimistic as you on the "trend" though.
Here's why...
The month of November 2014 was pretty bad weather wise. The last week of archery and first week+ of firearms were unseasonably cold....with snow and ice in many areas. I missed a fish fry in southern Indiana with the gun hunters on the farm first Monday of firearms season because of icy road conditions. Northern Indiana got hammered with snow from the same system. I believe South Bend received over a foot of snow right before the opener. That arctic blast was followed up by a major wind event the second week of firearms season.
IMO, due to the extreme weather, Indiana deer hunters left extra groceries on the shelf in 2014....which equated to a higher harvest in 2015. Guess what I'm saying is....I believe the 2014 harvest is artificially low and the 2015 harvest artificially high due to weather conditions. Given equal conditions, I believe those numbers could have easily been flipped.
This year, firearm season opened as early as possible and we again had very good weather conditions. Even with the introduction of rifles, we're still going to end up short...with the lowest harvest total since 2003.
The trend I'm seeing / experiencing is nothing close to stable. The first year of Prop #2, we killed over 136,000 animals. Five years later, we're at roughly 118,000 (with rifles). I'm not a guy that believes EVERY deer killed with a rifle would have survived otherwise....but I do believe there were SOME deer killed with rifles that would have survived otherwise. The real answer lies somewhere in between....and would drop that 118,000 number even lower without rifles in the mix.
The number of deer I saw while hunting this year (lowest ever by far)is unacceptable given my 25 years on the same Ripley and Jefferson county properties. The number of deer I've seen while driving back and forth to work in unimaginable given the 17 years of daily commutes I've made on the same 34 mile round trip stretch of road in Jackson and Bartholomew counties. Saw a deer along this stretch Saturday morning...first deer I've seen while driving too and from work since mid-November. That's simply unprecedented.
The harvest is definitely falling. Just how far people are willing to let it fall remains to be seen. Already too far in many areas...and the recovery, if there is one, won't be overnight.
