Originally posted by John Scifres: I'd be good with 3 deer (one buck max). I'm not sure it would really do much except for the potential psychological impact of creating the impression of scarcity. Maybe folks would shoot fewer deer but I really doubt it.
One thing to keep in mind is that we function with limited data that is essentially restricted to how many dead deer each county has at the end of the season. That's good for overall trends but its a small window looking at the deer population.
In 2016, there were 2,166 hunters that killed more than 3 deer (and 852 of that 2,166 killed more than 4). And while some will disagree, I don't really consider that a huge number (852) of hunters statewide when we've been in the midst of herd reduction.
FWIW...it's my understanding that the DNR is shifting more towards a "management as needed" goal and as such I'm sure there are going to be counties that are targeted for reduction as population trends warrant. Just as I would imagine that there will be more counties removed from the late antlerless season this year (as there have been for the last few years).
