Well, I should start by saying that the STAFF for the Shades SP is amazing. They check'd folks in like clockwork, were kind and helpful, and always go beyond the call of duty.

UNFORTUNATELY, the dang deer at shades is/are a different story. They decided to no-show.

At 2pm, when I called it quits- I asked how many deer had been check'd in at that point. JUST 2 deer- for the entire park for today. I think I heard 9-shots total in contrast to the 50+ shots last year/this same week.

I am worried about deer density on these hunts- or at least for the Shades and Turkey Run. Seems that it is not the same as it has been in other years.

My buddies went to Versailles this year, for the third year in a row- and have done average. Therefore, I think one should not assume it is a statewide density or SP issue-- but rather the parks in the greater Shades/Turkey area..

ANYONE else have thoughts as to what might be the case with these?

I don't hunt the parks now. Sure seems like it would be a density issue. But, that is what the goal was. If the densities are low now, that means the DNR has finally got those populations under control and will likely keep them at the lower levels.

Yes, I should have phrased better- good for the state parks to have a better deer herd size. Bad for me which hoped to hunt a high-deer density hunt this year!

They shoot for less than a 0.2 harvest per effort. That means roughly 80% of hunters are going home empty handed.

Take a look at the past data also, the second hunts tend to be much lower than the first hunts in terms of deer harvest.

The current state of the hunts is not what even close to what brown county was in 1993 0r 1995 when about everybody left with deer.

The Park deer management objectives are really to preserve vegetation, not maintain high levels of deer.

2012 data:
http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/files/sp-DeerRMRR.pdf

Justin-thanks for that 2012 data link. Great info.- it seems to be working for the parks very well. I know I and my buddies really do enjoy doing what we can to help them each year.

I was in area #2 at shades and didn't see a thing today. In at 5:30am and out at 3pm. Did see a nice doe a guy brought out of the east end of area #1 in the parking area. About 9 shots is all I heard all day. About 10:30 I got impatient sitting on my spot and moved to another location. After being at new spot for 10 minutes a shot came from where I had been, then a few minutes after I see the guy that had been to the south of my old location comes looking for where the deer went, I guess he missed on them. Find out later in the parking lot from another hunter, 3 does ran right through my original location. He wondered why I hadn't shot at them, but he didn't know I had moved. Dang, my luck. I'll be back tomorrow!

At Shades, going in I passed 2 does on the highway 1 mile east of entrance. Got on stand in area 1 by 6am and had a buck pass by about 20 yds out at 6:30am. Absolutely nothing after that. Did hear about 10 shots early in morning. After doing some ground hunting for a couple of hours, I started pulling stand out at 12 pm. I'm I frustrated, not really, seems its just a down year for deer population.