Cody,

Don't give up. Nobody's fighting with you. Just sharing a conversation.

My opinion can be summed up like this. I don't believe there are significantly fewer deer this year than last year. It is human nature to see the past through rose-colored glasses. We remember the days we saw 20 deer a lot more clearly than the days we saw none. When we measure the present against the past, we always think about the good old days and wonder what happened.

I am sure there are areas where deer populations fluctuate. And there are certainly fewer deer in areas where overpopulation was a problem in the past. That is why we started shooting does.

We have a great, sustainable population of deer here in Indiana. You will have good years and bad years but, in the end, we are pretty fortunate.

Harvest numbers are the data that is used to evaluate trends. If these trends indicate overharvest, then limits should and will be adjusted. Trends are not year over year. They are longer than that. And they are not 5% one way or another. There are just too many variable to allow those type of fluctuations to affect policy.

And regardless of our opinions as hunters, there are many stakeholders here and policy makers have to look at them all. Each one has it's goals and data and the juggling act that politicians perform is never as simple as biology.