Reduce antlerless tags to 3 or less, that would stop the late AL gun (prefer the less), and/or stop the deer reduction zone/urban designation.... do one or the other but dont run both at the same time...(reduction zone + a high Al bonus)
The DNR did move the zone only to the north side of the counties of Porter and Lake and off the Kankakee river basin, that was a good move ... we dont need to have a bag limit of around 20 deer up here, unless it is in a city that has a "recognized deer problem", like Beverly Shores did years back, and that has since been brought under control by bowhunters...as for the F&W areas, that is a whole different can of worms... I know JP is trying with their archery only designated area, but then you have the waterfowl guys in there driving around disrupting deer and blasting away, and YES, it does change the deer's movements. However, JP did limit the shooting time for waterfowl to noon, so that should help both waterfowl and deer hunters....and of course the F&W areas do not allow bonus tags nor the late AL gun season on them which is a great thing .... I will find out later and see what the hunter numbers were for JP for deer, last season they were actually up slightly. That can effect the number of deer killed, but the hunter numbers have been pretty steady the last several years....Kingsbury is still a free for all, but again, one of their worst seasons ever...dont know what their deer hunter numbers are (up/down?), but from the several guys I know that hunt religiously there, they say deer kills and sightings are waaaay down. Laporte is a 4 bonus county this year, its been a 8 in the past as Porter county has been....Lake country was dropped to 4 this year ..... the F&W areas also have some cheaters on them, those that dont check in, or if they kill a deer lie about where it was taken if they even check it in at all ...this Ive been told by a few CO's who try to catch the clowns .... they are tough areas to police ... still have to wait to see what the final tally is when the report comes out ...