Great movie! Love the Dude!

I am a Purdue and Butler grad. Very low cost of living, good schools and community, and decent job prospects kept me here. Deer hunting is pretty good in my corner of the state (west central).

Maybe I should see if anywhere in Iowa is hiring. Would be cool to have resident status there during deer season!

Keep preaching how bad Indiana public land is. Less company for us during early archery season.

No hard feelings Stinger, appreciate the come back. There is some really good deer hunting around our state, but access can be tough, I agree. Leasing has changed the game in many areas.

Public land can be tough too, but there is some good hunting on public if you work for it. Put in the time, it's ours to enjoy. To all you achievers out there, the dude abides.....

Since I don't know everybody here on a personal level I'm not going to go out and call others rats for whatever reason but I will say that I agree with you on some of the things posted... There is a lot of stupid childish banter that gets posted on here...

I didn't like Prop 1 then and still don't to this day... I also think the second it would have been adopted then the General Assembly would have gotten involved... All it takes is ONE Assembly member or relative of one to get butthurt and they will stick their nose in and we will all be mad just like when they got involved in the rifle debate when the DNR shot it down...

Before we adjust any season or length, will all better be on the same page and agree on everything to keep the General Assembly out of it... Once they get delve into it, then it is all over...

I wouldn't be against starting gun season on the Saturday before Thanksgiving as long as it was kept at the current 16 days...

I also wouldn't be against starting gun season the first Saturday in December for 16 days as long as if ALL deer hunting was banned in November... If the whole point is to grow bigger bucks and protecting the rut, then EVERYONE is going to give up something...

good post

Thanks...

I think we can all come to a consensus that the state could do a better job of managing the herd...

I wish the state would focus on managing deer instead of managing deer hunters.

I would think the two would have to go together to achieve a set goal.Deerhunter/Deerherd

Not happening today. Our regs are set up for maximum hunter opportunity with little regard for the resource. Deer are treated like vermin in Indiana...not much better than coyotes.

We are both vermin, left unchecked humans will kill and eat everything in sight, deer left unchecked will eat everything in sight and die of starvation in front yards. The managing department has established a sustainable herd where hunters are the primary controlling factor. If the numbers grow farmers and auto drivers (Insurance Companies) are going to plead for higher kill rates and more reduction. With these driving factors in our governing bodies its never going to change. These threads are simply a dumping place for frustrated hunters whose voice is only heard here. Just enjoy what you have, take what you need, and protect what is left.

Sorry, I've never been a "bend over and take it" kind of guy...and if you knew me, you would know that for fact. Plenty of states successfully manage deer herds without 40+ days of gun annihilation, full crossbow inclusion and basically unlimited tags (i.e too damned much hunting pressure)! What's happening right now in Indiana is unprecedented compared to other Midwestern whitetail states. If it is allowed to continue much longer....and the voices of frustrated hunters bother you....brace yourself!

Your last words were "protect what is left". That's exactly why I'm voicing my concerns, and not just online.

Herd reduction is going on all over the midwest.

IL deer harvest is down
http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/firearm-deer-harvest-down-illinois-deer-hunting/

OH deer harvest is down 9% over last year
http://www.chroniclet.com/outdoors/2016/12/09/ODNR-to-blame-for-low-deer-harvest.html

IA deer harvest has dropped from 180K in 2005 to 105K 2015-16
http://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting/Population-Harvest-Trends

Maybe years of the QDMA and TV personalities preaching the "Kill enough does" as part of your "deer management plan" is taking it's toll on the herd.....

Is QDMA starting to realize this?

https://www.qdma.com/have-we-killed-too-many-does/

Maybe the years of the IDNR issuing to many antlerless tags and a super long gun season has taken its toll ... when Billy Bob see's his county is an 8 bonus, and his cousin see's the same county is an 8, and Brenda Sue see's that county is an 8 and their deer hunting uncles see it is an 8 bonus county, they think HEY, there is too many deer here (even if there isnt) and they all try to take as many of that 8 AL tags available because they have that new .308 that will now drop 'em at 300 yds and the DNR says there is too many, and they think why not kill all I can....the DNR says there is too many they MUST know what they are doing (NOT !). ....

yep....

My hunting properties never saw hunting pressure after day 3 of firearms season...no late season doe hunting.

yea, I know of a handful of land owners up here that said no rifles and no does at all (but they cant get the neighbors to go along)....If you wait for the DNR to change bag limits, its to late.... why they still do the urban stuff up here is beyond me, there aint a deer to be seen in a bean field in late July, very few seen in cut corn fields in feb/march and where there is any deer, you cant hunt (many of the local towns)(Valpo, Portage, Chesterton, Porter, Lake Station, Merrillville, Hobart, etc)... and the development up here is destroying what habitat there is left ... Ive watched thousands of acres that was once prime habitat turn into subdivisions in the last 15 years... its sickening...so the pressure is then put on the local Fish and Wildlife areas, who have had some of their worst seasons ever .... Pav mentioned "hunting pressure", well its is beyond belief on these areas...combine all the other forms of hunting on their places, its a wonder any deer get killed at all on 'em ...lol... forget about "natural movement patterns" .... from squirrel season on starting in Aug., I'll bet 75% of the movement is night time, the rest is early AM and very late afternoon...there is no mid day movement ....

Exactly! Seems to be working, right?

So explain to me why Indiana needs such aggressive regulations compared to those three states.

None of the three come close to Indiana's 40+ days of gun pressure. The three states combined offer fewer pre-December gun days (including youth seasons) than Indiana's 16 day general firearms season alone.

Yet, according to harvest figures, all three states are experiencing deer reduction.

So what would you say the DNR needs to do?

That Iowa data is really interesting, thanks for posting. Tons of info. Anybody know what happened out there to change it so drastically? They went down over 50k from 2005 to 06. And have stayed much lower. Rule change?

I could do with less gun days. With next year's late gun opener.... I hope to be in the barn by then.

Yep.... But some here don't want to admit that can happen....

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 ...

EHD?

Exactly... +1

Just for some perspective, keep in mind that this board is a very tiny "sample" of deer hunters. There might be a couple hundred posts on even the most worthwhile thread. And half of those are the same 2 or 3 crybabies and trolls girlfighting each other.

I enjoy the few reasonable members who post here so I keep coming back. But it is a dangerous thing to form an opinion of the state of deer hunting from this board. So don't give up or get frustrated. Just keep on keeping on. We have work to do. But don't we always?

Peace.

Another Worthy post!

I would go buck and doe or two does and your are done for the year, unless reduction or draw hunts which would still be govern the same way they are now...

I didnt want to be to "radical" and get called names by some on here ...lol...

but 2 per year works for me, 'cause that is my own personal limit, 1 buck, 1 doe with the bow.....this year it was just the big 8pt, same for 2015 ... Ive killed only 1 doe in the last 3 seasons..

When the bundle was being talked about, I thought it might end up being a "two deer tag" that could be used for one antlered and one antlerless or two antlerless deer.

It obviously didn't work out that way....