Glad to hear a few guys are doing well on public land. All I hunt is public land. I kill deer every year on public land. I see at least one nice buck every year on public land.
With that said, I've been sitting way too many hours in the stand on public land to see the small numbers I'm seeing in bow season. I walk an amazingly long way off the road... Fact is, I'd challenge anyone to come hunt with me and call me lazy. ANYONE. Last year my son and I went down a draw that was unspeakably steep to hunt because we knew nobody else would. Killed 2 and had a nightmare of a drag(liked to killed my brother). Again, I love to eat them myself. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with shooting some does.

In gun season, I "hunt the hunters"... works every year. Always will. In bow season though, I should see more deer sign than I'm seeing. I've wore out some boots and just finding very little sign this year especially. Been to several different places too. Probably put 600 miles on my truck and none of these places are more than 30 miles from me.

Maybe I'm just in a rut? But even though harvest data is all the state has to go on... I still think it's incredibly inaccurate. I think we hunters can manage much better than the state can. After all, how many people who lease or own land ask the DNR how they should manage it?

The harvest numbers they feed us yearly are a flat out joke and a lie! They aren't foolin anyone who talks to hunters on a daily basis!

I am sure there is a handful of knowledgeable deer hunters that could objectively put some management scheme on the parcels they hunt. But to believe that the masses could is unrealistic.

I agree that the scheme in place, with the exception of limits on antlered deer, has become essentially a self regulating one. The only limits on does are the size of your freezer or your desire to kill another one. Hardly anyone shoots more than 2 does per year. And the few who do are likely limited by access to property that can sustain damaging doe harvest. In other words, they will run out of does in their local area but, they only have a local effect.

Conspiracy theories about harvest stats are just that. Most people check in their deer. There are anecdotal exceptions, but I would wager they are insignificant.

Until the harvest numbers drop a lot, like 25%, expect the scheme to stay the same. Every year, these same arguments rage. And every year the harvest is a record, or a near record. We live in the golden age of whitetail hunting. Personally, I'm loving it.