Guys, IWDHM at it again listen to this.
https://www.facebook.com/Indianadeerherdmanagement/posts/1464487046896306
First half

https://www.facebook.com/Indianadeerherdmanagement/posts/1464636263548051
Second half

One has to remember that theses meeting (CDAC)are NOT DNR sponsored and no where has the DNR said the input taken at these meetings(CDAC) will be considered input for Deer management!

I'll bet ten dollars to a stale donut when DNR makes its yearly adjustments to county doe tags, iwdhm claims credit for it

Personally....I have no problem lowering the Bag Limits state wide, never knew anyone that didn't want to see more Deer when hunting.

The First step I would think should be getting out of the State wide REDUCTION mode we are in.IMO

drop the late season antlerless and reduce ALL bonus county quotas.... Plus have a state wide maximum one person can kill...1 buck two AL's (and I'm being generous here), unless you get drawn into a "special" hunt..

Brew This is what seems to be forgotten in the whole process. Like many Midwestern states, Indiana embarked on a herd reduction program several years ago.

And while I can appreciate the IWDHM's enthusiasm, in the end I think the IDNR will raise/lower bonus antlerless permit numbers based on harvest trends.

So someone who hunts or owns various properties in different counties or even different properties inside the same county don't hunt vastly different localized herds?

I know fellas that are taking 6 or so does off their places (between themselves and others) EVERY year due to their doe numbers being high.....making a statewide bag limit would only illustrate a naive way of thinking deer herds are IMO.

I saw some data posted by IWDHM on their page yesterday that shows numbers from the last two seasons (I guess the DNR gave them access to preliminary numbers for 2016/17) and I found them quite enlightening.

Using the numbers they posted...

In 2015, hunters that killed 3 deer or less accounted for 97.17% of the total harvest.

In 2016, hunters that killed 3 deer or less accounted for 97.46% of the total harvest.

This could have been easily accomplished by purchasing a bundle license and nothing else. No bonus antlerless tags @ all required.

Chew on this fellas....technically if you kill your buck in firearms season you can harvest 4 deer before you even get into bonus quotas....

Factor that in we must see what numbers are for those that killed 5 or more deer:

2015, only 946 Hunters harvested 5 or more. Total of only 5,528 deer or 4.43% of the overall harvest.
2016, only 852 Hunters harvested 5 or more. Total of only 4,930 deer or 4.13% of the overall harvest.

Above is assuming data presented is fact, which I have no reason or assumption that it is not.

CDACs can be an amazing thing and resource if and only if three things occur:

#1 - Well constructed. Meaning EVERY stakeholder outlined that should be involved are involved...the fewer stakeholders represented the weight of the conclusions drawn drops as well.

#2 - Well lead. Each CDAC board should lead in an unbias approach and their personal views or opinions NEVER enter a meeting or impact opinion in any way.

#3 - Highly involved. IF a CDAC is going to attempt to speak for an ENTIRE county of stakeholders the involvement MUST be incredible. Just speaking Hunter number wise...if a county has say 3K or 4K hunters....just a 100 folks showing isn't even enough IMO to even pay attention to the survey results or questioning votes.

Those three things MUST be included for CDAC's to hold value and if are can be tremendous resource. Truly a well constructed CDAC could be the biggest public input resource the DNR could have to utilize.


DESPITE all that one must realize though that CDAC's do have a limitation no matter what and that is they are opinion driven. Opinions are impacted by a tremendous amount of various reasons inside of one person. 2 folks hunting the exact same property might view the localized deer herd completely differently....or have completely different expectations.

Did you take the time and add up the numbers they posted to see if they equated to the correct harvest number for the years posted?

Another note does anyone know if this group has a accurate count of the Deer in the counties they have formed a pilot CDAC in?...... They have claimed the DNR doesn't or couldn't count the Deer but they would and could!

Keep in mind that the DNR went into a reduction phase when the legislature told them to or the legislature would regulate deer numbers for them. Yes, I want to see deer everytime I go out but I really don't want Rep. Bill Friend writing the game regs for me.

HJ

Agree 100%

The harvest numbers appear to be correct.

I assume these are the numbers... correct jjas?

It's legal, ok, I get that, but, why on Earth would somebody need to shoot 15 deer let alone 4 or more?

IMO, after a couple. it becomes more of just shooting them versus hunting them.

We eat 4-5 a year. Usually one is made into sausage (except the back straps of course). Luke in recent years has killed 2-3 and me 1-2. Not killed from the same area though. I put in for as many hunts as I can with the draws.

I can't imagine killing 15 deer either, but what would you say should be the limit on a statewide basis?

Exactly. We have four in the freezer and they'll be gone before next deer season. We could probably kill double that and still not have much left after a year. I still consider myself hunting them even after that many in the freezer. Just because a couple is good for you doesn't mean that should be the rule for all.

I'm not trying to tell anybody how they should hunt nor would I ever do so, and if you and your family consume every deer you harvest, then that is outstanding.

To answer your question jjas. My personal view is four deer per hunter is a God's plenty (even though I would never shoot that many). I prefer to shoot deer that are big enough that all I need is one deer to satisfy my needs.

My comment had more to do with a guy I use to work with who two years ago him and his family went out and shot 8+ deer and wasted all of it by getting summer sausage made out of it. Then this past fall I ran into him at Rural King and asked him how his season was going and listened to him b**** and moan because they only managed to kill a couple. He was too stupid realize that he and his family killed everything off the season before.

While I understand your frustration with situations like you described above, according to the new harvest report less than 1% of deer hunters in the state take more than 4 deer.

I'm sure it would be tough to break down the report when it comes to hunters taking multiples of deer, but it would be nice to know the circumstances in some of these high number yearly harvests.

Are these hunters buying those licenses and hunting multiple counties? Are many of them landowners who feel they have too many deer on their property (or properties) and thinning them out during the season?

I'm definitely curious.

IWDHM Group did an interview for channel 14 news. Going to air tonight at 5:00 pm Evansville time 6:00 est

www.14news.com

More Fake/False News...... what is it this time more Florida Deer Hunters leaseing INDIANA ground to shoot Does... SMH