I hate the idea of HPR here. Hate it. But, whatever. We don't need them. It won't change the harvest one bit. But my Lord will it be scary knowing a guy in the woodlot next to me has a bullet that can travel MILES and can't see me a couple hundred feet away. Slugs are heavy. Regardless of velocity they come out of the barrel "Looking and seeking" the ground. They hit and tumble. HPR'S... Dude they can ricochet off something and wind up in a farmers bedroom window on the other side of the road. Most places they're legal...are in mountains. There ain't nobody around! They go a half mile and hit a mountain. Not here. Like I said...Whatever.

Illinois hunters kill as many deer in 5 days of gun season "Outside of the rut" as we do in 2 weeks IN the rut. The state is quite comparable to ours in size. I highly doubt it's our gun season that's causing us problems. The vast majority of gun killed deer happens in the first few days. The rest of it is nothing more than opportunity. The numbers aren't staggering.
Illinois also allows 2 bucks. They still have people jumping over fences to hunt there.

My point? People in Illinois as well as Iowa and Kansas...don't shoot small bucks. We do. We also rape the doe population...by choice.

PAV makes a great point, that we must have SOME regulations.

I can apply the same theory of the surrounding states to boating and fishing. Did you guys know that Indiana has for years been the most "Boat crazy" state in the nation per capita? Our lakes are FULL of boats with very little water. I boat at Dale Hollow lake in Tennessee and I'm tellin ya if it ain't a holiday weekend, you have the whole lake to yourself. Not here. I go there to boat just like many go to the aforementioned states to hunt.
Hoosiers LOVE the outdoors!