All deer hunters read this arc tile please

[8andcounting]

Just thought most of you would find this interesting

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/time-...Partner&utm_term=Hunting&utm_campaign=Hunting

 

[zadvorney]

Good luck with that one.

 

[belly-deep]

Gag me with a wooden fork. Stupid article with no substance.

 

[1_pointer]

I think there's a bit of truth in that article for parts of Indiana. That said, I'd like to see proof that he knows of folks shooting the full county allotment of 8 does per year. I don't know of anyone who's shot more than 4 in any given year. Most of the properties in Indiana are relatively small and that much activity/pressure on a parcel can hurt any one given property. So, I do think that the slight drop in deer population is partially caused by the amount of deer taken, I do not think that is even close to the largest cause. The state of Indiana loses roughly 60,000ac per year of farm land and wildland to suburban/urban development! The high corn prices from a few years ago had a lot of folks taking fields out of CRP, clearing fence rows, and tearing down any woodlots they could legally to plant more corn. IMO, that loss of habitat has probably been a bigger reason than the overall harvest.

That said, there were still over 120,000 deer harvested in Indiana last year. While not as high as other more recent years, that's still a lot of deer and means there are a lot of deer in places.

For those interested, here's the deer harvest summary for 2014.
https://secure.in.gov/dnr/files/fw-2014deerharvestreport.pdf

I just noticed that the harvest summary does not include any data for deer taken on depredation permits. In some areas these are given out like chewing gum and can have, IMO, a significant local impact.

 

[sbhooper]

I shot ten does and fawns last year and could have shot many more if I wanted to buy the permits. I have shot many more than that in one year on depredation permits. The herd is within much better limits than it was a few years ago and Game and Parks wants to keep it there, so lots of permits are available. It is real hard in this area to actually over-kill white-tailed deer.

I can see some merit to this in certain areas, in which it is then up to the game people to keep the permits at a beneficial level. For me, I am going to keep my freezer full of deer meat until they tell me that I can't.

If the conversation was about mule deer, then that is a whole different situation.

 

[danadrums]

The part about the evil insurance companies lobbying the game and fish department to sell more permits seemed a bit, ahhh, conspiratorial to me.
Just sayin'...

 

[Southwind]

Thin, very thin. Not buying his premise.

 

[8andcounting]

to be clear, I don't agree with most of this article either, just thought it was something some would like to read.

 

[MN Public Hunter]

I believe this article could and is true in many states and certain area where there is unlimited doe tags. In MN I can buy as many doe tags as I want for what we call the "metro" area. Just keep killlin and buyin and of course if everyone did that the numbers would be down.

The reason its like that is it's the "metro" area, deer/car accidents, less deer, less deer car accidents in theory.

We have the same issue with gun season as we are now back to doe tags being a drawing as the numbers are down again. We even have some 4 point rules where the buck must have 4 points on 1 side to even shoot it.

I for one do believe this article to hold some water, we as hunters need to realize we are part of the circle of life of any critter and if you don't believe that, well...

 

[dannyb278]

I believe this article could and is true in many states and certain area where there is unlimited doe tags. In MN I can buy as many doe tags as I want for what we call the "metro" area. Just keep killlin and buyin and of course if everyone did that the numbers would be down.

The reason its like that is it's the "metro" area, deer/car accidents, less deer, less deer car accidents in theory.

We have the same issue with gun season as we are now back to doe tags being a drawing as the numbers are down again. We even have some 4 point rules where the buck must have 4 points on 1 side to even shoot it.

I for one do believe this article to hold some water, we as hunters need to realize we are part of the circle of life of any critter and if you don't believe that, well...

I live in Northfield. I have been thinking about hunting the Metro area at Louisville swamp. I already filled my buck tag, so it would be does only, but sure could use one or two for the freezer.

 

[shootbrownelk]

I don't think guys who shoot a lot of does do it for the heck of it...they do it for the meat. Whitetail #'s need management in a lot of states...there is just so much habitat. Mule Deer? that's the situation that has most G&F biologists stumped. Mulie numbers declining in most western states with no solution in sight.