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Post by wesb81219 on Dec 29, 2016 20:15:25 GMT -5
Parkerbow I've read posts over the years similar to yours. Many of those hunters live in the northern half of the state and they have described the situation as there being too many hunters for the deer numbers able to be sustained in the ever disappearing suitable deer habitat. Throw in the yearly increases in leasing and it leads to exactly what you are describing. Public ground that has more hunters on it every year and deer that tend to be nocturnal. If you could change things in your county, what would they be and why do you think it would make it better? Just curious. Good Questions: 1) I think they could limit the amount of antler less tags allowed to be used on the HNF. Say If the county has a 4 anterless quota, limit it to 2 on the HNF. I know state land you cannot shoot any anterless deer so why not limit it to 2 or 1 on the HNF. 2) I think each deer hunter should have to call and get a HIP number also to hunt deer like we have to for migratory birds. This would allow the State to actually know how many deer hunters there actually are in the state. Also during this HIP call process there could be a County code to be punched in as to what county you are planning on hunting in opening weekend of firearms season to see how many hunters are actually in one county and then maybe set quotas on the hunter numbers for that county instead of the blanket quotas. You can take antlerless deer on state land with any archery tag and with muzzleloader tag. No bonus tags or bundles and obviously firearms because firearms tag says 1 antlered deer.
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Post by Woody Williams on Dec 30, 2016 10:14:17 GMT -5
Current reported deer harvest 116,394From Sept 15, 2016 to Friday, December 30, 2016 at 9:12 AM CST Deer harvest numbers are updated as deer are checked in via CheckIN Game. All numbers are raw data that have not been verified by the Indiana DNR. www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/8367.htmI think one thing that will keep the harvest down from last year for this "late season" is the fact that the ONLY weekend will fall on New Year's eve and New Years day. Last year it was on December 26 and 27th. There are a TON of variables year to year so comparing year to year is an exercise in futility. That is why the DNR uses trends to help even it all out..
Kind of fun though..but pretty well meaningless..
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Post by Woody Williams on Jan 2, 2017 8:05:12 GMT -5
Current reported deer harvest 118,797From Sept 15, 2016 to Monday, January 2, 2017 at 7:00 am CST Deer harvest numbers are updated as deer are checked in via CheckIN Game. All numbers are raw data that have not been verified by the Indiana DNR. www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/8367.htm
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Post by onemore on Jan 2, 2017 21:24:37 GMT -5
Thanks for the updates Woody
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Post by Woody Williams on Jan 3, 2017 8:16:44 GMT -5
Current reported deer harvest 119,167From Sept 15, 2016 to Tuesday, January 3, 2017 at 7:15 am Deer harvest numbers are updated as deer are checked in via CheckIN Game. All numbers are raw data that have not been verified by the Indiana DNR. www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/8367.htm
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Post by Woody Williams on Jan 3, 2017 12:57:48 GMT -5
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Post by Woody Williams on Jan 4, 2017 8:50:27 GMT -5
Current reported deer harvest 119,220From Sept 15, 2016 to Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at 7:50 am CST Deer harvest numbers are updated as deer are checked in via CheckIN Game. All numbers are raw data that have not been verified by the Indiana DNR. www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/8367.htm
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Post by wesb81219 on Jan 4, 2017 12:52:00 GMT -5
So we're roughly 4,400 less than last year. To me that doesn't seem too drastic on a state wide level. Now if continues to trend downward over a handful of years then I might be concerned. I would also like to see harvest by county.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2017 13:23:40 GMT -5
If you noticed that the number of does taken is more than bucks the last two years. Each year more and more does per percentage taken. That means less deer born each year. The last three years in the 120k's and now 119-120k. It will be interesting to see the tags/days available for does the next few years. How much INDR and increased predators will effect the herd numbers and successful harvest numbers.
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Post by Woody Williams on Jan 4, 2017 13:28:17 GMT -5
So we're roughly 4,400 less than last year. To me that doesn't seem too drastic on a state wide level. Now if continues to trend downward over a handful of years then I might be concerned. I would also like to see harvest by county. The deer reduction zone season is not over until January 31st. I think maybe we will hit the 120,000 mark. That would put us about 3,600 down from last year and on a par with the year before. I'd say the DNR deer reduction that they started in 2012 has worked pretty well. Lots folks don't like it, but they would have liked the Legislative plan even less. It was doubling the limit in the top 30 deer and vehicle collision counties EVERY year. 4 counties become 8s and 8 counties become 16s.. double the bucks limits too.
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Post by Woody Williams on Jan 4, 2017 13:33:12 GMT -5
If you noticed that the number of does taken is more than bucks the last two years. Each year more and more does per percentage taken. That means less deer born each year. The last three years in the 120k's and now 119-120k. It will be interesting to see the tags/days available for does the next few years. How much INDR and increased predators will effect the herd numbers and successful harvest numbers. arlowe13 probably has the numbers, but I think if button bucks are rolled into the buck kill the kill is probably pretty well even.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2017 14:27:52 GMT -5
If you noticed that the number of does taken is more than bucks the last two years. Each year more and more does per percentage taken. That means less deer born each year. The last three years in the 120k's and now 119-120k. It will be interesting to see the tags/days available for does the next few years. How much INDR and increased predators will effect the herd numbers and successful harvest numbers. arlowe13 probably has the numbers, but I think if button bucks are rolled into the buck kill the kill is probably pretty well even. As a whole the number of does taken has increased over the years and the number of buck harvested in general has not or about the same since the mid 90's.
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Post by jjas on Jan 4, 2017 14:54:45 GMT -5
Waynes
After your post, I researched the buck harvest numbers from 2005-2015.
If you look @ the buck harvest, the average from 2012-2015 is 47,000 bucks a year, as compared to 2005-2011 when the average was 51,000 per year.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2017 15:25:36 GMT -5
Waynes After your post, I researched the buck harvest numbers from 2005-2015. If you look @ the buck harvest, the average from 2012-2015 is 47,000 bucks a year, as compared to 2005-2011 when the average was 51,000 per year. I saw, up and down over the years and your right the latest trend is down. In 1994 - 50K
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Post by wesb81219 on Jan 4, 2017 15:40:06 GMT -5
So we're roughly 4,400 less than last year. To me that doesn't seem too drastic on a state wide level. Now if continues to trend downward over a handful of years then I might be concerned. I would also like to see harvest by county. The deer reduction zone season is not over until January 31st. I think maybe we will hit the 120,000 mark. That would put us about 3,600 down from last year and on a par with the year before. I'd say the DNR deer reduction that they started in 2012 has worked pretty well. Lots folks don't like it, but they would have liked the Legislative plan even less. It was doubling the limit in the top 30 deer and vehicle collision counties EVERY year. 4 counties become 8s and 8 counties become 16s.. double the bucks limits too. I've said it once and I'll say it again. Just because we are allowed to doesn't mean we have to. There will always be people who will take as many as allowed but I would like to have faith that there are more "conservation " minded people than those who will just go on a killing spree. I would also like to believe that if those of us who would like to see better herd numbers did our part in ensuring that, then we will see the numbers we want to see.
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Post by jjas on Jan 4, 2017 16:38:17 GMT -5
I went back and looked @ the harvest data one more time from 2005/2015 and it's interesting to say the least.
We've all heard how that when the second proposal was adopted in 2012 that the buck herd was going to be destroyed due to more equipment choices and that the doe herd would be slaughtered via herd reduction (and the late antlerless season).
If you look @ the numbers...it tells a different story.
From 2005/11 the average number of antlered bucks harvested yearly was 51,000.
From 2012/15 the average number of antlered bucks harvested yearly was 47,000. A decline of 4,000 per year.
From 2005/11 the average number of antlerless deer harvested yearly was 77,000.
From 2012/15 the average number of antlerless deer harvested yearly was 79,000. An increase of 2,000 per year.
If you combine the numbers...
From 2005/11 the average number of deer harvested was 128,000.
From 2012/15 the average number of deer harvested was 126,000.
Hardly a big swing either way.....Point being, how can the herd be decimated when the numbers have basically held steady for 11 years?
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Post by Woody Williams on Jan 4, 2017 17:13:37 GMT -5
I went back and looked @ the harvest data one more time from 2005/2015 and it's interesting to say the least. We've all heard how that when the second proposal was adopted in 2012 that the buck herd was going to be destroyed due to more equipment choices and that the doe herd would be slaughtered via herd reduction (and the late antlerless season). If you look @ the numbers...it tells a different story. From 2005/11 the average number of antlered bucks harvested yearly was 51,000. From 2012/15 the average number of antlered bucks harvested yearly was 47,000. A decline of 4,000 per year. From 2005/11 the average number of antlerless deer harvested yearly was 77,000. From 2012/15 the average number of antlerless deer harvested yearly was 79,000. An increase of 2,000 per year. If you combine the numbers... From 2005/11 the average number of deer harvested was 128,000. From 2012/15 the average number of deer harvested was 126,000. Hardly a big swing either way.....Point being, how can the herd be decimated when the numbers have basically held steady for 11 years? ......and that is why the DNR looks at trends and not Year to year or listen to emotions.
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Post by jjas on Jan 5, 2017 9:52:30 GMT -5
With so much talk of how the deer herd would be negatively impacted this season with hprs, I went back and looked @ the firearms harvest totals from 2011/2015 and compared that with the rough data available from this past season.
The average number of deer harvested during that time was 73,000 per firearms season.
The average number of antlered deer harvested during that time was was 32,000 per firearms season.
The average number of antlerless deer harvested during that time was 41,000 per firearms season.
For the 2016 firearms season, the rough figure for these 16 days was approximately 75,000 deer. But...this figure includes deer taken by bow, crossbow, shotgun, handgun, rifle, and muzzleloader during those 16 days and as such, that figure is normally adjusted down to reflect the bow and crossbow kills by a couple of thousand deer.
If these figures hold when the harvest report is published, that would put this years firearms season harvest total right around the previous 5 year average.
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Post by dbd870 on Jan 5, 2017 9:59:10 GMT -5
Which is what I expected.
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Post by boonechaser on Jan 5, 2017 11:09:32 GMT -5
I believe most thought adding HPR really wouldn't change harvest totals by much. We already had certain caliber rifles and handguns being used and you only have X amount of hunter's. So it's just about what weapon those hunters decide to use. New hunter's are not going to flock to deer woods just because HPR's are a legal weapon now.
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