The rut and firearm season

Opening week of rifle in Kentucky. Back for the opening week of firearm in Indiana. I have been chomping at the bit since Kentucky posted the opening day of rifle season earlier this year. ;D

Steiny, no offense, but I don't want to be like Iowa or Illinois! We read all of the time how leases are hogging up all of the private ground, and costing an arm and a leg to boot. Who could possibly want that here? I'm happy with Indianas deer herd, plenty of deer, and enough big ones to keep it interesting. I personally don't need a big rack to make me feel like a successful hunter. I take each deer on his/her own merit. They are all beautiful, smart and wary creatures who deserve our respect. If you want to kill a big deer, hunt really hard in Indiana or go to Illinois or Iowa. This trophy hunting bullsh** WILL ruin deer hunting before it's all said and done. Let the out of staters STAY HOME! We'll keep hunting our "small" deer, and loving it!!

In Martin and Dubois counties the 2 1/2 year old bucks are not as wary as the average doe of the same age.



The majority of bucks are killed on the opening weekend of firearms season. The number of hunters moving around in the woods on opening morning is enough to get the young bucks up and moving so changing the date of the season wouldn't help more young bucks survive in the least. Besides, as Kevin wrote, the opening of firearms season is not scheduled during the time when bucks are naturally the most active.

Just highlight the sentence that you want to quote and then click on the button that says "insert quote" and it will do it for you.



No, we can do that.

.

Yes, there are some folks that can only get out on opening weekend and the first thing by with antlers is down.

BUT - I am seeing more and more deer hunters that are becoming very selective in what they will and will not shoot. I believe that is why we are seeing more and bigger bucks from year to year.



Ah, we are a varied lot on here.

The "results" are sketchy. Too many variables to draw a good conclusion if this is working or not.

If the IDNR had laid down some criteria to determine if this worked or not and then did not make other changes that could impact this trial then maybe we could tell something.



I never put a tape on this guy, but I'm sure he wont go 110. He has a common base three points on his right antler. Mature? You bet he was..





Indiana ranked 6th in the nation in B & C and P & Y bucks for the last ten years. Not hardly the bottom of the totem pole.



Every suggestions is worth looking at. The IDNR did not want the One Buck restriction when the rule was passed. I also believe that the rank and file of the IDNR still do to want it.

Lugnutz,

Here is a 2005 article about the OBR that quotes Dr. Jim Mitchell (IDNR deer biologist)

“According to Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) deer biologist Dr. Jim Mitchell, the overall Indiana whitetail herd had stabilized since the mid-1990 herd reduction effort. And, quite honestly, the numbers seemed to play this out. There has, however, been a slight increase in the overall numbers of deer taken annually since 2001. The 2002 harvest of 104,428 was up only 1 percent from the 2001 harvest of 103,163. Similarly, the 2003 harvest (106,985) was up only 2.5 percent from the previous year. While not huge numerical annual increases, this seemed to show that perhaps the herd was growing.

The 2004 overall harvest number was 123,062 animals, just missing the 1996 record by fewer than 30 deer. This was a tremendous increase of 15 percent over the 2003 harvest. “

AND..

“According to Lance McNew, deer research biologist for the DNR, "Most of the increase in the statewide deer harvest is probably a function of a generally increasing deer herd.”

AND…

"It's too soon to tell what effect the one-buck rule will have on the herd," according to Jim Mitchell, the state's deer biologist. "I don't think you would clearly know until three years at a minimum, probably five. We had been seeing, even prior to implementing the one-buck rule, a trend toward older bucks in the harvest. That trend is going to make it tough to see what the effect really is."

Mitchell said the one-buck rule has resulted in a shift in the harvest away from the early archery season and toward the firearms and muzzleloader season. "Over 90 percent of our archers are firearms hunters as well," Mitchell said. "If it's going to have an effect, it's going to reduce the early archery harvest."

Mitchell said there was a 38 percent decline in the antlered harvest during early archery season from 2001 to 2002. In 2003, the second year of the one-buck rule, the early archery antlered harvest was higher than 2002, but remained 25 percent below 2001.

Mitchell said he expects to see hunters become more selective in their buck harvest because of the new one-buck regulation and because the state's deer hunters are maturing. He expects the selectivity will change the age structure of harvested bucks toward more mature animals. "In fact, the first year (of the one-buck regulation), the harvest of our 1 1/2-year-old bucks did decrease and the harvest of older bucks increased," he said.

I'm kinda confused about this statement. For every return deer hunter isn't their a "newbie" deer hunter out their? If not a newbie for every hunter, than maybe one newbie for every three deer hunters?

The early achery harvest of antlerless bonus deer in 2005 was a brand new harvest plan.

That bought some progress, but near enough.

Deer hunting is going to hell in a hand basket.

Too many cooks spoil a soup.

An outfitting industry would be good for this state. Create a few jobs, bring in tourism dollars, make the IDNR a few more bucks on non res license sales, etc. It's going on in many other states, and hasn't exaclty ruined hunting.