I don’t beleive the hunter success rates for the past year supportthe concerns about public land hunters, based on the fact that the two largest areas of public land in the state are also two of the three best hunter success rate area of the state.

The below hunter success rates are based on the number of antler less license allocated to get one antler less deer harvested. It seems that the most public land areas of the state also have some of the state’s best hunter success rates.

Ranking……Unit…………Success rate…………….% of unit public land………….% Forested land
1.……………1B…………….2.24.………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.3.6 %……………………………64.8 %
2.……………2G…………….2.86.………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦49.2 %…………………………..90.0 %
3.……………2F…………….3.08.………⠀¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.55.6 %…………………………..90.7 %

I will agree though that public land areas close to the largest metropolitan do get a lot of hunting pressure with many deer being pressured off of them before or during the season. I don’t know that I believe the deer there are over harvested though, I tend to believe more are just chased into protected residential areas during the daylight hours. That doesn’t mean they aren’t adversely affecting the food supply, and therefore the population capabilities, on those same public lands at night or during the closed season though.

R.S. Bodenhorn