bigtim6656

bite your tounge i had a sot at a huge 8 a week and half ago

they need to lenth it if you ask me i think you should get to hunt with any weapon ie whats legal in your state any tiem duringa genaral season like bow season oct 1 to jan 6 just make it a genral hunting season

and if need be lower the bag limit

ACutting

For those of you who are complaining about the doe harvesting right now our numbers are way out of whack we are running close to 1:5 on our buck to doe ratio. We need to get the doe population down then bring the total population back up they actually started the increased doe harvest a couple years too late. If they would have started this doe harvest increase around 2002-2003 we'd be seeing a dramatic increase in quality bucks at this point because we'd be having alot more recruitment of younger deer in the state. Yes for a few years you are going to see fewer deer because "too many" does are being killed but you will be happy with the results once the numbers are put back into the range they need to be. I'll give you an example that shows perfectly why you need the doe numbers lowered. Lets say you hunt 300 acres with a 1:5 ratio and typical indiana population of 30 deer per square mile. You are going to have approximately 14 deer on your property of which 2-3 are bucks and 11-12 are does well you go out and have 2 buddies you shoot 3 bucks thats great but now there are no mature bucks left it will take 3 years to have mature deer again but you'll be hunting next year so that means that you are going to go out and probably shoot 3 immature young bucks and before you know it you have a herd of little deer running around and no one is seeing any big deer and the population is getting out of control. With a 1:2 on the same piece of property you have 5 bucks and 9 does give or take 1 on each. Means you and your buddies go out hunting you can each shoot a mature deer and still leave 2 left for the next year that would be good deer. If you are lucky enough to achieve a 1:1 you would have 7 bucks and 7 does meaning next spring you'd have 4 doe fawns and 4 buck fawns you and your friends could go out shoot a nice buck each. Leave 4 bucks for next year that will be nice. Again lets say you are lucky enough to go out and all get a nice buck that leaves 1 nice buck and a bunch of younger deer that are only a year away from being decent deer plus a new crop of young fawns so the next year you can go out and again have a nice hunt. If you establish management practicing limiting size/age of the deer harvested and implement a earn a buck program on your property after the numbers have been corrected you can see a dramatic increase on the quality of deer. You will not see a dramatic increase in the number of deer though because the habitat really can not safely support many more deer per sq mile.

bigtim6656

i agree with acutting the land i hunt it has been mostly buck harvestonly which is why i got on the land to take does i have seen 90%small deer and two big does and two big bucks only

Pat Curtis

The HUGE problem with that theory is that you assume that those deer will stay on your property,no other deer from a foreign woodscall your property home,dominatebucksdon't run off inferior deer,everyone around you hunts exactly the same, and no deer die of illness/hit by a car/etc. Not to mention very few areas in Indiana can state they have 30 deer per square mileand have the luxury topull this off. A few years ago in LaGrange County (where I hunt), more buckswere taken open day of firearm than all the deer the entire year in the county I live in (Adams)...and that's only a 60 mile difference.

There aremany ways to manage a deer herd to try toget the ratio's close to even, but it's hard b/c the lesser bucks will be run off or will search out new areas to get to hot does.

ACutting

I'm not disagreeing with you Pat you can't keep the deer from running off your property. And as far as very few areas in the state that sustain 30 deer per square mile you may want to talk to your local biologists because that is what much of the state is currently at. My major point I was getting at was don't get mad at the state for trying to help the whole state herd out it is impossible to make EVERYONE happy but they are at least trying to make most people happy with their new strategy.

monster10rackstack

Depending where you are........30 deer per square mile is low......some are closer to 45-50

Pat Curtis

Some, but very few when you include the rest of the state.


Most density maps I've seen are incredibly wrong and out of whack. The most current I've seen on the internet shows Adams County at 15-30, when in reality it's half of that. Then you look acrossed the boarder to the east of me (Van Wert County) it's usually listed as a 0-7 per square mile, when they have nearly twice as many deer as we have.

ACutting

You have to talk to the biologist that covers your area. I deal with the DNR quite frequently and got to know many of the biologists and in most of the state the deer are at 30 per square mile. The areas that are high are in the southern part which in some areas are as high as 60 which why they allow so many bonus antlerless in that area.

Pat Curtis

I've talked to several acrossed the NE region of our state. A buddy of mine from High School works for the DNR up in and around LaPorte County, and frequently talk to the officers when they're checking deer at The Angler in Stueben County. A few years ago I talked to one after I got done fishing Hamilton, and now I hunt land his brother owns in LaGrange County.

If they're at the Angler this week some time, I'll ask about the deer herd in Indiana. For some reason, I thought I read once Indiana was about to hit the 15 sq/mile mark a couple years ago. That was total deer estimate for the state divided by total square miles. Might have been in an Indiana Game/Fish a while back.

ACutting

Around 2000 thats where it would have been. Which, I'll get a bunch of flack for saying this, is really where the population needs to be in the state right now the deer levels are too high for their own good which is why deer are dying from EHD (Blue Tongue) it only breaks out in areas of high deer concentration.