hoosierhunter_06

I too live in indiana around the miami/fulton co. area and if we can take as many does as proposed then we should at least get a chance at a second buck to even things out. An old farmer that lived down the road from me told me for every two does taken you should take a buck to even things out. i think pennsyvania is going to try a points system to earn a second buck. in my area i see every day at least four-eight bucks standing out in the bean fields around my house and very little does. what does that tell you.

kevin1

The bonus antlerless number assigned to a county is based on the deer population of that county versus it's carrying capacity , environmental damage from deer , and a variety of other factors combined . Down here in the lower tier counties we have deer densities of up to 3 times the state average , while the central counties seldom exceed 15 per square mile because of their lesser habitat . The northern tier counties are similar to the southern counties in deer density , so they have bonus antlerless numbers higher than central counties . I sincerely doubt that revenue is a big factor in the equasion since most Hoosier hunters are primarily buck hunters that take only an occasional doe for the freezer . Non-res hunters don't come here for a doe either , they want a buck .

MN_Deerman

That reinforces Kevins point right there. How are you going to get together and manage the deer right when you don't even know how many there are? You have to trust that your state DNR knows what it is doing and not just out for the almighty dollar.

StumpJ

I hunt Vermillion, Vigo and sometimes Parke, and have done so for the past seven or eight years. In my opinion (I don't have the numbers to back this up, just what I have seen each year while sitting on stand) the deer population hasn't decreased any at all.

Plus with the one buck rule, the size of the bucks have increased, again, just my opinion, in both body size and rack size. I like the one buck rule, I would even go for the "Earn A Buck" philosophy.

I believe that the ndiana DNR has done very well managing the population. Sure you could go out and just start taking a doe from every county that allows bonuses, but I really can't se anybody doing that. Check out the Indiana DNR web site and look at the numbers, talk to your local CO, do a little research and you might find out that they really do know what they are doing.

kevin1

Exactly Stumpj , well said .

I've attended CACCC and NRC meetings for a few years now , and you learn a lot from them . Here's a great thread about why it's not always a good idea to restrict buck hunting:
OBR vs. the Tenn. 3 buck limit

The trend toward more bucks and more mature ones has been taking place in Indiana for some time now , well before the OBR . Raising a quality herd takes time , and managing the does is just as important as managing the bucks .

Arrowmaster

StumpJ from Clinton In. Nice to meet ya Im from Clinton as well...

treehunter

Here in north AL we can kill 2 does every day for more than 2 months. The problem is not many hunters kill them. Everybody wants that buck. We are lucky there too because we can kill 1 buck every day for the whole season.

ryanhm82

i hunt in elkhart, kosciusko, fulton, and marshall counties. All of these counties offer excellent deer hunting. Now, onto the doe topic. I just received my dnr hunting guide, and inside i read thatwe will not have a state wide limit on does. you can kill as many as you want. but there will still be county limits. the county limits have changed from 0-4 to 0-8. so basically you can kill 4 in one county, move on to the next and kill 8 more, depending on whatcounty it is. the counties with the limit of eight are the southern counties of course. also, the first bonus antlerless tag is 24.00 and the rest after that are only 15.00! they must really want those booners.

kevin1

I just heard about this today , in effect the only limit to how many antlerless you can take is how many tags you can buy and what the individual county bonus limit is . If you hunted every county thats well over 450 antlerless . I don't think it has much to do with IDNR having a desire for that much revenue so much as it is we just need to get the antlerless deer back under control . Nobody could possibly shoot that many deer in one season . I happen to live in an 8 county surrounded by several others , with plenty of 4 counties nearby as well . Dayum it's good to be a Lifetime License holding meat hunter here ! [8D]

SIDEWAYS

In certain counties of Maryland you can take an unlimited number of antlerless deer with a bow.