IDNR withdraws 2011 deer proposal

[Water63]

OK guys, I'm having a hard time understanding this argument. The proposal was to shorten Indiana's 16 day firearms season to 9 days, plus add a 2 day antlerless season in October and an 8 day antlerless season in December. So it's actually increasing the days you can gun hunt from 16 to 19. Meat hunters have more days to fill their freezers and trophy hunters have less days to tag a buck. Plus, it adds 8 days of hunting when kids are out of school for Christmas break-isn't one of our biggest goals recruiting young hunters? I don't know why people are saying this is the bowhunting lobby, I doubt bowhunters want to compete with gunhunters in October. And I don't know how you can say this is the "trophy hunter lobby", as it shortens the time you can buck hunt. So what am I missing?

The biggest deal was that the season was moved back a week putting the firearm season basically out of the rut. The Bow hunting thing comes in that the archery season would get most of the rut. The peak of the rut hits real close to the 10 th of November. That was the major issue for most plus the weather can start to be a factor in December.

 

[jbwhttail]

no one was banned for that post, again more false statements. I'm not arrogant Im convinced!

 

[firehawk1]

FireHawk and Baldguy;

You really have a problem with the truth, The proposal WAS NOT from any special interst group it was the IDNR's plan. They asked the stakeholder groups if we could support it, now if you were at the meetings and I am speaking a lie correct me. But you know I speak the truth and you have an agenda against any group who supports the IDNR.

The truth is with shorter days of gun hunting it would force deer hunters to shoot what was in front of them and quit trophy hunting. Now there is the truth................

Enjoy your next couple of years, after that the the Legislature owns the deer herd

Well... they didn't ask ME if I could support it. I guess I want to be a stakeholder! Who's palm to I have to grease to become a stakeholder? The only agenda I might have is against the IDNR for not listening to ALL hunters in the state, but to groups who claim to speak for us.

Isn't the Bloomington City Council a stakeholder? If so, WoW there's a competent group to provide input on deer hunting regulations! Without the input of ALL deer hunters in Indiana at the same level as the "stakeholders", the whole thing stinks of politics/influence and money.

Plus all this kinda sounds like sour grapes. Apparently a majority of hunters made their voices heard. They wanted things left as they are. If not why would the proposed changes be scraped? I kind of remember back when the OBR was imposed on everyone, the hunters that didn't agree with it were basicly told to get over it, and go pound sand. FOR NOW I guess the shoe's on the other foot.

 

[southern.in.guy]

This is my two cents on the hole thing. It seems like most of the people against the new proposal were mad for losing time in the woods and I can understand this. The way I understand this is INDR wants to reduce the deer herd well why did they put the OBR in place. Doesn't make since to me. I feel they did it to increase the overall age class of bucks in our state and get more money from tags witch there doing. Now they want to shorten the season to harvest more deer wrong!!! OK lets start with the kids because they are the one how need the first chance here. I say give them 2 3 day seasons in 1st of Oct on Fri,Sat and Sun. Witch gives them a little more time to harvest a deer. Let me just say I'm a archery hunter I only use gun season to take my kids hunting and this is not a good time to take a kid hunting for the simple reason they don't get to see much after opening weekend because every deer in the woods is running mad. Now I wouldn't mind sharing the woods with a crossbow hunter so I say use them in all archery seasons. This could really help control our herd and let some of our youth and seasoned hunters get out in the woods witch means more deer harvested. As far as gun season is concerned leave it the same time but to make some people happy make 1 week either sex and one week antlerless only. This should make both sides happy it gives the meat hunters the same amount of time in the woods and it shortens the buck hunting with a gun witch is what the trophy hunters are after. And for those that don.t like that you can pick up a crossbow and go in archery season. This should give the gun hunters plenty of time to harvest there deer. I prefer to archery hunt because its more of a challenge and there are not guns going off everywhere scaring the deer. I enjoy hunting deer in there natural state with out all the commotion that gun season brings. I usually do go out for muzzle loader season for the simple reason there's not as many hunters in the woods you really have to be dedicated to set in the usually cold temps of Dec. And one more thing I like the Idea having a late anterless only season and be able to use any leftover tags from the earlier season's. We are paying for these tags so we should get something out of it and it would be a good way to reduce the herd. They could also maybe sell a tag that was good for 3 doe at a reduced price. Just a few ideas I've been thinking about.

 

[Steeler]

The truth is with shorter days of gun hunting it would force deer hunters to shoot what was in front of them and quit trophy hunting. Now there is the truth................

BS

 

[Jack Ryan]

...Isn't the Bloomington City Council a stakeholder? If so, WoW there's a competent group to provide input on deer hunting regulations! Without the input of ALL deer hunters in Indiana at the same level as the "stakeholders", the whole thing stinks of politics/influence and money.
...

Meeting weasles / "stakeholders" and political weasles go together like bread and butter.

They'll meeting you to death and then tell you how much more they do for hunting than you do after they spend all their time in meetings they set up to weasle, that's "manage" you dumb hunters in to their bidding. DNR in control of the politicias? LOL, it's been THERE since the first time hunters agreed to tax their selves to support the hunting the weasles think they are the stakeholders in today.

Put the politicians in charge! LOL, that's hilarious. Like it's a bad thing. Like it's any different than the cliques, clubs, lobbyist, business. I'm all teary eyed worrying over how they won't be soliciting my opinion any more.

 

[pftraining_in]

I was one of the stakeholder representatives, I own over 1000 acres of prime deer habitat. .

Do you purchase a license every year or claim landowner?

Do allow others to hunt on your property and do you charge for access?

The proposed deer regulations did not effect the property owner who owns hundred of acres and can set his own bag limits and size limits. Who the proposal effected was the hunter who is limited to public land or has to share land with other hunters. By shorting the length of the gun seasons, even when adding two more seasons, forces more people into the woods. This results in deer leaving the public areas and shared areas and moving to safe havens such as private property. When the deer are moved out of the area where a large number of hunters are present, they can not be harvested in large numbers. By shorting the length of the season you are forcing all hunters in the state to take off work at the same time instead of being able to choose when they feel would be the best time to enter the woods, this causes over crowding of hunting land and less deer taken.

If you frustrate the hunters that live in the state, you loose a guarenteed source of income for the state in the form of license fees. Hunters who year after year fail to harvest a deer or are unable to compete for time off to hunt, stop paying for license and hunting gear. An increase in out of state licenses will not supplement the loss of fees paid by Indiana residents.

If the state wishes to lower the deer population they must change to a earn a buck type system. As it stands now, a large majority of new hunters and "trophy" hunters only purchase a buck tag resulting in antlerless deer being passed on while in the stand.

Another issue with the proposed rule changes was an increase in the length of archery season. Archery is not a style of hunting taken lightly and requires far more attention to range, equipment and practice than gun hunting. By lengthening the archery season and shorting the gun season you are forcing hunters who would normally gun hunt to take up archery for the simple reason of gaining more time in the woods. All hunters have seen the guy in the gun store buying a shotgun and ammo on the Friday night before opening day of gun season. Imagine that same guy walking in and buying a bow and some arrows and heading to the woods the next morning. In addition you are limiting the amount of time a disabled hunter who can only gun hunt can enter the woods due to weather conditions and crowded locations.

 

[kludge]

^this^

And have you seen the prices on acrhery equipment these days? HOLY CRAP!!

Also, the early gun season was only for certain counties. So it was not "more days" to hunt than before.

Two more things..

1) The public land within a few counties of me does not allow taking antlerless deer during firearms season.

This means I am not able to get up early or leave work early and get into the woods before/after work without taking time off. This means I only have 8 days to hunt during firearms season, 7 if I am with family on Thanksgiving, 4 if I go to church (I do). With the new rule I would have only had 6 days to hunt, 5 if I spend Thanksgiving with my family, 3 if I go to church. Totally unacceptable.

I will hunt and buy more antlerless tags until time runs out or my freezer is full. I have a family of seven and we can easily fit 3-4 does in the freezer

2) People don't lease land to meat hunt, it's cheaper to buy beef. People who lease land aren't there to shoot does. Gun hunters harvest 65% of the deer. Archery hunters (I have a bow too, so I'm including myself), even with either sex tags and extra long seasons, harvest 22% of the deer

source: http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-2009_Deer_Season_Summary.pdf

The new rules would have backfired, increasing, not decreasing, the deer population.

 

[firehawk1]

^this^

And have you seen the prices on acrhery equipment these days? HOLY CRAP!!

Also, the early gun season was only for certain counties. So it was not "more days" to hunt than before.

Two more things..

1) The public land within a few counties of me does not allow taking antlerless deer during firearms season.

This means I am not able to get up early or leave work early and get into the woods before/after work without taking time off. This means I only have 8 days to hunt during firearms season, 7 if I am with family on Thanksgiving, 4 if I go to church (I do). With the new rule I would have only had 6 days to hunt, 5 if I spend Thanksgiving with my family, 3 if I go to church. Totally unacceptable.

I will hunt and buy more antlerless tags until time runs out or my freezer is full. I have a family of seven and we can easily fit 3-4 does in the freezer

2) People don't lease land to meat hunt, it's cheaper to buy beef. People who lease land aren't there to shoot does. Gun hunters harvest 65% of the deer. Archery hunters (I have a bow too, so I'm including myself), even with either sex tags and extra long seasons, harvest 22% of the deer

source: http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-2009_Deer_Season_Summary.pdf

The new rules would have backfired, increasing, not decreasing, the deer population.

VERY well put! Especially the bold type "TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE"

 

[jbwhttail]

MK18

I have never used a landowner tag, I and my son have lifetime licenses which we use.

Yes we allow friends to hunt deer turkey small game and fish in our ponds. We also host a youth deer and turkey hunt for kids who do not have private property to hunt each year.

As far as lengthening the archery season, no days were added. Today archery equipment can be used every day of deer season as long as the pewrson uses a archery license or a bonus license. The shift of dates went hand in hand with shortening of the general firearm season. If the season was to be shortened then make it easier for folks who would want to use vacation days. With the proposed season being Thanksgiving week most people have Thursdays and Fridays off, thus only three days vacation time would have been needed(in most cases) to get the entire nine day season off.

 

[tenring]

With the deer population seemingly being way down in a great number of areas, shortening any season is without a doubt a lame idea.

 

[southern.in.guy]

The statement guys how lease don't shoot does is completely wrong. I have and know plenty of people how lease and we harvest plenty of doe. Most people how lease just want sole rights to the ground they hunt so they don't have to put up with other people tromping around were they hunt. Most of us are trophy hunters and use good management practices which in cloud harvesting doe's Hunting true trophy class mature bucks takes a lot of dedication and hard work just because we lease land doesn't guarantee use a trophy animal. It's about outsmarting an animal that has got old and wise and didn't get this way by being easy to hunt. It's the challenge of getting archery close to such an animal. I'm not saying everybody should do this but I'm tired of hearing people put down trophy hunters. Being a bow hunter takes lots of practice and patience and again its not for everybody but this is why our season is so long. I know of nobody how can go to a store on the Friday before the opener and buy a bow and go out the next morning and harvest a deer but I have seen guys do this with a gun. Thats the difference anybody can go get a gun and get within 100yds of a deer not everybody can get within 20 yds of this same deer and draw the bow and get the shot without being detected. I say ad crossbows to the archery season and all the gun hunters can go buy one and go out and pull the trigger. And out of all that is being said about the rule changes I haven't seen anybody showing any concern about our youth which I think is awful. I'm a father of 3 great children and the kids are really getting the shaft. All you people how are crying about these changes haven't said a thing about adding more time for our youth. My son is not strong enough to pull back a bow so he gets 2DAYS at the beginning of Oct and then has to go out on opening day of gun season and hope he gets something the first weekend before every deer in the woods gets spooked by the onslot of gun hunters. Lets think about our youth before we think about ourselves when trying to come up with a better plan for our hunting seasons

 

[42769vette]

The statement guys how lease don't shoot does is completely wrong. I have and know plenty of people how lease and we harvest plenty of doe. Most people how lease just want sole rights to the ground they hunt so they don't have to put up with other people tromping around were they hunt. Most of us are trophy hunters and use good management practices which in cloud harvesting doe's Hunting true trophy class mature bucks takes a lot of dedication and hard work just because we lease land doesn't guarantee use a trophy animal. It's about outsmarting an animal that has got old and wise and didn't get this way by being easy to hunt. It's the challenge of getting archery close to such an animal. I'm not saying everybody should do this but I'm tired of hearing people put down trophy hunters. Being a bow hunter takes lots of practice and patience and again its not for everybody but this is why our season is so long. I know of nobody how can go to a store on the Friday before the opener and buy a bow and go out the next morning and harvest a deer but I have seen guys do this with a gun. Thats the difference anybody can go get a gun and get within 100yds of a deer not everybody can get within 20 yds of this same deer and draw the bow and get the shot without being detected. I say ad crossbows to the archery season and all the gun hunters can go buy one and go out and pull the trigger. And out of all that is being said about the rule changes I haven't seen anybody showing any concern about our youth which I think is awful. I'm a father of 3 great children and the kids are really getting the shaft. All you people how are crying about these changes haven't said a thing about adding more time for our youth. My son is not strong enough to pull back a bow so he gets 2DAYS at the beginning of Oct and then has to go out on opening day of gun season and hope he gets something the first weekend before every deer in the woods gets spooked by the onslot of gun hunters. Lets think about our youth before we think about ourselves when trying to come up with a better plan for our hunting seasons

rep

 

[IndyMonkey]

The statement guys how lease don't shoot does is completely wrong. I have and know plenty of people how lease and we harvest plenty of doe. Most people how lease just want sole rights to the ground they hunt so they don't have to put up with other people tromping around were they hunt. Most of us are trophy hunters and use good management practices which in cloud harvesting doe's Hunting true trophy class mature bucks takes a lot of dedication and hard work just because we lease land doesn't guarantee use a trophy animal. It's about outsmarting an animal that has got old and wise and didn't get this way by being easy to hunt. It's the challenge of getting archery close to such an animal. I'm not saying everybody should do this but I'm tired of hearing people put down trophy hunters. Being a bow hunter takes lots of practice and patience and again its not for everybody but this is why our season is so long. I know of nobody how can go to a store on the Friday before the opener and buy a bow and go out the next morning and harvest a deer but I have seen guys do this with a gun. Thats the difference anybody can go get a gun and get within 100yds of a deer not everybody can get within 20 yds of this same deer and draw the bow and get the shot without being detected. I say ad crossbows to the archery season and all the gun hunters can go buy one and go out and pull the trigger. And out of all that is being said about the rule changes I haven't seen anybody showing any concern about our youth which I think is awful. I'm a father of 3 great children and the kids are really getting the shaft. All you people how are crying about these changes haven't said a thing about adding more time for our youth. My son is not strong enough to pull back a bow so he gets 2DAYS at the beginning of Oct and then has to go out on opening day of gun season and hope he gets something the first weekend before every deer in the woods gets spooked by the onslot of gun hunters. Lets think about our youth before we think about ourselves when trying to come up with a better plan for our hunting seasons

It hasnt been that long ago when there were no kids weekends. Your son could deal with it just like the rest of us did growing up.

Personally I wish it wasnt there. I dont want my kids to have it easier in the child hood only to set them up for failure later in life.

 

[blackoak]

You gave deer management to the politicians......... enjoy the results!

Many times IDNR told the public this was a plan to reduce the deer herd as requested by the legislature. It was twisted by a few individuals who had motives that really didn't effect the general deer hunter.

I was one of the stakeholder representatives, I own over 1000 acres of prime deer habitat. I have taken trophy deer LONG before the One Buck Rule. I have been to many committee meetings in the legislature protecting the deer herd in Indiana from legislative interference as well as other hunting and fishing issues. What I learned from this is that the general every day hunter doesn't give a "rats butt" about anything past his gun sights. We now have to get approval from the legislature for any changes to deer regs.

In the future "I'll take care of my own", I hope you all watch the IDNR as well as the Indiana Legislature, they will determine your fate.

Just wondering JB, do you farm the 1000 acres you own? Are you a farmer by trade?

 

[Steeler]

Every time I hear "earn a buck" mentioned, I cringe.
For the first 10 years that I hunted deer, it was on land where there was high competition. Not great hunting. I would usually get a shot at "a" deer at least once a season. "A" deer meaning Doe, Button or if I was lucky a small buck.
I know there are a lot of hunters like me who are hunting crap land and earn a buck would pretty much rule out their chances of getting a buck.

Not all of us are hunting big acreage with low pressure.

 

[blackoak]

Every time I hear "earn a buck" mentioned, I cringe.
For the first 10 years that I hunted deer, it was on land where there was high competition. Not great hunting. I would usually get a shot at "a" deer at least once a season. "A" deer meaning Doe, Button or if I was lucky a small buck.
I know there are a lot of hunters like me who are hunting crap land and earn a buck would pretty much rule out their chances of getting a buck.

Not all of us are hunting big acreage with low pressure.

I feel hunters earn a buck when they lay down the cash for a license to shoot one, whether it's a spike with 4" antlers, or a 175" Boon & Crockett.

 

[42769vette]

It hasnt been that long ago when there were no kids weekends. Your son could deal with it just like the rest of us did growing up.

Personally I wish it wasnt there. I dont want my kids to have it easier in the child hood only to set them up for failure later in life.

are you being serious? surely there was never a time when indiana law prohibited kids in the woods on a certain weekend or am i reading this wrong?

 

[Joe Williams]

are you being serious? surely there was never a time when indiana law prohibited kids in the woods on a certain weekend or am i reading this wrong?

I think it should have been read "There weren't any "kids only" weekends."

 

[42769vette]

I think it should have been read "There weren't any "kids only" weekends."

i should hope so. i have to say that is the first time i would break huunting laws every chance i got