Hunting, up or down in Indiana?

[phylodog]

What states are you referring to… I can think of maybe 2 that fall in that category.

One Deer for nonresident $240…

Indiana Deer bag limits are the lowest they been in 20+ years.

Check the cost of leasing hunting ground in other states like IL, KS & IA. All in, it's often times cheaper to travel several states to hunt than it is in their home state unless they own ground. I know of several people in IN and KY who have groups from places like Georgia or the Carolinas who pay tens of thousands of dollars to lease ground to hunt. I've never seen stats on it but I'm betting non residents lease up close to half of Indiana's leased hunting ground.

IN just raised the fees to where they are now in 2022, first time since 2006. They've also slashed the bag limits dramatically just in the past couple of years. The damage is done. I'd like to see Indiana simply charge non residents what their home state charges an IN resident for the same privileges.

A non resident whitetail archery license in IL is $435

 

[greg]

Check the cost of leasing hunting ground in other states like IL, KS & IA. All in, it's often times cheaper to travel several states to hunt than it is in their home state unless they own ground. I know of several people in IN and KY who have groups from places like Georgia or the Carolinas who pay tens of thousands of dollars to lease ground to hunt. I've never seen stats on it but I'm betting non residents lease up close to half of Indiana's leased hunting ground.

IN just raised the fees to where they are now in 2022, first time since 2006. They've also slashed the bag limits dramatically just in the past couple of years. The damage is done. I'd like to see Indiana simply charge non residents what their home state charges an IN resident for the same privileges.

A non resident whitetail archery license in IL is $435

Ok…I thought you were talking about license fees for NR

Leasing ground isn't chicken feed in Indiana if you can find any!

BTW….Deer harvest numbers haven't falling way down by any means

 

[phylodog]

Ok…I thought you were talking about license fees for NR

Leasing ground isn't chicken feed in Indiana if you can find any!

BTW….Deer harvest numbers haven't falling way down by any means

No it isn't. We were getting an absolute steal on the 850 acres we leased at $5000/yr. It was good ground for sure and well laid out. Being a small town we ended up talking with the gentleman who outbid us (He'd already bought 300 acres that bordered the lease) and he politely made it very clear that we weren't going to outbid him so we backed off rather than running him up out of spite (Like maybe we might have possibly wanted to do, for a minute).

The harvest numbers may not be down but the general consensus appears to be that numbers are. I don't think they'd have cut bag limits if their goals weren't reached and those goals were fewer deer.

 

[tcecil88]

The property behind ours was bought up by a logging company. They are completely landlocked and the easiest access is through our property. 2 guys from Michigan showed up this year parked on our property. The logging company leased it to them and told them where to access it, but didn't tell them they had to cross private property to get there. The Michigan fellers were cool about it and didn't come back. They said they had ran into this a bunch of times as they lease all over.

 

[two70]

So what would explain fewer hunting now when they can shoot at them with near anything they want? Rifles, shotguns, airguns, pistols, cross bows? Walmart has become the Poacher's outlet store. Children's season, city seasons, doe season ... depredation permits?

This is suppose to be HARDER?

A few of the changes you mentioned might have slightly bumped up interest briefly before those attracted by the changes figured out it didn't make things as easy as they thought it would. It doesn't matter much what you can shoot at them with or when if you don't see them to shoot at in the first place.

 

[manifest destiny]

Hunting sounds fun to me until I drop the deer, then it sounds like a lot of hard work. My Dr. has been an avid hunter his entire life but just recently said he hadn't been hunting the last few years. He didn't specifically say why, but that's one less hunter out there. Maybe he's indicative of other aging hunters?

 

[bwframe]

Constantly changing rules doesn't help much. The same as dangling seasons and equipment regulations in front of us, only to ultimately remove them from our options.

Rule & Regulation Changes

Administrative rule (regulation) changes proposed by the DNR to the Natural Resources Commission.

www.in.gov

 

[DragonGunner]

Tonight right at almost dark. Saw about 200 deer literally in fields on both side of the road and twice on the road. Few miles West of Logansport. Earlier that day saw around 40 turkeys also. Need more hunters out there I guess.

 

[tcecil88]

Tonight right at almost dark. Saw about 200 deer literally in fields on both side of the road and twice on the road. Few miles West of Logansport. Earlier that day saw around 40 turkeys also. Need more hunters out there I guess.

That's pretty typical behavior when the temps bottom out like they have. The deer herd up like that and they can find food easier.

 

[phylodog]

Indiana would be a better place if the deer outnumbered people 20 to1.

 

[singlestacksig]

Bigger demand for private land hunting, Most DNR properties you can not take a doe with firearm, but in the same county you can take one on private land. Same for High power rifles..

 

[Bstarkey_46947]

I've been luck to have access to the same 380 acre farm for going on 40 years. I actually purchase 35 acres of wooded property because I was afraid that I'd eventually lose the right to hunt at the farm and my son would not have anywhere to hunt. I'm in the later stages of my hunting career but my son is in the earlier stages. Very significant investment but well worth the memories and experiences we've had. My wife enjoys being a deer season widow also, gets us out of her hair.

 

[SheepDog4Life]

I think DNR is in a tough position to get anything like a clear consensus from the state's deer hunters.

And, most of us have different reasons for deer hunting... some for meat, some for horns, some to have peace and quiet away from the family, lol!

As far as state-wide bag limits, I'm not sure it's an issue - are there meat hunters taking the max in multiple counties and affecting herd numbers? If anything, I would be for a max state limit equal to the max in the highest max county... so that would have been what, 6 last year?

Do away with the late season? No, I'm against any changes that do away with opportunities to hunt, especially when so many can only hunt weekends or have to take vacation days. Change it from firearms to muzzleloader and keep muzzleloader open into the new year, I'm up for that. Some of my favorite hunts were with a T/C Hawken still/stalk hunting in the snow.

I hunt private, family-owned land, so I don't have a dog in the fight, but I think extending rifles to public lands would be fine. Personally, I think there would be less boom-boom-boom if hunters had rifles rather than slinging slugs, lol, but maybe I'm just an optomist.

I look at the deer tag structure and prices and think wow! Glad I got my lifetime license almost 30 years ago.

312 IAC 9-3-2: Creation of the multiple season antlerless deer license

Doesn't affect me (LT license) but I think this is long over-due for those who enjoy hunting with lots of different equipment. Just one of the reasons way-back-when that made opting for the LT license a no brainer for me... I did all three major seasons back then... just the season tags were enough to justify.

312 IAC 9-3-2: Change the bundle license to one antlered deer and two antlerless deer

Why? Sounds like revenue generation, not herd management or helping more into the sport. I'd go the other way, bundle includes up to the max antlerless deer tags. Again, doesn't affect me... FWIW, when I had 4 kids at home, 3 deer was the absolute MAX I'd take, 2 the norm. Now that there's just two of us, one deer is plenty. But that's just me.

Last thing I'll say is that there simply isn't a "state-wide" herd... herd health can be vastly different across the state, and I'm glad that we do have county-by-county anterless limits... that is definitely to the good.