2008 Season harvest totals

[djohns13]

Well, the 2008 season totals are in and Indiana ended up with a record deer harvest.  Over 129,000 total deer taken (last season was approximately 125,000).  I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I am absolutely shocked that we were even close to a record.  My sightings were down dramatically as were many of the hunters I hang out with.  I had one hunting day where I saw 22 deer (took an eight pointer that day) and one day with 4 sightings, but every other day resulted in no more than two deer sighted and many days I didn't see any.  I also missed two does so my harvest should have been in line with previous seasons, but I was believing that the deer population was way down.
 
What do y'all think about the harvest this year?
 
Good shooting.

[tinman]

Hey Darren, As with my earlier post, I also saw fewer animals this year, except for the farm I hunt up north. The whole season was very wierd from a sighting perspective. Guess I must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time the whole season. I am totally surprised by the harvest totals. Better luck next year I hope. I'm ready for some warm wx now. Jay

[8uck5nort]

I hunt white county farm country and tippecanoe county urban zone and saw a lot of deer this year. However, alot of guys I have talked with from the southern part of the sate said just the opposite.
 
I wonder what the county by county breakdown will reveal. Maybe the harvest from northern part of the state made up for the lack of harvest in the southern part? I know a blue toungue outbreak occurred in the southern counties this year.

[8uck5nort]

Well I just pulled up the DNR report and I guess EHD was not confined to the southern counties at all. In fact it was confirmed in Tippecanoe and Fountain counties. There also appears to be a corresponding decrease in the harvest numbers for Tipp. county this year as well. It is usually one of the top producers. I guess it didn't affect where I was at cause I hunt the very northern part of Tipp. about a mile from the White county line which had no reports nor confirmed cases. Interesting

[2tonyb]

Amongst my friends and family that hunt, I would say that the feeling would be that '08 was a down year.  I occassionally hunt in Hoosier Natl in Jackson/Brown counties and I saw about the same number of deer as in previous years.  My "home" hunting area, Shelby and Johnson counties, I saw a far greater number of deer. Especially Shelby.  Shelby is where I grew up.  When I was a kid, seeing a deer was a rare occassion.  But now I hunt very close to the house I grew up in and have pretty good success.  After I killed my buck this year, I took my 8 year old out in hopes of getting a doe.  As luck would have it, we saw four bucks on one particular morning.