Photo by Mark Werner

The Indiana record deer harvest was set in 1996 when 123,086 whitetails were checked in. This should come as no surprise seeing that the mid-1990s marked the liberalization of antlerless tag distribution. For the first time, hunters across the state could purchase multiple antlerless tags over the counter, per individual county quotas, in order to reduce the overall herd. Between that record-setting year and this past deer season, the overall annual harvest has hovered around the 100,000 mark with the lowest number coming in during the 2000 season (98,725), and the highest recorded number coming in during the 2003 season (106,985).

According to Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) deer biologist Dr. Jim Mitchell, the overall Indiana whitetail herd had stabilized since the mid-1990 herd reduction effort. And, quite honestly, the numbers seemed to play this out. There has, however, been a slight increase in the overall numbers of deer taken annually since 2001. The 2002 harvest of 104,428 was up only 1 percent from the 2001 harvest of 103,163. Similarly, the 2003 harvest (106,985) was up only 2.5 percent from the previous year. While not huge numerical annual increases, this seemed to show that perhaps the herd was growing.

The 2004 overall harvest number was 123,062 animals, just missing the 1996 record by fewer than 30 deer. This was a tremendous increase of 15 percent over the 2003 harvest. The DNR also reported county harvests of over 3,000 animals for the first time in eight years in two counties: Switzerland (3,353) and Steuben (3,083). Rounding out the top five counties were Franklin (2,997), just missing the magical 3,000 mark, Parke (2,942) and Dearborn (2,798). Not surprisingly, the top five harvest counties don't change much. Switzerland and Steuben changed spots from the 2003 harvest. Washington County (2,634) was bumped out of the top five.

According to Lance McNew, deer research biologist for the DNR, "Most of the increase in the statewide deer harvest is probably a function of a generally increasing deer herd. To a lesser extent, however, the failure in last year's mast crop likely led to increased harvests in primarily forested areas. It is well documented that decreases in food availability cause an increase in harvest vulnerability as deer are forced to increase movements or are concentrated in areas of increased food resources."

The 2004 deer season was broken down into four different segments: early archery, firearms, muzzleloader and late archery. The early archery harvest of 20,511 deer was up only 2.7 percent from the previous year's take. A total of 212 deer were taken during the Sept. 15-30 early urban archery season. The antlered buck harvest of 7,985 during this period was down 12.1 percent from the 2003 take of 9,084 bucks, and like the previous two years since the one-buck law was put into play is probably a result of hunters passing up younger bucks to wait for a bigger animal.

As usual, the firearms season comprised the largest percentage of the overall take. Hunters downed 84,551 deer during the November gun season, up 18.1 percent from the 2003 harvest of 71,597.

The December muzzleloader season saw 16,554 deer come through the check-in stations, up 16.7 percent from 2003. The late archery season, in which crossbows can legally be used, brought 1,442 deer to the overall harvest number. This was a 15.9 percent increase from 2003.

The antlered buck harvest exceeded 1,000 deer in 10 counties vs. five in 2003, while the antlerless harvest exceeded 1,000 deer in 23 counties vs. 16 counties in 2003. Antlerless deer comprised at least 50 percent of the total harvest in 75 of the state's 92 counties in 2004 vs. 67 counties in 2003.