By Louie Stout

New regulations may have led Indiana to a record deer harvest last fall, but statistics reveal the state’s deer herd, especially bucks, may be declining.

Statewide hunters took advantage of regulation changes and extra hunting dates to bag a record 136,248 deer during the 2012 season, a 6 percent increase over 2011 and topped the previous record of 134,004 deer set in 2010.

“We started down the path to strategically reduce the deer herd in order to balance the ecological, recreational, and economic needs of Indiana citizens,” said Mitch Marcus, wildlife chief for the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife, in a press release. “We initiated several regulation changes to make it easier to take antlerless deer. It appears the regulations may be working.”

The state harvest consisted of 45,936 antlered deer and 90,312 antlerless deer; the proportion of antlered deer in the harvest (34 percent) was the lowest in Indiana history while the antlerless total was the highest.

DNR county-by-county stats reveal Michiana followed that trend. For example, St. Joseph County saw 484 bucks harvested, 43 fewer than last year. Nearly 100 more does were taken this year in St. Joseph compared to 2011.

Hunters in Elkhart, LaPorte and Marshall counties also killed more deer this year, but their buck harvest was down as well.

Kosciusko County, one of the state leaders in deer harvest, saw its overall harvest drop from 3,123 to 2,870. Its buck harvest was down nearly 200.

Hoosier deer biologist Chad Stewart said the antlered deer harvest tracks the total deer population about as well as anything because there are fewer variables to consider.

“Year-to-year hunter efforts don’t change much, so people aren’t all of a sudden taking three bucks or eight bucks; they’re locked into one buck,” he said, noting the one-buck limit in Indiana. “If there are fewer bucks to kill with the same amount of hunter effort, not as many bucks get killed, which tells us the overall population is down.”

Hunters using archery equipment tagged more deer in 2012 (27,580) than they did in 2011 (26,715) or 2010 (27,186). Crossbow hunters took 8,452 deer, or 6 percent of the overall total. That was a 1 percent increase. Youth hunters bagged 3,587 deer, up 55 percent from 2011, and the new special late antlerless season accounted for 10,091 deer.

Harvest exceeded 1,000 deer in 63 counties; 2,000 deer in 21 counties; and 3,000 deer in five counties. The counties with the highest harvests were Switzerland, Dearborn, Harrison, Franklin, Steuben, Parke, Washington, Kosciusko, Marshall, and Noble. The counties with the lowest harvests were Tipton, Benton, Blackford, Hancock, Rush, Clinton, Shelby, Wells, Marion, and Howard.