By Louie Stout

Opening Day Buck

Tom Sibal of Goshen shot this big, 8-point buck opening morning of gun season in Fulton County. The deer dressed out at 192 pounds, the biggest he’s ever taken in more than 30 years of hunting. The next day he watched two eagles feast on the gut pile he left behind.

The 2018 deer firearms season in Michiana won’t break any records, but it certainly was better than last year.

Wildlife biologists in both Indiana and Michigan say their respective gun seasons were pretty good and showed signs of a healthy deer population.

Admittedly, it’s not fair to compare the recent gun season harvest numbers with last year since this region was bludgeoned with horrible weather during the early part of the 2017 gun season. This year’s weather was more conducive to a good day in the field.

All of the area counties’ harvest exceeded last year while St. Joseph and Elkhart kill numbers for this fall were pretty close to what they were in 2015 and 2016. Kosciusko, Marshall and LaPorte were about 200 deer shy of what the gun harvest produced during the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

Keep in mind that conditions during the bow season were good this fall and produced a lot of bucks that weren’t available to hunters during the gun season.

Deer harvest for area counties during the gun season are, with 2017 in parenthesis: Elkhart, 699 (578); Kosciusko, 1090 (1025); LaPorte, 796 (739); Marshall, 979 (936) and St. Joseph, 602 (590).

In Michigan, Ken Kesson hasn’t seen the final numbers but believes southwest Michigan hunters had a good year based on comments he received while working voluntary check stations. Indiana requires hunters to check in every deer they take; Michigan does not.

“I saw a lot of nice bucks, including some that would score around 180,” he said. “Overall, I’d say we had a pretty good year and the hunters seemed pretty happy. I’ll have a better handle on it when our statistics are compiled in a few weeks.”

The deer season still has some bow hunting, a muzzleloader hunt and a late season remaining before winding up in early January.