DNR Expects Bountiful Deer Season

A young hunter shows off a 10-point buck

he claimed during the 2010 deer season

in Dearborn County.

file photo

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) – The Indiana Department of Natural Resources expects a 2011 deer harvest similar to 2010, meaning that hunters shouldn’t have a difficult locating a prize buck or doe.

Indiana hunters set a record with 134,004 deer taken statewide last year, the third straight year for a new record harvest.  About 53,000 of those were antlered.

The record has the potential to fall again in 2011.

“I’d hate to predict a record, but we should be close to it,” DNR deer biologist Chad Stewart said. “It’s almost guaranteed to be a top-three harvest.”

Firearms season, which accounts for about 65 percent of the state’s deer harvest, runs November 12-27.

Hunting licenses can be purchased online atwww.IndianaOutdoor.IN.gov, or by calling the DNR Customer Service Center at (317) 232-4200, or at a retailer or DNR site listed at www.IndianaOutdoor.IN.gov.

“For a deer hunter, Indiana is great because it can sustain a very high population and a very healthy population,” Stewart said.

There is, however, a threat to the health of southeast Indiana’s herd. A cattle farm in northern Dearborn County was confirmed to contain bovine tuberculosis, a chronic bacterial disease which can also affect deer.

The Department of Natural Resources will have 600 biologists across the state on the opening weekend of firearms season checking deer for wasting diseases. Biologists in Dearborn, Franklin, and Ripley counties will be more thorough in checking samples from harvested deer for TB.

The checking stations where the samples will be collected include:

Dearborn County

Tedesco’s Convenient Store, 24486 State Line Road, Lawrenceburg (812-637-5777)

Day Nite Food Mart, 13891 Indiana 350, Moores Hill (812-744-4300)

Widolff General Store, 7981 York Ridge, Guilford (812-487-2665)

Manchester Deer Processing, 18675 Willoughby Road, Aurora (812-926-2600)

Franklin County

52 Pik-Up, 11183 U.S. 52, Brookville (765-647-3600)   

Ripley County

French’s Locker/Prime Meats, 106 Sycamore St., Batesville (812-934-2902)