Indiana hunters established a record for the third straight year by reporting an overall harvest of 134,004 deer taken during the 2010 seasons.
Reports submitted from 461 check stations across Indiana topped the 2009 total by 1,252 deer, a 1 percent increase, and bettered the 2008 total by more than 4,200 deer.
Were seeing a healthy number of deer throughout much of the state, and that is translating into success by our hunters during the hunting season DNR deer biologist Chad Stewart said.
The 2010 total was bolstered by a record 80,997 antlerless deer and 53,007 antlered deer, the second-highest antlered total in the 60-year history of regulated deer hunting in Indiana.
The results came despite a slight dip in deer hunting license sales. Hunters purchased 268,485 licenses in 2010 compared to 271,951 in 2009. Resident firearms tags again topped the list (102,626), making up 38 percent of the license sales.
The deer hunting season began in urban deer zones on Sept. 15, followed by a two-day youth only weekend (Sept. 25-26) and the early archery (Oct. 1-Nov. 28), firearms (Nov. 13-28), muzzleloader (Dec. 4-19) and late archery (Dec. 4 to Jan. 2) segments.
