Hunters take advantage of state hunt

Fifty Indiana deer hunters spent two days helping the Department of Natural Resources thin down the growing deer population at Prophetstown State Park.

For the first time since it became a state park, Prophetstown was opened to a selected amount of hunters for a deer reduction hunt.
Conservation Officer Matt Tholen said too many deer in one area can lead to diseases in the herd, destruction of habitat for other animals, and loss of plant growth.
Lafayette hunters Owen Mason and his son Jared braved two days of rainy weather, but said the results were well worth the effort.

"I got a nice 8-point buck here at Prophetstown. Great hunt, just an awesome time with my son. Oh, there are some tremendous deer out here. I saw some bucks that are unbelievable that are running around, but we enjoy deer meat so this would be a great time, and like I said my son got a big buck yesterday so we enjoyed it," Owen Mason said.

"His weighed more but mine had a bigger rack," Jared Mason joked.

Tholen said the hunters registered for the Prophetstown hunt through the D.N.R. website months ago, and were drawn from hundreds of applicants throughout the state.

Each hunter drawn could kill up to three deer in the two-day period.  One of those could be an antlered deer.  Everything was confined to the state park property, from tree stand set-up two weeks ago to check-in after a deer was shot.  Tholen said the D.N.R. could then monitor what types of deer were being taken from the herd.

"They want to know how many deer and how old they are so we know what kind of population we have out here, so the district biologist was out here yesterday aging the deer and taking certain samples possibly for other disease and stuff like that," Tholen said.

Tholen said 54 total deer were taken Monday, November 16, and Tuesday, November 17.
The D.N.R. will hold another reduction hunt with a new group of hunters at Prophetstown November 30 and December 1.

Hunters who would like to see how to register for next year's state park reduction hunts can click on this link.  www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/2344.htm

For more information on why the D.N.R. uses reduction hunts in state parks click on this link. www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/files/sp-RMSDeerResults08.pdf