Time will tell if Tonk is full of it or not. I know one thing, if he hasn't heard anything from hunters about the overall numbers & sightings of deer being down, then he hasn't been outside of his office, or anywhere online. The forums have had these types of threads going all throughout the season. And that is real time information from actual hunters, spending time in the woods. I'd have to say that the majority of hunter's I've talked to seemed to be seeing less deer this past season. Factor in the harvest figures from the prior two seasons and you have to question whether these types of kills can continue to be achieved.
So then what to do next? If most hunters feel that deer numbers are on the decline, and aren't buying in to the ODNR storyline of weather, acorns, and squirrel babble, then we have to take matters into our own hands and kill deer according to our respective areas. Only kill what you feel your hunting area can provide. If you like seeing high numbers, then only kill one deer, and encourage others in your group or hunting area to do the same. Just because you can kill a certain amount of deer, doesn't mean you should.
In duck hunting it's called voluntary restraint... you try to only shoot the drakes, and let the hens live to lay more eggs. It's still legal to shoot a single hen mallard in your daily bag, and Ohio wants hunters to kill more "antlerless" deer (does), but dead hens can't lay eggs. Just like dead does don't have fawns. Don't read into this thinking I don't kill does because I do, and will continue to do so on the areas that I hunt in which there are enough does to go around. The point is hunters might just have to self-police and use some voluntary restraint if we feel the overall herd numbers are on the decline.
