Deer recovery in Iowa

[Giovanna]

I have a few questions that some of you may be able to help with.

The last studies I saw on deer wounding rates showed 18% for bow and 10% gun.
From what I've seen, we kill 100k deer a year, 30k of these with bows and 70k with gun. Wounding rates defined as deer hit with an arrow or bullet and not recovered.
.
If these numbers are close, then we might wound 7000 deer with guns and 5400 with bows, for a total of 12,400.

I think these are close, please let me know if they are significantly off.

In regards to recovery efforts, our current most used options are traditional blood trailing methods, grid searching with several people, or the use of a leashed tracking dog.

Now finally for the questions;

1) If you have used a tracking dog team in the past, were you satisfied with the experience or not?

2) If satisfied, would you use a tracking dog again?

3) If not satisfied, can you explain why, and what would need to change for you to use one again?

4) if you have used a tracking team, how did you find them?

5) If you have never used a tracking dog for recovery, can you explain why and what may lead you to consider using one in the future? (Other then "I don't wound deer" )

I appreciate any help you can provide me!

 

[hillrunner]

I have a few questions that some of you may be able to help with.

The last studies I saw on deer wounding rates showed 18% for bow and 10% gun.
From what I've seen, we kill 100k deer a year, 30k of these with bows and 70k with gun. Wounding rates defined as deer hit with an arrow or bullet and not recovered.
.
If these numbers are close, then we might wound 7000 deer with guns and 5400 with bows, for a total of 12,400.

I think these are close, please let me know if they are significantly off.

In regards to recovery efforts, our current most used options are traditional blood trailing methods, grid searching with several people, or the use of a leashed tracking dog.

Now finally for the questions;

1) If you have used a tracking dog team in the past, were you satisfied with the experience or not?

2) If satisfied, would you use a tracking dog again?

3) If not satisfied, can you explain why, and what would need to change for you to use one again?

4) if you have used a tracking team, how did you find them?

5) If you have never used a tracking dog for recovery, can you explain why and what may lead you to consider using one in the future? (Other then "I don't wound deer" )

I appreciate any help you can provide me!

I helped a neighbor track his buck a couple years back. There was no blood that we could find. He has a tracking dog and once we got the dog on the right track, he found it pretty quick. That buck took a very sharp and unexpected direction change back towards where he had come from and we were not looking in the right area. I would absolutely use a dog if one was available for a hard track. I think allowing tracking dogs was a great decision for the state.

 

[Giovanna]

Glad you had a good experience...a dog can be kinda handy at times.

 

[Giovanna]

I have a few questions that some of you may be able to help with.

The last studies I saw on deer wounding rates showed 18% for bow and 10% gun.
From what I've seen, we kill 100k deer a year, 30k of these with bows and 70k with gun. Wounding rates defined as deer hit with an arrow or bullet and not recovered.
.
If these numbers are close, then we might wound 7000 deer with guns and 5400 with bows, for a total of 12,400.

I think these are close, please let me know if they are significantly off.

In regards to recovery efforts, our current most used options are traditional blood trailing methods, grid searching with several people, or the use of a leashed tracking dog.

Now finally for the questions;

1) If you have used a tracking dog team in the past, were you satisfied with the experience or not?

2) If satisfied, would you use a tracking dog again?

3) If not satisfied, can you explain why, and what would need to change for you to use one again?

4) if you have used a tracking team, how did you find them?

5) If you have never used a tracking dog for recovery, can you explain why and what may lead you to consider using one in the future? (Other then "I don't wound deer" )

I appreciate any help you can provide me!

Some clarity on why these questions are being asked....

If we are wounding around 12,000 deer a year....

If 40% of these deer are fatally wounded... (I'm making an assumption based on the national average recovery rate for leashed tracking dogs being around 40%, and the average recovery rate of fatally shot deer being 95%+.
I have NO idea if this can be applied to the wounding rates.)

Then we may be leaving a little less then 5000 deer in the woods...

And then there is the potential of these tags then being filled twice.

My numbers could be off, but it starts the conversation.
These numbers may seem low enough to be insignificant in the scheme of things, but it seems with the lower deer numbers in many areas it may be worth considering.

Anyway...I am asking these questions in an attempt to understand why hunters do not take more advantage of the dog tracking teams in the state, which could reduce wounding rates, perhaps keep tags from being filled twice, and in many cases improve the hunter experiance.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Hardwood11]

This is not scientific based. However, I’ve found more dead heads in Iowa since 2011 than in my whole life (40+yrs) of hunting in Minnesota.

Why ? My gut says because of more deer drives & hunters don’t know if they hit the buck while pushing deer ??.. Could be just more bucks overall ? EHD more recently…I really don’t know .

Just my observation.

 

[Sligh1]

great stuff. When u start talking about 1,000+ bucks in iowa in ANY capacity- it’s a HUGE deal!!! If our harvest data across whole state is <50k bucks…. Every 2% is massive. If we wound or for any reason - shoot an extra 5,000 bucks….. those are #’s everyone in the state will see and feel.
Not saying it’s this simple & it’s not…. But…. If we could recover every wounded buck + stop the tagging of another in the process…. We would make a huge leap forward. If u could magically combine that with a state that didn’t shoot button bucks, those 2 things combined would be enough to swing the downgrade of Iowas quality over the last 15 years massively.
But… WHATEVER topic it may be…. 1,000 or more (even does) on a harvest is a needle mover in a state with so few deer & harvest. 2025: 43,000 antlered bucks harvested. 1,000 is a big deal!!!!

Back to original post…. Following along & here for the critical thinking & analysis ….