Recent content by Stoney

As others have mentioned, EM & pray for a cold front…

Wow, that’s a bummer. I found 4 dead deer (3 bucks, 1 doe) last weekend in one small area while changing cell cam batteries. Presumably from disease. One was a very nice 3 year old.

My thoughts… 1. No NR w/ NV/T in Iowa during deer season. Look for OOS plates & road trolls. If they have NV/T in their possession, big fines… 3. Easy one. & I’m still pissed about a giant buck I almost killed that got shot with a rifle several years ago. The guy was so dumb he took it to the...

Funny to think about all the deer I missed in my youth shooting a Remington 870 pump 20 gauge with foster style slugs. Fast forward, neither one of my kids missed or wounded a single deer in all their years of youth deer hunting.

I don’t understand the logic of banning a weapon that requires you to be close to your quarry unlike a modern muzzleloader where shots up to 200 yards are not at all challenging. Hunting with a handgun puts the odds back in the favor of the animal. I thought that was the goal…

Hunting with a regular handgun can be a lot of fun and very challenging. Shots are typically less than 75 yards and oftentimes are well within bow range. I’m not sure I’d ban all regular handguns because of a few folks exploiting a loophole with AR style weapons.

I appreciated the floating tag last fall and was determined not to put it on just any ‘ol deer. Now that I’m responsible for managing a farm, I’m very reluctant to spend much time hunting so I enjoy the flexibility it provides. I miss the days when I could sit in a stand all day and focus on...

“nearly half of the antlered bucks shot in the US are at least 3&1/2” years old”…hmmm…I’m skeptical…

That is exactly why I would be for a one buck limit & why I think it increases the odds of more bucks reaching maturity.

What would this look like, specifically?

I completely agree and recently I have experienced the same scenario as you with regard to mature bucks.

Before the population exploded we had buck only tags. And then we had lottery doe tags. Then we had any sex tags. Then we had bonus doe tags and special seasons added. And here we are. We know how to get the population up if that is the best path. There are other simple steps that we could take...

I stopped carrying my SML in shotgun when Iowa allowed straight wall cartridges. I don’t know the exact figures but unless you also address shotgun, I doubt you’re going to be limiting the overall doe harvest in a meaningful way.

Your list reminded me of my first hunt with a (then) new & novel tool - a scoped in-line .50 cal Knight muzzleloader. To put it frankly, I was very skeptical of the idea of killing a deer with a single, well-placed shot. On my first drive, I dropped a buck absolutely flat in his tracks while...

I have owned a smokeless muzzleloader for more years than I can remember and it has never accounted for a deer that I could not have easily shot with a black powder or black powder substitute gun. In fact, my longest shot to date was using 100 grains of Triple 7 powder. The single biggest...