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Iowas harvest in 23 was around 48/52 for comparison and as we all know they have a fraction of the NR hunters that IL does.

No question the age structure is way worse, primarily bc of way less deer coupled with more efficient ways of killing them (I.e. crossbows) but I am definitely not experiencing the doe ratio being out of whack like you are saying. The harvest was around 45% does and 55% bucks last year in IL...

There are 40-50,000! less deer being killed in IL than there used to be (because there are far fewer deer) so that’s the main reason you’re not seeing them hanging everywhere. The 2000’s had outfitters everywhere which means there were NR hunters everywhere and yet the harvest was 50,000 more...

“The problem” is referenced a few times there Skip but I’m a little confused as to what you/we’re defining as the problem? Is it just the rare areas of high density/crop damage that is being discussed? If so, makes sense. But I still feel like as hunters we need to be on the offensive about deer...

Good stuff, interesting! If you did a flyover in a balloon or whatever back in the mid 2000’s though of any random county in the Midwest what % of the farms had a legit 2 acre or more food plot on them would u guess? Think my 10% number is low?

Curious to hear when most of you started seriously doing food plots. Also if you had to make an educated guess, what % of farms/hunters had legit food plots on them in the 2005-2009 range in your opinion and what % you think that # is today. I didn’t own my own farm until 2013 and that was when...

They’ve been incredibly effective for us on our farm in IL. Primarily use them in evening hunts on field edges, especially when hunting really large ag fields where there aren’t great funnels/pinches. Have had bucks come out in to field 100 or more yards away and get their attn with a grunt call...

Good question and topic and there’s been great answers so far. I actually have a drone survey scheduled on my farm this January so I’ll know for sure then (at least for that time of year). As many have said already, lots of variables! I suspect on my 270ac farm in January when I have the survey...

Rank your top 3 favorites Skip

Agree w you. Cell cams don’t equal a guarentee but I know of a lot of big deer just in the last few years that were killed as a direct result of having real time info. Would they have eventually been killed at some point by a gun or muzzleloader….certainly possible but cell cams are huge game...

Crossguns are huge factor no doubt about it. Hate them in the archery season. But would say that the quality figures in IL dropped off a cliff from 2012-2018 or whenever that was prior to them becoming legal too. The huge reduction in deer numbers was first death blow, then crossguns coming in...

Don’t think so. The xgun references are to other states like IL

Yea my main discussion via YouTube message back n forth with Winke is that we had 2000-2011 with really high deer #’s and now we’ve had 2012-2024 with significantly less deer. So 10 plus year “experiments” to glean from and compare. I don’t see how the results are even debatable (for the guys...

Fair enough. We’re probably just splitting hairs. All good. Just saying that it’s true it’s case by case technically but that if a county’s harvest and dva figures are down significantly than I think it’s probably ok to paint w a broad brush that most hunters need to reduce doe harvest and...

It’s not black and white I hear ya. I just try to take as much subjectivity out of it because we all have such a wide range of viewpoints on what a “pile of deer” is. So harvest data doesn’t lie imo. Deer vehicle accidents don’t lie (unless we are all taking bikes to work now) and are pretty...

Sure but in general in rural farm country IL or IA the habitat hasn’t had any major significant changes over the last 10-15 years so it’s relative right? #hat you’re saying, while true, has always been the case (or at least in the last 10-15 years). So if the dva’s and harvest numbers are down...

No question that there are factors other than size of the herd in any particular state that has contributed to less “big” bucks. Cell cams is definitely a big one, crossguns is a huge one, etc… However I’m convinced that the #1 reason by far is simply 20-40% less 1yr old bucks in the funnel to...

I guess I’m just not sure about this 1983. Technically what you are saying is correct imo and I don’t necessarily disagree. However what I struggle with is 1) for vast majority of hunters too many does or not enough is incredibly subjective and not based on any real data (which usually leads to...

What county in IL are you in? What I often wonder when I read guys saying they have really high deer numbers is if both things are true….meaning maybe you do have pretty high numbers but at the same time there was still 10-25% more deer on your farm in that decade. For example, I hear guys say...

I mean you talk to guys like most of the guys on this forum that are die hard big buck hunters I don’t think I’ve seen anyone debate or dispute this. The one guy on here (can’t recall his name or the podcasts name) literally talked about how he had like 5 or 6 different deer in the 200” range he...