So are you saying EHD hit the area with multiple ponds worse than the area with few ponds? That seems like it should be the opposite but I'm not well versed on EHD. I will say we saw a lot of deer this shotgun season. Found a couple of dead ones is all.
2-bucks
Well-Known Member
Current harvest count from today shows about 91,000. This is down 10,000 to 20,000 (also happens to be close to 10-20%). I don't know how many will be taken late season, but it is looking like it will be one of the lower harvest in several years.
gooutdoorsiowa.com
Iowa DNR Harvest Report | Go Outdoors Iowa
gooutdoorsiowa.com
bwese
Active Member
I know this is a thread on IA but I'll just offer this info to broaden the issue. NE has their rifle season in mid November, prime time to kill deer, if that is the goal. NE's deer kill was down 18% from last year and 29% down from the 5 year average that ended last year. There is something going on it seems that no can pinpoint what is happening to the deer herds. MN was down 22% for their firearm season this year from last( their winter last year was large factor) but overall the theme is the same declining deer numbers across the Midwest but I doubt that explains the total story as their season is also in prime time when killing deer is easiest.
Back to IA, my buddy farms in western IA, has some fine looking ag land with quality deer habitat. He said he saw just a couple deer while harvesting this year. In previous years, they would see many. He and his son haven't found any dead ones in their cattle ponds or fields. He heard almost no shots during IA's shotgun seasons.
Back to IA, my buddy farms in western IA, has some fine looking ag land with quality deer habitat. He said he saw just a couple deer while harvesting this year. In previous years, they would see many. He and his son haven't found any dead ones in their cattle ponds or fields. He heard almost no shots during IA's shotgun seasons.
whitetail_obsession
Active Member
Reading through all the posts and watching some video podcasts I think it's time hunters everywhere need to re-evaluate doe harvest. I'm not saying don't shoot any does as we all know there are pockets of high deer density that need does shot but overall we need to be cutting back doe harvest numbers in my opinion. EHD and predation are playing a role but hunters will always be the number one driver of deer kills. If the does are getting bred we are really taking that doe plus another 1-3 unborn fawns assuming the coyotes don't get any. Any fawns being killed by predation are not there the following year to fill in the voids of the doe harvest. I think if we start restricting doe harvest for a few years we will see numbers rebound and if numbers don't rebound I do think people will be more inclined to shoot a buck and we could see the impact of reducing age structure in the less managed areas (public/small land owners). Nobody has a crystal ball but this is where I see things headed if we don't speak up. Also if people are worried about hunter recruitment I think we're much more likely to keep new hunters engaged when they are seeing deer (regardless of whether they're shooting them). Pretty easy for new hunters to think they're doing something wrong and that's why they're not seeing deer and just give up.Current harvest count from today shows about 91,000. This is down 10,000 to 20,000 (also happens to be close to 10-20%). I don't know how many will be taken late season, but it is looking like it will be one of the lower harvest in several years.
Iowa DNR Harvest Report | Go Outdoors Iowa
JNRBRONC
Well-Known Member
I've seen a few posts that people have been hammering does in their neighborhood and were planning on doing it again this year, then oops, EHD. So I feel that when populations get up there, mother nature might step in. Guess one needs to find what the carrying capacity is and try to stay close or below it. Not seeing those numbers in the areas I hunt.
CottonwoodCanyon
Well-Known Member
I don't hunting during gun 1 or 2 but had dinner with a buddy in west-central IA last night. His group that typically fills all their tags (15-20) only filled 9 this year between the two shotgun seasons. During archery I felt like the population in southcentral IA where I hunt was maybe just a little lower than the last 4 years but not bad. Sounds like western IA isn't doing well at all...
Wildturkey 2
Active Member
May I ask how many ways do you know how to trap coyotes I know dirt hole sets & snares that’s the only two I know. Is there other ways tricks of the trade.
Slick
Well-Known Member
Not a secrete or anything but if you do a dirt hole set go back 7 or 8 feet and set another trap with no bait or hole just "hidden". Usually when a yote gets caught in the dirt hole set the ones he is traveling with will circle him trying to figure out what is going on and then you will have 2 in the morning.
Wildturkey 2
Active Member
Ok thanks never heard of that slick thanks again
Daver
PMA Member
I don't often set for coyotes, so I am not an expert, but I can definitely attest to this. ^^ A few years ago I caught a bobcat in a dirthole and then reset it and got a coyote the next morning. (Resets are great, tons of scent left behind.) There was a light skiff of snow that night and the caught coyote had made a fairly pronounced "catch circle". But just outside of that circle...zillions of tracks from his apparent running mate(s).
If I had set another trap ANYWHERE around there I would have caught at least one more.