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Iowabowtech said:
I've heard a lot about the 1:1 ratio thing through the years and having managed ground hard along with a group of friends/bowhunters, I don't want anything to do with a 1:1 ratio anymore. I'm not sure we got there but we were very aggressive on the does in the past several years. I would concur that our ratio was in fact too high but we are now at the point where we are seeing waaaaaaaaaaay fewer deer of either sex than we have in the past and in the past we pretty consistently shot good bucks.

Experts say that the benefit of 1:1 is that the bucks will supposedly be of higher quality. Well, we saw many more high quality bucks in the day of high doe numbers. We are now aiming for something more in the neighborhood of 2:1 or perhaps 3:1.

I can see where the 1:1 thing might work on a highfence operation where you can control the exact herd number and it's dynamics but I'm not seeing the benefit for free ranging deer. Just my opinion based off years of trying it both ways. Other's results may vary greatly.
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IOWABOWTECH,
I honestly do not think that most areas will ever get to 1:1. If I could get 2:1 or 3:1 I would be happy. I think this year with the warm weather and the corn we seen fewer deer. Also there were so many does that the mature bucks did not have to come out of hiding to search for any remaining ones until way later.
I remember a few years back of a post from a gentleman on the 1:1 ratio and how special that one month was and how beneficial it was to the deer herd. I also agree that with different areas the results may vary.
 
I hunt hard every year all year. I spend countless hours scouting, spotting, hunting checking cams, wasting money on hay to get sheds. I will say(IMO) it was a crappy year. The numbers in my area are ridiculously low. I don't go out and expect to shoot 16 deer in 2 days. The crops are out we had 2 inches of fresh white snow,walked section after section to see 50-75 deer in 5 days. The numbers are down in this area. The guys I hunt with are farmers,business owners, and hard working bunch of guys. I think if a guy works hard all year and takes a vacation to hunt deer he should have the opportunity to kill one living in the great state of Iowa. I guess I'm lucky enough to have a job that gets me by and gives me alot of time in the stand. I don't think anyone of them is in the wrong for complaining but that just my opinion. I hunt from oct.1 until I'm done or Jan. 10.
 
bigbukfevr said:
i think the ratio totally depends on the farm your on.
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I could not agree more.

It will also depends on the cover, hunting pressure, food and water.

Unfortunately not everyone can control some of these items if they do not own there own land. They are at the mercy of the landowner.
 
I am for a HIGH deer pop and I quit the 6-7 doe a year shooting a few years back. The DNR is under pressure from Farm Bureau, insurance companies, and a few farmers, to KILL all the deer. We don't have to listen.

On another note...Habitat and the lack of it, and bad springs and/or winters are always blamed for lack of pheasant and quail pop. Our family farm has tons of habitat, we don't pheasant or quail hunt, our winters and springs are pretty well the same as they have been for the last 50 years(except winters have gotten better with MUCH less snow and WARMER temps.) and there are NO birds. So what is the problem then with bird populations? I know, my friends know, my Grandfather knows, and so does the DNR...HAWKS, OWLS, and other birds of prey are the culprit. Coyotes, foxes, feral cats, possums, coons take their share...but their pops. have stayed about the same for the last 50 years..but NOTHING compared to HUGE increase in pops. of the birds of prey. Coincidence that game bird pops. are LOW, and the birds of prey pops. are HIGH?? Pheasant numbers would rebound if everyone shot hawks/owls on sight like they used to 60 years ago. You can't drive down the interstate without seeing a hawk sitting on every 1/2 mile fence post.
 
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I live and hunt in one of the high pop areas. Several neighbors that don't allow hunting or really limit it. The buck to mature doe ratio has to be close to 1:1 from what I saw this season. Within a mile East West or North of this area(the south border is the Des Moines river) I know of 12 bucks and 16 antlerless deer killed. The bucks were: 2 1.5yr olds, 4 2.5's, 4 3.5's, and 2 4.5's. Based on trailcam pics, preseason scouting and deer seen during second season I'd say this was less than 30% of the bucks and 20% of the does in the area.

I agree that deer numbers are down in alot of areas. I see less deer from the highways than in years past. I also agree that we as hunters are the only people managing the deer herd for the state and need to use that power wisely.
 
risto2351 said:
I could not agree more.

It will also depends on the cover, hunting pressure, food and water.

Unfortunately not everyone can control some of these items if they do not own there own land. They are at the mercy of the landowner.
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Agreed. I am seeing same number of deer where I hunt as I see every year for the most part. Another big issue nobody has really talked about is that there are more and more people getting interested in hunting every year it seems like. People I know that I never thought would hunt are trying out archery or gun or both, and they all need places to hunt too. There is going to be more and more pressure every year on these deer and it s going to be more difficult to manage these deer in the future. I learned that this year first hand. I had trail cam pics of a 3 1/2 year old andn let him walk twice with my bow, then the neighbor shoots him 1st gun season. It was his biggest buck by far so I m happy for him in that sense......
 
Great thread!
Nice to see people taking responsibility:way: as opposed to perpetually passing it off on to other people or some entity.
We as hunters hold the future of hunting in our hands (@ least so far). Unfortunately hunters have the potential to destroy hunting as much as any group out there.:confused:
 
We all need to do the right thing for our areas, this is for sure. It is hard though when ur neighbor gets half the town and decides to hunt with different people each season and harvest any deer that comes his way. My situation was great before he moved in, each year it has declined since then. My challenge is to continue to pass on does when I know that he will not pass on anything.
 
I actually was waiting for this cold weather to see if the fewer numbers was
due to the weather or fewer deer.

Everyone needs to take into account the nice weather we had during the rut and November in their number of deer sightings.

I know that the numbers are down and they should be but some may not be
down as far as one may think due to the warmer than expected fall.

Like was said before everyone needs to do their own due diligence in their hunting areas on either thinning them out or letting them go for know.

Just my .02.
 
All good points! But let us not forget the non-resident factor. We all know that the "if it’s brown it's down" is a program driven by revenue not the false lie they are spewing about "landowner complaints, public concern and insurance costs". If they want the revenue they will get it and they will go out of state to insure this - just raise and issue a few more non-resident tags will be one solution. Now common sense says this is not going to really do much in the way of "management" but it will set precedence for the number of tags issued to non-residence that will be hard to stop. Contacting local and state legislators is the key. Let them now you can take your dollars out of the system (and state) just as easy as they can bring them in. Kansas or Canada trip anybody (hint –hint)?
 
Well I know I am helping out. I have 6 doe tags from 5 different counties that won't get filled :) I always hate that I feel like I have to have a doe tag for every county I hunt for a "Just in case moment". Its almost pointless to buy them because I know I won't fill them when I hunt a mile to a mile and half off the road but it always sounds good at the time. In a way its like hoarding tags, but in another way it might save 12-18 deer next year. I guess I donated $87 to the DNR.
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On January 9th, report that you harvested does for all these tags.. Any unfilled tags I have left at the end of the year get does reported on them. I may be in the minority, but those are the hard numbers that the DNR will use to calculate harvest and hopefully lower available tags the following year. But, I'm probably just offsetting some guy that didn't report his kill, so I'm sure I'm not making a difference. But, I'm trying..
 
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[FONT=&quot]“On January 9th, report that you harvested does for all these tags.. Any unfilled tags I have left at the end of the year get deer reported on them. I may be in the minority, but those are the hard numbers that the DNR will use to calculate harvest and hopefully lower available tags the following year. But, I'm probably just offsetting some guy that didn't report his kill, so I'm sure I'm not making a difference. But, I'm trying... “[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I have contemplated the same thing. My concern was that potentially if all hunters did reports a harvest on all unfilled tags the DNR would interpret that as the numbers must be high. Counting deer by means of spot lighting and flying, and people speculating on numbers is one thing, but if they felt the harvest report numbers were correct, and those numbers were high…..who knows??[/FONT]
 
I glanced through a bit of above (sorry if I repeat someone else's thoughts).... The solution is MAINLY going to come through regulation changes. Let's say you're in the NW with few deer- they must lower doe tag allotment there. The PROBLEM, like I've said before here, is there's too many yahoo's that DON'T CARE one lick about management- they just wanna shoot and blast stuff. These folks are NOT on this site. They are mainly not serious hunters like us (which is fine at other levels, hunting is great for anyone) and don't understand all this or care- I see groups of these folks every year- the groups that don't care if it's a button buck, young buck, doe- does not matter. REGULATION change (like tag allotment) is going to be 80% of the fight and the 20% will be educating all folks on facts. Just my opinion.
 
Hunt4Life00

I have contemplated the same thing. My concern was that potentially if all hunters did reports a harvest on all unfilled tags the DNR would interpret that as the numbers must be high. Counting deer by means of spot lighting and flying, and people speculating on numbers is one thing, but if they felt the harvest report numbers were correct, and those numbers were high…..who knows??
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My thought process has also gone down that path as well, but I'm sure you know of a hunter or two that shot a doe and didn't find them or got tired of tracking them. I think that is some of the problem with doe hunting. People are NOT inclined to put 100% into tracking them if they don't fall dead in the first 50 yards. "It's just a doe, I'll shoot another". Too much of that crap going on and that is why I report does killed on my unfilled tags. Those deer died, they just didn't get tagged. That thought process angers me.. If you are going to decide to shoot at an animal and make contact, you do everything in your power to finish the job and recover that animal.
 
Are there really members of this site that aren't unhappy with lower deer populations? We all are die-hard deer hunters/sportsmen/conservationists, with that goes the desire to see more wildife and to know that the species is flourishing! If you live in NE Iowa or the southern region of the state consider yourselves lucky to be complaining about too high of a deer population. Wait untill DNR management catches up and see how the North and NW portions of the state are feeling!

As for pheasants, thank you so much to the member that posted the comment about the number of predator birds. You are exactly right about that! Hawks/Owls/Skunks/Coons along with two ugly winters have left the population dismal at best!

I wish the DNR would put species before dollars. I sure won't hold my breath to see that change however.
 
personally it was a lot more enjoyable seeing 15 deer a night instead of seeing maybe that in a weekend. I also seemed to have noticed alot more of our bucks are all busted up now more so than in the past do to fewer does, also we seem to be losing our 4 year olds and up and i think it may be due to them 1) ranging out to find does 2) getting shot as shed antler deer in the stupid late season doe. This is just what my group of bow hunters experienced this year and these are on farms that we supposedly manage correctly with food plots and a 4 year old min on bucks, we are now letting all does walk for the remainder of the year.
Another thing people should start thinking about is the large coyote numbers and fawn recruitment, get your cameras out in the spring and you may be surprised :(
 
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