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are you seeing more or less deer

L

livtahunt

PMA Member
just wanting to know if iowa deer herd is going down i myself have have seen the numbers go down you use to see the deer in herds of 20 to 40 running through on shot gun season now its down to 4 to 8 alot smaller herds and every body i talk to in my area feels the same way
 
I spent a number of hours these past few weeks driving around and talking with hunters in both the first and second shotgun season. I asked them if they were seeing more deer than in past years. Every one of them told me that they had not seen the numbers of does this season that they had three to four years ago.

When I asked them why they thought they weren’t seeing as many does I heard the following: “because most of the deer are over on (farmers name) and he doesn’t allow huntingâ€, “because (farmers name) has his land leased and all the deer are over there holing upâ€, “because the DNR has allowed too many does to be shot the last few years†or “the deer are smart, they know that once the shooting starts they can get over on that leased land and be safeâ€.

Ron
 
More for sure. Early on I had a very long period where I saw very few mature deer, buck or doe. Like stated above when the pressure is on they simply move away from it.
 
Alot less from the previous years. I think that they run to a place and as long as it dosent get hunted they stay there.
 
compared to last year it is less. but last year was an incredible year.

plus the corn was a late harvest, at least up here. so there was alot more places to not be seen when they were feeding.
 
I would agree that there are a lot less deer than there have been in years past. I would also question if it is in part to a mild year so far. Usually they are starting to heard up by now and they are still very scattered from what I am seeing. Last year when we had snow I would have them come into to the food plots every night but not this year. Last year I had 58 come into a food plot on the best night and this year I saw 4 on the best night so something has changed and I am thinking that the weather is mostley to blame.
 
I've seen more deer this year than I've seen since I've hunted in Iowa(7 years). I also hunted more this year now that I'm done with school. Being out of college isn't so bad!
 
Same numbers on the ground I hunt but a LOT more everywhere else. That is in a range from the Cedar Rapids area south to the Missouri Border. I am seeing deer where I have never seen them before. I also have seen more road kills this year, although road kills are not necessarily a good indicator of deer populations.
 
This year was a little off for me. I would see 12 to 16 does and button bucks along with 5 or six yearling bucks almost every morning out. But only a few mature bucks all season. Where did they go? In past years there have always been several 140 class bucks running our timber.
 
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