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Assuming you have the power in 2024...

The majority of gun hunters have to choose between one of the 5,9 or 20ish day gun seasons. All bowhunters get 80+ days to hunt. I don’t really think we want to start the argument on who gets a better crack at them.
Exactly!

Also, if you think it's crowded now, condense the three weekends for shotgun into one weekend and there will be a spike in human casualties.
 
Here is a little bit of power:
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One of best statements I’ve ever read!!!!
Team hunter has gotten infinite wishes the last 30+ years!!!! Longer seasons. More weapons. Way way way way more technology!!!! Able to shoot further with every weapon class. Huge advancements to every weapon. Increased tags allowed.
As fellow hunters- have we all been a part of this? Yep!!!! Totally admit it.
what have the DEER/resource had to their advantage??? Not much…. Some farms better managed. Some worse. Age class has suffered in last 10 years big time!!!! #’s down. They really haven’t had a whole lot swung in their favor.
Is the resource & hunting: about ME ME ME or far more than that??? That’s the fundamental ? Anyone can ask & should ask. Are we going the right direction for what hunting will be for the next generations?
Clearly, anyone knows the mindset that I wish more folks took on hunters considering what’s best for the resource.
Team deer & team “future hunter” need the pendulum to swing the other direction.
I don’t really have an issue with much of this but I do find it somewhat disingenuous that not many on “team deer” are proposing to shorten the bow season by a month or to limit many other common things that help contribute to their individual success. No matter what, we are just picking the winners and losers with any new proposed regulations. I think we can all do a lot of good by sticking together and fighting the big issues like crossbows, non res landowner tags and increasing non resident quotas. If too many people get irritated by new regs that limit what they have enjoyed their whole lives we may lose our voice and will get steamrolled by liberal regulations far worse than we currently have.
 
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At this point in time, I don't think liberal legislation is going to affect much. Reason being is...
Younger generation wanting to hunt is DRASTICALLY diminishing.

Grandpa Jones has a great 100 acre tract that he used to let anyone who asked permission. Grandson DweebBoy seen a huge buck and now wants to try and kill it because he watched to many «" youtube" videos, wants to become an internet star and begs Gramps to have it all to himself.
Shit is getting WAY to expensive for youngsters starting out. Yep, I know damn well deer can be killed just fine with cheaper equipment but if a kid watches " shows", he/ she will (learn) you gotta have this / that.

When i was growing up, i did not need permission. Fact is, a farmer/ landowner would laugh if asked. " go right ahead". Hope you get one.
Hell, I was gonna type up a long list of what I've seen/ am seeing that has/ is ruining what us here hold dearly to our hearts but I don't have time for it.
Most of us older people have ourselves to blame. 100% sure myself included!!
I've given up a couple 1000 acres of prime land over the past few years that I had sole access to.
Now I just wanna hunt my own little piece of deer heaven and let the chips fall where they may.



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Here is a little bit of power:
ac1ed0f5c5684472509b7e2a1183b16b.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I talked to the main DNR guy about the goals. He gave some good feedback. I’d like to attend the meeting in Onawa if I could ? Maybe a reason to go get some cameras up and then see what they have to say .

He told me, no bonus doe tags for 2024 in this area.
 
I don’t really have an issue with much of this but I do find it somewhat disingenuous that not many on “team deer” are proposing to shorten the bow season by a month or to limit many other common things that help contribute to their individual success. No matter what, we are just picking the winners and losers with any new proposed regulations. I think we can all do a lot of good by sticking together and fighting the big issues like crossbows, non res landowner tags and increasing non resident quotas. If too many people get irritated by new regs that limit what they have enjoyed their whole lives we may lose our voice and will get steamrolled by liberal regulations far worse than we currently have.
the only shortening I’d be for or hear discussed is ending the season January 1. I’ll admit- I’m for that. Sept 15 the bullets start flying. That would put a cap of 3.5 months of hunting season. I’d be just fine with 3.5 months.
The resource/deer, everyday hunter & future hunters are the losers the last 10 years. Theres no way around that one. Hunters have got everything they could have dreamed the last 5-25 years. I am personally uncomfortable with the trajectory we are headed on.

I totally agree with you on vast majority & I 100% agree we need to stay together & firm on the most critical issues!!!!! We need to grow the amount of folks on this team & have an army ready to fight for the hill to die on. Those battles are coming!!!!!. & we have the army. We need to grow it and we are gonna win!!!!
 
the only shortening I’d be for or hear discussed is ending the season January 1. I’ll admit- I’m for that. Sept 15 the bullets start flying. That would put a cap of 3.5 months of hunting season. I’d be just fine with 3.5 months.
The resource/deer, everyday hunter & future hunters are the losers the last 10 years. Theres no way around that one. Hunters have got everything they could have dreamed the last 5-25 years. I am personally uncomfortable with the trajectory we are headed on.

I totally agree with you on vast majority & I 100% agree we need to stay together & firm on the most critical issues!!!!! We need to grow the amount of folks on this team & have an army ready to fight for the hill to die on. Those battles are coming!!!!!. & we have the army. We need to grow it and we are gonna win!!!!
Ending the season on January 5th it is! Haha. Just kidding. I can go along with this. It’s a small compromise I think the vast majority can agree on. Obviously late anterless/ shed buck season is something totally unnecessary that needs to be addressed. Ending everything a little earlier is more than reasonable and keeps the majority of people on the same side of the big issues and limits the infighting/class warfare on everybody's individual preferences.
 
Some of you are sounding a little selfish.

Why put an acre limit on LO tags? The smaller pieces probably get more time and effort promoting habitat than the big pieces. A person with 10 acres is going to work a lot harder to attract and hold the game vs the neighbor that just farms his. I would probably support this idea if for some reason NRLO tags were considered and it was applied to them. As for residents, no. People aren’t buying 5 acre plots just so they can skimp out on a $30 deer tag.

Another thought, The archery season is 12 wks (85 days). Let’s cut all hunting during the rut and see what it does for age structure. Say early season the first 2 weeks of October and the late primitive that’s already established. That would still give archers over double the amount of open days as the gun seasons. (Not including the January bs)

I’m with the majority here on ideas already mentioned.
1. No new weapons. Scale back on some. Maybe back to shotgun only.
2. Open sight/red dot muzzle loaders. No smokeless.
3. No crossbows. If you can shoot a crossbow, you can handle a 20ga. Set an early disabled season like we do for youth if needed or combine them. Edit: it already exists. No crossbows needed.
4. Floating LO tag
5. No handouts ie; outfitter tags, nrlo tags, governors tags, etc…
6. Figure out a way to fill the antlerless quotas on the ground that needs them. The “pockets” that are skewing the #’s are areas that are almost strictly trophy hunted. At least in this area.
 
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Some of you are sounding a little selfish.

Why put an acre limit on LO tags? The smaller pieces probably get more time and effort promoting habitat than the big pieces. A person with 10 acres is going to work a lot harder to attract and hold the game vs the neighbor that just farms his. I would probably support this idea if for some reason NRLO tags were considered and it was applied to them. As for residents, no. People aren’t buying 5 acre plots just so they can skimp out on a $30 deer tag.

Another thought, The archery season is 12 wks (85 days). Let’s cut all hunting during the rut and see what it does for age structure. Say early season the first 2 weeks of October and the late primitive that’s already established. That would still give archers over double the amount of open days as the gun seasons. (Not including the January bs)

I’m with the majority here on ideas already mentioned.
1. No new weapons. Scale back on some. Maybe back to shotgun only.
2. Open sight/red dot muzzle loaders. No smokeless.
3. No crossbows. If you can shoot a crossbow, you can handle a 20ga. Set an early disabled season like we do for youth if needed or combine them. Edit: it already exists. No crossbows needed.
4. Floating LO tag
5. No handouts ie; outfitter tags, nrlo tags, governors tags, etc…
6. Figure out a way to fill the antlerless quotas on the ground that needs them. The “pockets” that are skewing the #’s are areas that are almost strictly trophy hunted. At least in this area.

I agree with no minimum on LOT tags BUT I think the whole program needs revised to make sure the qualifications are being met. I also think it should be Landowner only- that tenant part is WAY to abused. Now would be the perfect time with floating tags- clean up a bunch of that would help.
 
Just curious after reading the comments up to now….
How many deer are killed in the first couple of weeks of the season?
How many deer are killed in January?
How many deer are killed by non-resident landowners?
Would you approve of preventing the use of crossbows and/or rifles?
 
A couple hot takes in here. For Illinois:

- One buck tag per year and some sort of limit to doe tags (With current predator populations and EHD coming through every other year, the need to harvest does is overblown in a lot of areas, imo.) Second buck tag if you provide access to unrelated hunter through lottery system.

- Move shotgun season to the week after Thanksgiving (currently 2nd season) instead of before. Although, I do not feel as strongly about this as a lot of deer are locked down during our current 1st season and gun-only hunters deserve a shot at hunting some portion of the rut.

- Ban deer drives. In my area, most 3 year old studs are killed by resident long term hunters, not youth or non-residents. Hunters that are new to the sport are much less likely to have a "brown its down" mentality, especially if coming to the sport from watching Meateater or the Hunting Public. Many of the Elmer Fudd's that are complaining they can't hunt for free anymore are the same ones that shoot everything they see and do not give a hoot about managing habitat or the resources. These guys always know when the rut is going to start though, so I guess they have that feather in their caps. Nowadays, I see the deer drives firing up around 10:00am on opening morning as little to no attempt is made to hunt traditionally.

- CRP is actually inspected by FSA/USDA and no plans allow land to be placed in a monoculture of cool season grass that gets mowed every year. No more glorified "lawns" qualifying for CRP based on erosion control.

- A lot of discussion above regarding incentivizing farmers to promote habitat, why not make their subsidies contingent upon it where appropriate? If they want to cut every tree down, spray every "weed" in sight, fill in every ditch, graze every square inch, and shoot does all summer with predation tags, so be it, but maybe they do not receive their direct subsidy check or they have to pay unsubsdized market rate crop insurance. This could also be a method to get hunters access as well, you want subsidies? Fine, then you will take part in a hunter lottery and allow access to a hunter(s), no more leasing of recreational ground for those landowners, hunters would be required to self insure and government could indemnify landowner to address liability concerns. Hunters lacking access to could either pay to be in lottery or could volunteer to perform invasive plant control.

- Not sure limiting hunters to certain weapons would help. Lot of guys in this state were taking 200 yard shots at running deer with slug guns before we got straight wall cartridges and 60 yard shots with their vertical bows they never practice with. My hope is that our newer choices lead to more ethical kills.

- End all antlerless only late season hunts after January 5th. No reason to encourage shed buck hunting.

- No limitations on season or technology when hunting or trapping coyotes, raccoons, or possums.

- Ban the sale, transport, or use of known nonnative invasives, which includes reed canary grass.

- One adult turkey season, 30 days, one tom per hunter. Two tags if you permit hunter from lottery to access property. No hens allowed to be harvested in fall or spring.
 
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