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CRITICAL- READ NOW!!!! Iowa BUCKS- New LAW!!!

Sligh1

Sligh1

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I was just on the phone with Matt Rush with DNR. There is a new law that has been in effect for just about 2 months now where farmers may now & have been shooting bucks with rifles using depredation permits!!!! This has been in effect since AUGUST, 2008 and it went under the radar! More details below.

CRITICAL ELEMENT!!!.... There's a meeting at Lake Rathburn Fish Hatchery at 6:30 Tuesday, September 30th. That's in Appanoose county. 2 STATE REPRESENTATIVES, the State Biologist and many other decision makers will be there to hear YOU and discuss this issue. BE THERE and tell everyone you know to be there!!!! *I just found out about this and I have to be at the hospital until 10pm BUT the DNR and many others are urgently requesting your attendance!!!!

You may call Matt Rush, DNR if you have more questions BUT hopefully he doesn't get too swamped with calls- (641)777-7805

DETAILS of Law: Depredation tags were just changed for 1st time to include ANY deer and can be shot in mid and late summer when bucks are visible and vulnerable in all the fields. You are required to turn in the ANTLERS after the kill BUT to date ZERO racks have been turned in (I'm sure NOT because they weren't shot!!!). The insurance and farm companies lobbied this and one of the big reasons was "Bucks are bigger and eat more grain and crop so they must be shot". Horrible evidence from poorly educated non-hunters pushed this law through.

They sprung this meeting at the last minute in hopes of keeping attendance low (in many people's opinion including myself). Make sure you are there as well as anyone else who is concerned- some decisions are driving us down the WRONG path in management, this is another huge leap!

BE THERE, spread the word, email this, etc!!!! If a couple of you want to confirm with DNR, call Matt Rush (please keep it limited to a few calls). This is the fact AND the location and time for this CRUCIAL ISSUE!!!! Spread the word and BE THERE!!!!!!!!! (this is just a post, anyway to get on main website OR to IBA would be greatly appreciated!!!!).
 
Depredation tags and shooting permits are different. The depredation tags are valid during regular hunting seasons and are antlerless only. The shooting permit season began in July and ended on September 19th. Although I didn't realize a rifle was a legal weapon, I did know that they could take bucks. The reason, as explained second hand to me, was to prevent damage before it happened. The reason they allowed some buck harvest, as I understood it, was not because bucks are bigger and eat more, but to prevent damage to agricultural type trees, such as fruit trees, Christmas trees, etc. that bucks would rub antlers on. Not saying I agree with it, but that's the reason that I heard.
 
If they want more bucks dead, they should just issue more buck tags a year. I wouldn't agree with that either, but I trust the judgement of an experienced hunter better than I do a pissed off farmer in a combine.
 
Just talked to him and he said he had no clue that it had changed and didn't know until the permits were sent to him. Nothing like being able to go out and high power a buck and stick him in the freezer and the head on the wall and no one would ever know. The farmer can also get a kill tag and name a shooter to come in and shoot for him/her.
 
NWBuck, the buck permits for APPLE ORCHARDS and TREE FARMS have always been there. This year was the 1st year that it allowed bucks to be shot with rifles on crop farms.

You are correct with your dates and the Sept 19th end. This is absolutely crazy and all the insurance companies and A FEW misguided folks making poor decisions without facts made this a reality. They absolutely tried to pull this one "under the radar" as game wardens all over did not know about this until it was far too late (after the season was going).

This will continue (and likely grow in my opinion) unless voices are heard (and all that's needed from the voices is COMMON SENSE and an understanding of the whitetail & hunting). BE THERE! Don't miss out on stopping this in the early stage!!!!
 
i just talked to the dnr and they can shoot at night by moonlight but no spotlights no shooting hour limits. and they have busted people for shooting bucks and keeping the racks.
 
Wow! Very shocked to read something like this and that it could be under the radar for this long. Thanks for the post and the heads-up on the meeting.
 
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I tried to get everyones attention about these changes back in August. Everything you are talking about was discussed at this meeting.

Kill EM

If you don’t like the way things are going then I strongly suggested that you join and support the IBA!

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Please join and support the Iowa Bowhunters Association, united we can make a difference.<span style="color: #CC0000"> For more information about becoming an IBA member&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;</span>Details<span style="color: #CC0000">&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;</span>
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: enis</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Thats going way toooo farrrrr!!!!! Bad enough killing does for no reason.</div></div>
I see you don't farm! Those does cost me a lot of money from eating my crops. I love hunting whitetail,but something got to be done. I do think the bucks should be excluded though.
 
I can't believe the responses to this. Im guessing that people that are posting on this do not farm or come from a rural area what so ever. Deer can take thousands of dollars a year in crops. How well would that sit with you if it were your income? 90% of farmers that get tags this way could care less what they shoot as long as it stops taking money out of their pockets.

I dont know about many of you but hunting will always be put behind family in my life. The bottom line is that the people that will abuse this new law were already doing it.

I don't know what the DNRs big deal with this law is??? I know its dipping into their little gold mine that they've found in the past few years but in the end they could make more off the antlers that are turned in at auction. Hell it even gives them more tickets to write to who ever doesn't turn them in.

Support farmers, they're the reason we have the caliber of deer that we have. Don't try and cut them down for trying to make a living.
 
Very well said hoytmossyoak.
When people ask me to hunt my ground I'll tell them they can only shot does, but can shoot a buck if they mount it. They look at me like I'm a a@@hole.
 
I have to say, Iowa may have the most retarded laws in the world it insane. I am embarrased. Couple thoughts here. If Iowa is going to let people shoot any sex deer out of season with a rifle at night, then why dont we just open the deer licenses to over the counter for non residents,(unlimited) and charge 1000 dollars license. heck at least while we destroy the population of our deer, we should make some money.(not serious of course) We sit on this website every year in february and we talk about how we hate the NR landowners, etc, "dont raise the tags, keep em out, etc etc etc. and then we do something like this. I get it, the deer population needs to be in check, but their has got to be a better way than this. I have said it once and i will say it again, Nr landowners need more doe tags, i am surrounded by nr landowners and the doe population is insane. but i am not going to do all the work, i would rather see a nr landowner with unlimited doe tags then some guy shooting every deer that walks out in his corn field without regard. sometimes i think we(iowa hunters) are our own worst enemy!
 
PART of the argument here is the BEST way for farmers to help out their crops. Almost all who use EVIDENCE believe that increasing doe tags during regular season, letting people hunt on your land and kill as many does as possible and reducing the population county by county by shooting DOES. Does are the way to dramatically reduce the populution, not by shooting bucks, that's PROVEN. No one is discussiing getting rid of the Doe shooting permits or doe depredation tags.

This also isn't even a discussion of shooting bucks vs does. This is about shooting bucks in the middle of the summer (even at NIGHT!) with RIFLES or whatever.

Farmers with massive crop damage I would suspect 90% of the time claim they see fields with 50 DOES in them that are eating stuff. I would guess those farmers would look out amongst those 50 does and see maybe 2 or 3 bucks or possibly NONE!?!?!? Kill those does, reduce the population, do what you have to, no one is arguing with that!

The whole other aspect here comes with the door this is opening to all the guys that will go out in summer with rifles with the intent of shooting bucks- this now gives anyone a legal pass to be out there and blast away when the bucks are probably the most visible (then and rut). Most areas are watched so closely for poachers that it's "reasonably" difficult and some won't take the chance of poaching. This law is basically making your buck shooting legal and will attract tons of others who see OPPORTUNITY here. A farmer may designate any hunter he wants to shoot the bucks. This has already created huge problems, will get worse, is opening a horrible door of management AND is one of the least proven and least effective means (shooting bucks) for helping the farmer reduce deer populations with horrible doe numbers. This has so many awful elements to it & stinks with suspicion and where some are trying to take IA.
 
I come from a farm and have seen the damage that deer can do to crops. However I am not a tree farmer or anything like that. I can see the point with those types of farms where bucks can destroy trees that they make their living off of which could be a different situation in my opinion.

However, shooting bucks on a grain farm in the summertime does not sit with me at all. If a farmer wants to shoot deer with a rifle especially in Iowa, there are enough opportunities to control the deer population by shooting does and never have to shoot a buck. The thought that a buck eats more food than a doe is probably true but this difference is pretty negligible. How do we expect to control poaching now? If farmers have the right to kill at will with their little permits, how does the dnr know that the farmer didn't go out and poach it off ground that he doesn't farm? Everyone knows for a fact that if the farmer has to get the DNR to come out to the kill site to retrieve the deer there isn't any farmer who is going to go through all that hassle and will just shoot them and let them lay. JMHO
 
It is my understanding that this meeting may be used to also catipult the justification to open up Non Resident tag allocations.


If you have a stance - now is your chance to make a difference in the future of Iowa's deer herd.

Again the meeting is at Lake Rathburn Fish Hatchery at 6:30 Tuesday, September 30th.

Anyone want to carpool from the Des Moines Area??
 
i dont know whats worse . more nr hunters or guys picking off bucks with rifles in august. its insane, the variables are endless, what about things like earn a buck for nonresidents , make them shoot does first, 6500 people want to come her and shoot deer, make them shoot does first . so many better solutions than shooting bucks in august
 
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