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Deer Harvest Update

I agree with ya MN... We do need to save the resource that we have though. Luckily I am fortunate to have farms that stretch from SW Iowa all the way to NE Iowa... numbers are down EVERYWHERE in the state (except my 70 acre farm surrounded by 1600 that is off limits) I know the shotgun group I went with were shooting little bucks if they wanted meat instead of does, but if they didn't want meat, we werent shooting anything. We only shot one doe in the group, and that was one of the kids. The problem is the DNR will have to step in and control the herd, but they will be over ruled. What they don't see is if the numbers keep going the way they are, they will be losing a ton of revenue when people don't want to keep coming here to hunt and not see deer. That's why people love Iowa, big bucks and lots of deer each sit... just my 2 cents
 
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flugge said:
I agree with ya MN... We do need to save the resource that we have though. Luckily I am fortunate to have farms that stretch from SW Iowa all the way to NE Iowa... numbers are down EVERYWHERE in the state (except my 70 acre farm surrounded by 1600 that is off limits) I know the shotgun group I went with were shooting little bucks if they wanted meat instead of does, but if they didn't want meat, we were shooting anything. We only shot one doe in the group, and that was one of the kids. The problem is the DNR will have to step in and control the herd, but they will be over ruled. What they don't see is if the numbers keep going the way they are, they will be losing a ton of revenue when people don't want to keep coming here to hunt and not see deer. That's why people love Iowa, big bucks and lots of deer each sit... just my 2 cents
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Yep, no doubt. I agree with you! Your situation is a rare one in that very few hunters have more than 1-2 farms they hunt. You are very fortunate!
 
Open Site said:
It's the lee and Tiffany wannabe famous know it alls on here that preach that they can tell everyone how to hunt and what to do and what not to do that drive me and a lot of people nuts. Give me a break. You don't hunt where i I hunt nor where the other 95% of the guys on here hunt. You want to manage the state of Iowas deer, apply for a job with the DNR. You have a right to your opinion and can post it on here but man. Give it a rest. Your stressing me out just by reading this stuff. I can't imagine. The restless nights you all are having over deer numbers. The state pays people to study this and. Work the numbers and watch what's going on. Get out there and enjoy your hunt and let them worry about it. Don't need any arrow slingers having heart attacks in the stand because they don't have any 200 class deer on their leased ground. The guys on tv always shoot a big deer so I should be doing it mentality is ridiculous I have gone multiple years with out shooting a deer and years where I have shot a dozen. Your hunting enjoy it.
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I was responding to someone else talking the way your complaining about. Read what I wrote in response too bud. All I was saying is all the orange army members aren't ALL brown its down mentality. Never did I tell people
How they should hunt- just how our group hunted this season and the bad wrap gun hunters get from Bow hunters aren't always accurate as I partake in both ad have seen poor choices by both. So by telling me to give you a break- ditto to you
 
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Deer numbers are definitely down- just hope we dont have the same issues as the last two years with disease and what not-
 
BDAHMS said:
I bow hunt as well as participate as a "weekend slug slinger" our group completely refrained from our normal 10-12 deer down and only ended up killing 2 mature bucks. Period. Be careful how you phrase things- I know plenty of unethical bow hunters as I do orange army members. Just because you only choose to use a bow and not participate in gun season doesn't mean all
Gun hunters are Walmart warriors and have a brown its down mentality. You state this as if only gun hunters are putting a damage In the deer population-
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I gun hunt as well.
I'm not even talking about unethical or illegal activities. I'm simply talking about folks who fairly innocently r able to buy a butt load of tags and get 20 guys to run deer by them - the majority could care less about the herd. U r exactly right- they r just out to "have a good time". Which - part of hunting should be about. A lot of the blame comes when 3500 tags for their county r available and they r hunting on ground that is already very low for deer or has been blasted over and over. These folks could give 2 craps about management or what's good for the area, deer, neighbors, next guys in there, etc. I bet most guys on HERE do not fall into that group and do care but - please - go BS for 5 mins with the run-of-the-mill groups in ur area. They don't care in most cases. I honestly believe u could have 10 deer left in a county & find a group to kill the remaining 10- no problem. I'm saying, the DNR needs to step up and fight and hunters who do CARE need to step up and fight for better regulations- because people often door a very poor job of self regulation.
 
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Sligh1 said:
I gun hunt as well.
I'm not even talking about unethical or illegal activities. I'm simply talking about folks who fairly innocently r able to buy a butt load of tags and get 20 guys to run deer by them - the majority could care less about the herd. U r exactly right- they r just out to "have a good time". Which - part of hunting should be about. A lot of the blame comes when 3500 tags for their county r available and they r hunting on ground that is already very low for deer or has been blasted over and over. These folks could give 2 craps about management or what's good for the area, deer, neighbors, next guys in there, etc. I bet most guys on HERE do not fall into that group and do care but - please - go BS for 5 mins with the run-of-the-mill groups in ur area. They don't care in most cases. I honestly believe u could have 10 deer left in a county & find a group to kill the remaining 10- no problem. I'm saying, the DNR needs to step up and fight and hunters who do CARE need to step up and fight for better regulations- because people often door a very poor job of self regulation.
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Gotcha- now we are on the same page- couldn't agree with you more now- I just misunderstood you the first Time around. Unfortunately- IMO- $$ talks and I don't really see the state stepping in on this because the revenue. All people like you and I can do is do what we have been Doing and hunt ethically and keep in mind our future deer numbers Party hunting during
Gun season is fun for me because I get to spend time with friends and family that I only get to see once a year. We don't need to kill everything in site- bow hunting is my time to kill a mature deer- but I completely agree with you- many groups out there would kill the last living deer in an area to
Get that fix

On a side note- I couldn't believe the amount of pheasant and quail I saw this year- I mean dozens and dozens!!
 
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Lee and Tiffany aren't as bad as people make it seem. Lee has also helped the state too with the Let em grow mentality in the shows and his book. I'm sure a lot of people have watched the shows and realized the potential Iowas herd has if they let the deer mature and the importance of food plots and proper nutrition.

I do agree that celebrity hunts should go away though. Yes I know I'm probably going to be picked apart on this one but I'm sure a lot of you have gotten ideas from them here or there.
 
Sligh1 said:
I gun hunt as well. I'm not even talking about unethical or illegal activities. I'm simply talking about folks who fairly innocently r able to buy a butt load of tags and get 20 guys to run deer by them - the majority could care less about the herd. U r exactly right- they r just out to "have a good time". Which - part of hunting should be about. A lot of the blame comes when 3500 tags for their county r available and they r hunting on ground that is already very low for deer or has been blasted over and over. These folks could give 2 craps about management or what's good for the area, deer, neighbors, next guys in there, etc. I bet most guys on HERE do not fall into that group and do care but - please - go BS for 5 mins with the run-of-the-mill groups in ur area. They don't care in most cases. I honestly believe u could have 10 deer left in a county & find a group to kill the remaining 10- no problem. I'm sayingers, the DNR needs to step up and fight and hunters who do CARE need to step up and fight for better regulations- because people often door a very poor job of self regulation.
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The way I see it a lot of shotgun hunters don't have as much invested as the guys worrying about the deer numbers. Most shotgun hunters don't have land to manage so if they want a chance at hunting, shotgun is their best opportunity. A lot of shotgun hunters are considered weekend warriors but what would anyone expect them to be unless they had a private piece of ground they could control. That's what separates the shotgun hunters from muzzy/archery guys. I assure you that most shotgun hunters would love to have a piece of property they could be in control of and manage but that's just not the case. I know people say well they should buy their own piece of ground but in all reality most shotgun hunters are middle of the road or lower income family's. So they get permission from a few local farmers once a year and go shotgun hunting. I see it as they are making the best out of what they got. Sure they are not going to be as concerned about deer numbers as somebody who is managing their own farms for deer but why would they be? They don't have the same mentality as the guys managing their own farms. If the deer numbers plummet the shotgun hunters aren't out as much as the guys who own ground simply for growing deer size and numbers. I am a shotgun hunter and I have been for a long time. My family owns ground but we do not manage it for deer we manage cattle. The thought does cross my mind how great it would be to get the cows off it and manage deer but there are more important things than deer hunting. Like keeping the family fed. I understand that some of you guys are fortunate enough to do both.
 
Bowtech - very well spoken perspective from the other point of view. Always good to hear both sides of the subject in a level-headed discussion.
 
North Central Iowa is definitely down in both sexes numbers , yet again all day today they sling slugs at whatever moves. It's ridiculous ........
 
Fishbonker said:
It is all about the spin and what FB and the 'stasche want to put on the numbers not what the guys in the DNR trenches want to do. This was proven last year.
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Yes, get Farm Bureau's hands out of Branstads pants and we might have a reactive management plan that makes sense.
 
Sligh1 said:
Way too many people- like almost all the hillbilly weekend slug slingers could care less about harvest data, refraining from killing, management or biology. They wanna kill stuff. And most deer hunters, even the Walmart warriors loading up on rifles slugs tonight- all are deer experts ready to tell u about how to deer hunt and why they are master hunters. We have few humble hillbillies who really want to learn about deer and managing them. In a nutshell- that's why we MUST have the DNR step in, step above POLITICS and get all this crap regulated correctly. We r down a nasty road I hope recovers but unfortunately- the hunters out there in the masses could care less about anything except slingin slugs.
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Lol...so true. Describes many of the group hunters I know. Clueless when it comes to managing deer, conservation issues, etc. They can push deer though, sporting with 16 guys in a group.
 
From talking to the hillbillies I know, they have passed on several deer due to the sizes of them. They haven't been seeing the numbers but are picky. Several of them said they didn't care if they shoot one or not because they killed theirs during bow season. So please don't group all slug hunters in the same category and I group all the pro dear managing bow hunters in the same group either.
 
The bottom line here folks is if you want less tags issued, more tags issued or it left alone here is the guy you need to contact.

https://governor.iowa.gov/constituent-services/register-opinion/

Myself, I want the biologist at the DNR's input and they will give it to the Director and for the Governor to listen to the Director and go off of their recommendation. Simple as that, when I sat on the NRC this is how it worked and things ran well.
 
I do think we need to listen to our deer biologist and let his recommendation be the final word. That would require legislative changes.

I hunt small pockets of public land so what I'm seeing is probably not indicative of what others see in the state. Most hunters are confined to public land so the deer on those lands have been hit really hard.

Fact is, a lot of private cannot be managed unless the land owner either does it themselves or allows hunters on them. The public lands will be hit the hardest by whatever the legislative body does with our deer tag numbers. I don't see many passing up does on public land because they want to see more deer next year.

Many of us are just happy to get a deer.
 
Ya know, I looked a little bit ago and there werent 85,000 deer killed yet... and I also looked, this is the most doe tags left over I have seen I think since they started... its looking good that we wont hit 100,000 in my mind... maybe that will be what the DNR needs to see??
 
flugge said:
Ya know, I looked a little bit ago and there werent 85,000 deer killed yet... and I also looked, this is the most doe tags left over I have seen I think since they started... its looking good that we wont hit 100,000 in my mind... maybe that will be what the DNR needs to see??
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Doesn't matter what the DNR sees. Politics are in charge of our deer herd now.
 
Update

Finally remembered to print off the 2013-14 totals (even though I realize some late antlerless seasons are still open). Looks like my estimate of a sub-100K harvest total is likely to become a reality.

Here are the totals shown on the DNR website as of tonight (01/13/14)

2013 - 14:
Does - 47,389
Bucks - 38,536
Buttons - 9,675
Sheds - 691
Total Deer - 96,291

Some comparative harvest numbers for the previous six deer seasons going back to 2007 - 08.

2012 - 13:
Does - 55,843
Bucks - 46,626
Buttons - 11,838
Sheds - 1,301
Total Deer - 115,608

2011 - 12:
Does - 62,769
Bucks - 45,280
Buttons - 12,426
Sheds - 932
Total Deer - 121,407

2010 - 11:
Does - 65,195
Bucks - 46,934
Buttons - 13,150
Sheds - 1,815
Total Deer - 127,094

2009 - 10:
Does - 71,273
Bucks - 47,377
Buttons - 15,619
Sheds - 2,235
Total Deer - 136,504

2008 - 09:
Does - 74,758
Bucks - 49,677
Buttons - 15,726
Sheds - 2,033
Total Deer - 142,194

2007 - 08:
Does - 75,073
Bucks - 52,134
Buttons - 16,846
Sheds - 2,161
Total Deer - 146,214

Although I only went back to 2007, harvest numbers are below 100K for the first time in a long time. What really popped out to me that I hadn't paid that much attention to was the button buck numbers. Since 2007, the button buck harvest was over 95,000 bucks (that's over 7 years or an average of 13,600+ per year). Wow, what a hit to the buck populations we are seeing now!!!

I always was thinking about the actual does harvested obviously impacting overall deer herd size (including bucks) but was too ignorant to pay attention to the number of actual bucks being killed due to liberal "antlerless" quotas in the form of button bucks.
 
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