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deer numbers down

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lungbuster29

New Member
been reading all the post on here about the deer numbers being down and know that its been brought to my attention ive thought back to all the time i spent in the stand bow hunting and first season shot gun i didn't see know where as many deer as Ive seen in the past years. how do we go about getting tags lowered and these one weekend a year warriors who think they know all about the deer population to shut up about it. wheres the Iowa bow hunters ass input on this topic and why hasn't the dnr done anything about this i know they have tried to but the mustache vetoed it and farm bureau has deep pockets and its head in the goveners ass but weve got to do something about this!!!!

oh and im in an argument with a weekend warrior rite know about this
 
Evidently our good ole governor is all about the $$ so I don't really see the tag numbers being lowered even though it is recommended by the DNR. The problem with the shotgunners is that they only hunt one weekend a year is they don't realize what is going on around them. They see tags available buy a bunch and expect to fill them and they try to do so. I see too many groups whose main goal is to fill every tag. Until these folks can't buy tags it is going to be an ongoing problem.

I went shotgun hunting and didn't shoot any does. Man I wanted to but I figured that is three less deer for next year. I may go out late season and try to shoot one for the freezer but I know a good public spot that will have about 40 of them in it so I don't feel too bad about it.

I think the bowhunters are going to have to try to educate as many people as they can that the deer numbers are really down. I doubt it is really going to sink in though. I did notice though it seemed that the available doe tags are much higher than in years past. I hope that is a sign that people are starting to catch on.

When the season is up, we are all going to have to start hammering ole mustache about the low deer sightings. Unfortunately if people are buying tags, the state is making money. The money hungry folks don't care how many deer there are. There are also people out there that would shoot the last doe and buck in the state if they had a tag for them. Its going to be a tough battle for sure.
 
only thing that my buddy would say is that i sound like every other horn hunter my response is its no the horns its the age!!
 
Agreed.. Something needs to be done... Look at the harvest report numbers, the amount of stories on here compared to last year. It's down, if nothing is done it will keep getting lower and lower and take more time to fix than if something is done now. Ya some areas are high, some low, but when a shotgun group doesn't have any good shots at does or only seeing one or two in a drive, that's pretty uncommon compared to previous years.
 
Talking to the Stache is like talking to a wall when discussing deer. We as hunters are going to have to educate other hunters and govern the deer herd ourselves.
 
We talked to the dnr this last weekend about deer numbers and he said they are down all over the state. He also said it has a lot to do with the insurance companies putting pressure on the govenor.

He said the best thing we can do is get people to buy up the doe tags and not use them. Otherwise the weekend warriors are buing them and shooting brown is down.

Maybe peeta can help us here?????:confused:
 
I appreciate the fact that people on here are recognizing that the DNR is not to blame, when in reality they have tried to eliminate some of the doe seasons, and also reduce the number of tags. All of those things have been presented up the chain of command, and it looks as if most of you recognize which link of that chain keep shooting them down (the top link for those that aren't sure).
 
I guess the real question is do we want more deer just to "see" when we are out hunting? Is that the real reason? Do any of you farm? Are any of you landowners? I think the governor has to take more than just the hunters point of view in his decision making. I would love to see 20 deer a night, but understand that the carrying capicity of the land wont support it. I am a bow hunter. I have been sucessful. I undferstand that the needs of the farmer, and the needs of the insurance company, and the needs of the hunter need to be heard. But one doesnt necessarilly outweigh another. Dont burn up all your political capitol on a non-issue like doe tag numbers. Lets focus on habitat improvement and better deer managment techniques first. Also dont forget we have had some pretty terrible winters the last few years. that can have a much larger impact than you might think.
 
spltbrow said:
We talked to the dnr this last weekend about deer numbers and he said they are down all over the state. He also said it has a lot to do with the insurance companies putting pressure on the govenor.

He said the best thing we can do is get people to buy up the doe tags and not use them. Otherwise the weekend warriors are buing them and shooting brown is down.

Maybe peeta can help us here?????:confused:
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It would make sense to do this and I'd even buy several to do this, but most counties don't sell out.
 
TheGov said:
I guess the real question is do we want more deer just to "see" when we are out hunting? Is that the real reason? Do any of you farm? Are any of you landowners? I think the governor has to take more than just the hunters point of view in his decision making. I would love to see 20 deer a night, but understand that the carrying capicity of the land wont support it. I am a bow hunter. I have been sucessful. I undferstand that the needs of the farmer, and the needs of the insurance company, and the needs of the hunter need to be heard. But one doesnt necessarilly outweigh another. Dont burn up all your political capitol on a non-issue like doe tag numbers. Lets focus on habitat improvement and better deer managment techniques first. Also dont forget we have had some pretty terrible winters the last few years. that can have a much larger impact than you might think.
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Insurance companies have more money than God so I could care less about them. Farmers I do care about but I'm sick of them bitching about crop damage and then not shooting does or not letting anybody hunt if they don't hunt. Not to mention I would bet half the crop damage is done by other critters. It's just part of it. I talked to a farmer last week that owns around 1500 acres. Probably some of the best ground in the area. Huge deer numbers and probably a lot of crop damage. He's a crop farmer and only hunts shotgun season. There was a guy in the shop that day that asked him if he was seeing a lot of deer in his area. He said oh yea but I make sure there's a lot of deer. He said it's funny listening to some farmers complain about the deer numbers but then don't do anything about it. If you've got a problem shoot more deer it's simple.

It's unbelievable how dumb some people are. I don't know how many groups I talked to that said they didn't see many deer. Then I ask them what they killed and they'd say oh 18 does or whatever. DUH! If your not seeing deer quite killing the does.:thrwrck: One guy even said they killed around 30 deer said they only let a few get out.:eek: What's helping us right now is there's no snow and the temps are mild so the deer are not grouped up like past years. Most people drive by a wintering area or push a wintering area during gun season and think we're being overrun with deer.

The Gov your right on how severe the past 3-4 winters have been especially in NE Iowa. And I agree this also had a huge impact on the herd. The point is not how we got here it's how we move forward and stabilize or fix the situation not continue the downward spiral...

Anyway I agree with the others here that this is going to be about educating the public and governing the herd ourselves.
 
I couldn't agree more. Deer numbers are down. I'm not sure if I can write this correctly but am gonna try. If you wish to hunt private ground you need to respect Farmer Brown. At the same time Farmer Brown doesn't want to have people on his property but wants to have ALL the deer killed. I asked 3 farmers this fall and they all said NO. One even said but if you get a chance kill em all. Complains about the deer but won't let anyone hunt. Not sure I understand that. His land so, I guess he can do what he wants. Plus, we all try and sound like we know what we are talking about and some hunters still go out and shoot anything that moves. We are our own problem sometimes. Educating the people makes perfect sense.
 
The DNR is still handing out depredation tags. One farmer got access to 60 for around 400 acres. If the DNR agrees numbers are down why are they doing this?. I believe just to keep the farmers happy. To me there was not enough sign on this property to warrant that many tags but what do I know.

Most guys are too trigger happy. If they have tags and see deer they are gonna shoot them.
 
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Cooter said:
The DNR is still handing out depredation tags. One farmer got access to 60 for around 400 acres. If the DNR agrees numbers are down why are they doing this?. I believe just to keep the farmers happy. To me there was not enough sign on this property to warrant that many tags but what do I know.

Most guys are too trigger happy. If they have tags and see deer they are gonna shoot them.
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Substitute governor for DNR. The DNR is out of the picture. Our deer herd is on autopilot.
 
It will be very hard for us to controle the deer population ourselves. I have only shot 2 deer in the last 2 years, and the areas i hunt have very little pressure and the population is drasticly down.

Its the "hunters" that pull their guns out the night before season and then put it back afterseason untill next year. They are the majority that go out and shoot brown is down (maybe not all of them), and are also the ones that are not on this sight because deer hunting and population is not that big of a deal to them accept for the couple days a year that they hunt.

I am all about going out and shooting der so people can enjoy it but it definately needs to be controled better. We dont need to have a 5 people group that klill 15 deer.

We seriously need the gov to step up before our population gets any worse!!
 
It needs to be done like the lottery drawing system in south Dakota and other states. They give every bowhunter a tag and let them control the herd and than have have a lottery drawing for the rifle season. And they don't give every man with a gun a any deer tag. You have to save preference points for that. Try vetoing for this and you may have better chances of getting three number of tags down.
 
Thinkin Rut said:
Substitute governor for DNR. The DNR is out of the picture. Our deer herd is on autopilot.
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The governor doesn't issue depredation tags the DNR does. When a counties antler less quota isn't selling out why are depredation tags even issued? I think they just give the impression the deer herd is still too high and more does need to be taken.
 
Now that it is in the Governors hands i doubt the flow of tags will slow down until our herd is severely lower than anyone expects.
 
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