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Giant Deer of Iowa are rapidly becoming a past memory

the pain iowa is feeling & hunters who understand what even 10-15 years ago was like- it’s tough to see our trajectory down. Like all/most have said: it’s a big combo of being more lethal, gazillion new technologies on top of population in half & ehd outbreaks.
We are hurting. Other states have been in the toilet for 15-50 years so any improvement is a positive. KS & IA sat on a pedistal of greatness after IL fell off a cliff for their perfect $hit storm of all these bad things happening & their awful choices/changes…. Ruined & RUINED FOR ALMOST EVERYONE. Almost nothing GOOD changed in IL in last 25 years - on every metric (accept maybe the rich) - the herd & hunters got ravaged.
Now IA & KS have both had their states hurt, degraded & their resource damaged to some level - no doubt about it. Nothing like IL or others but we’ve been hurt.
So- all agree- things have gotten worse, not better. What else do we all agree on? Ehd & population are probably tops, followed with millions of new ways to kill & be extremely effective. In my mind, 60-65% of the battle is the population & ehd. I think there’s a strong case that we have way too liberal of means to kill after that. It’s a huge component. Bucks in the 2-4 year old range can be targeted & killed with ease. 5-7 year olds: much harder but they are simply becoming so much more rare that those bucks aren’t really thought of in the debate… & if they exist & get shot “hey great, you shot a MATURE buck!”…..
If we get to a stage where all/most the 2-4 year olds get shot- we are in DEEP trouble. We need reforms. This benefits NO ONE & truly hurts everyone. There’s zero merits or upside to “not having older deer”. It hurts the resource & our whole “hunting ecosystem” to kill the best young bucks - it ruins states on countless levels. Having older deer/balance - It’s what makes iowa special and “still good”. One of the last great places that isn’t destroyed! If we lose that- we lose iowa. I’m not saying we are there or can’t recover. I’m saying we cannot allow things to stay down & if we do cross that line where things stay down & “most” the 2-4 year olds get wiped out- we ABSOLUTELY need to change course.
Im thinking out loud here & honest as I can be…I go back & fourth hearing debate & listening to any side that justifies letting things get worse or not giving SOMETHING UP.
Can we agree with this in very short simplicity???…. If things stay “down” & continue to get worse… for example: our age class & bucks continue to crater or our population stays devastated around a lot of regions of state. Or generically: Hunting starts to look a lot more like the failed states (MI, MN, etc)…. Basically- can we agree that if we continue “down hill” …. and I’ll define that like this… we all “know it and see it” and I don’t need to put in to words what we all see going on out there…. We are hurting on countless levels & we all know it. If this stays or continues to get worse, can we all agree SOMETHING needs to change??? Less bucks, shorter seasons, LESS TECHNOLOGY, more conservative regs, WHATEVER. I guess my long winded rant is just summarized by saying- I think we will change course & I think things will get better. But Dag nab, if they get worse, we have to reign things in. We have to. The resource has no voice other than hunters on their behalf. & they for sure need some help.
 
iowaqdm said:
You said that now previously untouched parcels, now have cell cams. You think those “untouched” parcels didn’t have guys running regular trail cameras on them before? If they weren’t good enough parcels to run regular trail cameras on then why would they be good enough to invest the time and money for a cell cam? I am being serious? Why you would think or believe that?
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I don't think those smaller or "cattle pasture" type farms had regular cams running on them before. Too much work to put cams all over the place on different farms and keep up on checking them. Now, any small parcel or farm that may look like it's not any good will have a cell cam on it. For $10 a month, you can monitor what's there and if something is showing up, slip in and hunt it the same day if you are able. That's a massive advantage to the hunter and downside to the deer. Daver mentioned earlier about Pat Reeve spooking his target buck off a plot while walking in. He was upset with himself because he didn't send an instant pic to his phone to check the field before he went in. I have buddies that do the same thing. That's not hunting IMO and you can't do that from a standard camera.
 
JBAGS said:
I don't think those smaller or "cattle pasture" type farms had regular cams running on them before. Too much work to put cams all over the place on different farms and keep up on checking them. Now, any small parcel or farm that may look like it's not any good will have a cell cam on it. For $10 a month, you can monitor what's there and if something is showing up, slip in and hunt it the same day if you are able. That's a massive advantage to the hunter and downside to the deer. Daver mentioned earlier about Pat Reeve spooking his target buck off a plot while walking in. He was upset with himself because he didn't send an instant pic to his phone to check the field before he went in. I have buddies that do the same thing. That's not hunting IMO and you can't do that from a standard camera.
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I do believe current iowa law would make that illegal. Electronic devices cannot be used for harvest or however law is written. Which it should be illegal.
IMHO- we need at least a 24 hour delay by law on cell cams. That fits right into existing law & also mimics laws like “24 hour fly over delay”.
I personally believe no one should be able to fly drones during season for deer. The ONLY way to solve that is to outlaw them for any hunting & scouting of wildlife during hunting season. ***maybe there could be an exception if the dnr says they can regulate licensed pilots that log their flights in aid in recovery of wounded deer. & then a 48 hour no hunt period following logged flights. Dnr & enforcement need to chime in on what’s best or what law they need to have (more so than hunters on this issue). Right NOW…. Anyone can go fly drones around. It’s out of control. We need clear laws & verbiage - whatever it ends up being. Bottom line: needs to be more restrictive than it is TODAY.
The technology needs some tweaks & tightening. I don’t know exact specifics & we can debate & discuss…. It’s all new stuff in last 10-15 years & we need to tighten things up. There’s simply way too much & too much abuse happening.
 
Sligh1 said:
I do believe current iowa law would make that illegal. Electronic devices cannot be used for harvest or however law is written. Which it should be illegal.
IMHO- we need at least a 24 hour delay by law on cell cams. That fits right into existing law & also mimics laws like “24 hour fly over delay”.
I personally believe no one should be able to fly drones during season for deer. The ONLY way to solve that is to outlaw them for any hunting & scouting of wildlife during hunting season. ***maybe Their could be an exception if the dnr says they can regulate liscensed pilots that log their flights in aid in recovery of wounded deer. & then a 48 hour no hunt period following logged flights. Dnr & enforcement need to chime in on what’s best or what law they need to have (more so than hunters on this issue). Right NOW…. Anyone can go fly drones around. It’s out of control. We need clear laws & verbiage - whatever it ends up being. Bottom line: needs to be more restrictive than it is TODAY.
The technology needs some tweaks & tightening. I don’t know exact specifics & we can debate & discuss…. It’s all new stuff in last 10-15 years & we need to tighten things up. There’s simply way too much & too much abuse happening.
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Fully agree and support a ban on cell cams and go back to checking cards. Feel like that cat would be hard to put back in the bag fully. I think a tweak based on regs like you mention based on how law is already written is doable.
Celebrity hunter real life example I just saw a post from Lee Ellis from Seek One, "just got pics of a slob, I am on the road"
Now I like Lee and his videos but no chance he knows this MRI without a cell cam, from another state.

Also agree on drones being an issue. Technology has just flat outpaced regs in a ton of ways and some tweaks need to be made.
 
**Ha- ^^^ beat me to this. This was my neighbor. That frigin drone went over my farm!!!!!

Last one for the night…. I’m the dude that’s “at the farm all the time”. Often when others have left for home- I stay there.
The amount of rifle shots or dudes with no lights on (thermals) is substantial. We have waves of poaching using technology that just never ends. Here’s 3 days ago…. Neighbor shoots a deer…. Hires a dog to track it. They out at 930-1030-ish???? They see a GIANT drone over their farm. Run back to the house- get spotlight in the truck. They chased that damn drone 10 miles as the crow flies & lose it as it lands within a .5 mile radius they pinned down. 10 miles it traveled. At 9-10pm on a “great hunting farm”. WHY?!?!?! Now- at the same time, in the last 2-3 years, I have found 2 crossbow bolts in dead deer within 150 yards of the road. I found a third in the grass/brush this summer. 3 bolts in a 1 mile span of road - right off the road & 2 of em killed bucks (probably ran too far to find or something happened). What do we know from that? Crossbows from road & no one on my place uses them so it’s clearly out of a vehicle poaching. Dead silent. Likely with a thermal scope. Maybe a spot light but probably thermal or NV. I find them multiple years - this is not a one-off issue. If I was a scumbag, “technology to the extreme LOSER pos poacher”….. I’d run a thermal drone. Or drive & use thermal scopes. Either shoot em off road with crossbow or a surpressed gun With thermal or NV. Or maybe ballsy enough to say “he’s 400 yards off road in this field…. You tell me where he’s at with drone & I’ll make a straight line to him in dark with thermal/weapon”. Very doable & it’s absolutely happening. Gonna solve it all? NOPE. Gonna worry all day everyday? NOPE. Gonna kill all your big bucks? NOPE. But it’s a real issue that’s growing. These low life scumbag POACHERS drive from other states to iowa & spend chunks of time at this. All over the good regions of our state. Way more than anyone can imagine. A lot more reasons I know this is going on.
Worry to oblivion? NO. But…. We need to get some laws & tools to curb some of this. These scumbags are the worst of the worst- will always exist - but we need a few tweaks in law (I could expand on this) to deal with this plague. Even the “but im just thermal coyote hunting” when it’s October to December”. That’s got some real problems going on due to that. Frustrating but some things that can be done & some things the dnr would like to see changed.
 
Sligh1 said:
**Ha- ^^^ beat me to this. This was my neighbor. That frigin drone went over my farm!!!!!

Last one for the night…. I’m the dude that’s “at the farm all the time”. Often when others have left for home- I stay there.
The amount of rifle shots or dudes with no lights on (thermals) is substantial. We have waves of poaching using technology that just never ends. Here’s 3 days ago…. Neighbor shoots a deer…. Hires a dog to track it. They out at 930-1030-ish???? They see a GIANT drone over their farm. Run back to the house- get spotlight in the truck. They chased that damn drone 10 miles as the crow flies & lose it as it lands within a .5 mile radius they pinned down. 10 miles it traveled. At 9-10pm on a “great hunting farm”. WHY?!?!?! Now- at the same time, in the last 2-3 years, I have found 2 crossbow bolts in dead deer within 150 yards of the road. I found a third in the grass/brush this summer. 3 bolts in a 1 mile span of road - right off the road & 2 of em killed bucks (probably ran too far to find or something happened). What do we know from that? Crossbows from road & no one on my place uses them so it’s clearly out of a vehicle poaching. Dead silent. Likely with a thermal scope. Maybe a spot light but probably thermal or NV. I find them multiple years - this is not a one-off issue. If I was a scumbag technology to the extreme LOSER pos poacher….. I’d run a thermal drone. Or drive & use thermal scopes. Either shoot em off road with crossbow or a surpressed gun With thermal or NV. Or maybe ballsy enough to say “he’s 400 yards off road in this field…. You tell me where he’s at with drone & I’ll make a straight line to him in dark with thermal/weapon”. Very doable & it’s absolutely happening. Gonna solve it all? NOPE. Gonna worry all day everyday? NOPE. Gonna kill all your big bucks? NOPE. But it’s a real issue that’s growing. These low life scumbag POACHERS drive from other states to iowa & spend chunks of time at this. All over the good regions of our state. Way more than anyone can imagine. A lot more reasons I know this is going on.
Worry to oblivion? NO. But…. We need to get some laws & tools to curb some of this. These scumbags are the worst of the worst- will always exist - but we need a few tweaks in law (I could expand on this) to deal with this plague. Even the “but im just thermal coyote hunting” when it’s October to December”. That’s got some real problems going on due to that. Frustrating but some things that can be done & some things the dnr would like to see changed.
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There is a guy here that has a “system” that uses night vision to see all around his vehicle as he drives… like literally laptop screens in his vehicle as he sees stuff.
 
newfarmer said:
There is a guy here that has a “system” that uses night vision to see all around his vehicle as he drives… like literally laptop screens in his vehicle as he sees stuff.
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Explain this a bit more. Curious what all you talking about & what all it’s used for????
 
Sligh1 said:
Explain this a bit more. Curious what all you talking about & what all it’s used for????
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There’s the website. The guys here “scan and drive”….
 
Muskrat24 said:
Please no! Want to talk about EXPENSIVE developing pics of coons and wind moving weeds!!
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Haha, got you beat!

How bout taking your VERY FIRST roll of 36 exposure to Walmart and spending (Can't remember) only to see 36 pics of deer mice!!.
Set in on a tree next to a stump.
A swear that mouse was posing!:D
 
Bucksnbears said:
Haha, got you beat!

How bout taking your VERY FIRST roll of 36 exposure to Walmart and spending (Can't remember) only to see 36 pics of deer mice!!.
Set in on a tree next to a stump.
A swear that mouse was posing!:D
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I was fortunate by the end of the 35 mm days to have a 1 hour photo tech that would only develop the pics that had deer in them. Saved some money for me!
 
A lot of good comments above. Maybe this legislation season we can work on a few things like cell cam use, # of buck tags, and I’d love to see no supplemental feed or bait allowed at all during hunting season. The deer population issue is real. My home farm is loaded with deer but I go to my other farm one county West and it has about 10% or so of the deer on it compared to my other place. Great habitat, but much fewer deer on it. Exactly why it’s low, I don’t know.
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
I think I've seen a thousand social media posts along the lines of "got a pic of this deer and went in after him" followed by a grip and grin photo.

Every single "celebrity " hunter has made videos about it.

Putting up regular cams on overlooked parcels takes WAY more effort. That means having to check them to get any information. Most people just weren't willing or able to put in the effort.

Apples and oranges.

Checking them also potentially means causing a disturbance and certainly leaving scent. Advantage deer.

How do I use them? I don't. Wasnt sitting well with me. Personal choice. I have them for security only now.

My proposed solution... id love to ban them (highly unlikely)

At a minimum I think they should have to be on a 24 or 48 hour delay.
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Similar case with my neighbor. Lives in Illinois. Has a iowa tag this year. Says he's not coming until he sees a shooter on cell cam. He's a good guy and this is all legal. I have no problem with this. Well...I wish they didn't exist but they do and people will use them. Cameras and especially cell cameras have changed how a lot of people hunt. Especially people that want big bucks.
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
Cell cams have changed things drastically. To say otherwise is frankly shocking.

1. Everyone is hunting on MRI now (most recent information)

2. Parcels of grounds that went untouched and overlooked have cell cameras now. Deer havd no where to hide.
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I know of two bucks just today that were killed because of cell cams. The instant picture is putting a hurting on these deer.
 
I had a cell cam could have killed him moment yesterday. I had a buck I want to shoot on a staging plot at 6:50 am yesterday. I was about 150 yds away but don't have cell coverage so I didn't get real time pics. I got back to my truck late morning, checked pics and there he was. I said to myself: he's by himself, likely bedded close, so there's a good chance he'll come back to the staging plot in the evening. Sure enough, he strolls out at 5:15.........while I was back at my shack working, LOL!!! Cell cams absolutely kill deer.
 
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I know guys that wait for pics of a shooter ? I don’t get that ? Don’t you want to hunt ? It took me about an hour this year to see a shooter that I never saw on camera before.

No matter if you have a cell cam or regular cam, you will not get all the bucks on camera !
 
I'm actually delighted not running cell cams this year.

Past couple year, NO DOUBT they helped me kill a buck.

We [ us older guys】 most likely have all gone through phases over the years.
At " that time", we all think it's ok,fun,ect. But its also quite rewarding to just go back to how we hunted YEARS ago. Go in, no inel find a spot and get lucky.
It does happen!.
 
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