That's one of the biggest disadvantages to more and more people holding out for trophy class deer without regard to age. The better young deer get screened out more often than in the past IMO because they're more visible at 3 and their range is way too broad.
It was a case of “too many mistakes”. Been all over Winkes. I’m on big farms all the time. “8 out of 10” have huge problems that are hard to solve….
I’m listening Skip as I think we’re all searching for the “answers“…..but I can’t help but feel like 95% of your list has always been the case hasn’t it? Few if any were doing tsi in the 2000’s compared to today. Food- with popularity of food plots today vs 2000’s there HAS to be more food and diversity isn’t there? Forage and browse- half the deer in IA and IL now as there was then so HAS to be more forage today then there was then right? Feels like to me that in 2005 i don’t think I knew of a single person, myself included, that did a single thing habitat/management wise. I showed up and hunted. Didn’t even know what most of this stuff was then. Today, I know a ton of people that are putting in acres of high quality food plots, putting in switchgrass, doing tsi, planting fruit trees, doing soil tests, and on and on. Never been better management than there is today. Never been more guys, still a minority granted, that are passing 3yr olds than there is right now.It was a case of “too many mistakes”. Been all over Winkes. I’m on big farms all the time. “8 out of 10” have huge problems that are hard to solve….
Most are run by bully bucks folks don’t or can’t put their tags on. Way too many!!! This is a HUGE problem!!!!!
Food is not diverse & plentiful
Hunting it wrong - long list.
Forage & browse are eaten down badly.
Neighbors target big farms way harder than other farms - usually loaded with fence sitters out to shoot the best scoring 2-4 year olds & many get shot.
Not keeping up with the huge list of tasks: fertility & PH. Consistent TSI. Spending the time to have 3-4 types of food plots.
Owners thay can’t let the “175” 4.5 year old go but they want “200’s” “.
Spending millions on the farm but being a cheap-skate for improvements & yearly costs to make them great.
Not the ambition or ability or knowledge to do the huge amont of work required.
On & on & on…. There’s so much work on these big farms … the list is endless. Challenges are endless. MOST end up being dissapointed and throw in the towel.
Everyone thinks “Jim Bob has a huge farm- must be full of giants”. Im telling u…. 80%++ of these big farms- not the case. I could write a 20 page post on this but I’ll spare u guys
Those problems existed before. The days of “im frustrated with my big farm” was “loud & clear” in early 2000’s. I went to “the ranch” in its glory days and they were scratching for “solutions” to fix that place. Countless big farms were bought & sold. Frustration & mistakes is nothing recent!!!
That’s no joke that so few deer make it big anymore- what’s crazier- I know a group of guys who travel all over the state finding big bucks and then killing them. They have multiple 170, multiple 180s, multiple 190s, and even multiple 215+. It’s crazy the success they have- but never in the same county.
Agreed on the politicians but as a whole, we need to educate the new and young hunters. We did it on the overkill in the antlerless seasons...should work on the young bucks also. We are the ones ultimately pulling the trigger.
The Politicians yes, but what’s 100 times worse is that 90% of the hunting industry hasn’t realized the decline in numbers and still think they should be killing does too! Need guys like Lee Lakosky, Don Higgins, Drurys, Bowmar, etc….to really start hammering this issue and getting the masses to wake up to it. Great to hear ISC and IBA are pushing the awarenessThe last 2 posts are spot on!!! Very different but both perfection!!!! When there’s “half as many bucks” and more hunters with better technology & every trick & tool to get on a buck…. It’s gonna make the average area way worse.
2/3rd of iowa went from “I have some good deer around” to “there’s no deer around”. I can’t emphasize enough- there’s countless counties that have all but eradicated the deer. I talk to dudes all the time there…. “We don’t have any deer”. I lost my hunting spot, not because I don’t have permission but because they dozed all the trees!” 2/3rds of the state got ruined after Brandstad & politicians sided with FB to kill all the deer. We are half in Harvest- HALF!!!! KEY!!!…. When it’s “half” - that’s not PROPORTIONAL across state. Much of the state has been eradicated. Like, I’d bet u some regions are down 90% while others are are only down 10% for example. It’s not like everyone is 50% across the board.
The politicians TO THIS DAY think there’s too many deer!! They still think #’s are the same as 20 years ago. They have no clue the Harvest is HALF what it was!!!! Or areas have few to no deer. MAKE NO MISTAKE!!!! ISC & IBA are Educating them!!!!!!
Josh Bowmar compared violating the Lacey Act to a speeding ticket, nobody should be looking to him for advice on anything. In fact, I'd argue social media notoriety/killing for content is another piece of this puzzle. There's a non-zero % of hunters that have to kill 1-2 bucks every year to be able to post it to social media or have something for their Youtube channel. You can't go a week in an Iowa hunting group on Facebook without a new post with something like "Check out my new Youtube page" or "Just moved here from Pennsylvania, what's a good public piece to get started on before I get a lease" from a person clearly trying to become an influencer.
Yea I don’t pay close enough attention to him to know the details or to judge so I’ll take your word for it but regardless, all of the well known “celebrity” types that have thousands of hunters as an audience (vs me or your circle of 30-50 or whatever) can make a massive influence on what hunters think and accept. Having Josh making folks that do follow him aware of the fact that there’s half as many deer in IA or IL and that the doe harvest needs to decrease is definitely important imo
I think the celebrity hunters don't like to address anything controversial because most of their listeners prefer things like guns in the rut, crossbows, not hunting age, etc... They tread lightly on anything that could influence the number of viewers they get. There was a great podcast yesterday I saw on the huntr podcast. They had jeff Lindsey on, and he addressed some tough issues. I thought he did a great job in doing it too.
Probably some truth here no doubt. Although it seems like they could find a way to do it without risking anything. Pointing out how the deer numbers are half of what they used to be in the “good ol days” and that they are choosing to not shoot does for awhile doesn’t seem super controversial or as divisive as some of the other topics you point out.
