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HIGH POWER IN SO IOWA, SHOTGUN TURKEY WEEKEND

The guns during archery season is MINDLESS! Hunter conflict and safety risks are going to be REAL.

Having guys party hunting while others are hunting camoed up and trying to enjoy some solitude is going to create some ugly scenes.

I don't care what anyone says, I've been deer hunting many years, gun and bow. I know how fences get jumped and properties get hunted during gun season. It gets a bit unruley far more than it should.

That Thanksgiving weekend is a time when lots of bowhunters are in the timber. For me, it's time to fill my tags if I haven't already. Time to fill my anysex tag with a DOE!


I don't have a problem with creating more opportunities to shoot does, but I think they could do something smarter than this.
 
Once again, the regulation changes all stem from a "deer over population problem!"

And once again I will say, the population problem is very location specific. I question regulations which blanket the state.

It appears that our hunting regulations in this state are being dictated more and more by "big money" rather than sound wildlife management practices.

Sad, very sad.....
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I'll agree with that.

They can give a free tag to every person in the state and create all the antlerless seasons they want, but it won't change a damn thing until people get access to those "SPECIFIC" areas.
 
That will be one more week of staying home for this guy. No way I'll be up a tree in camo. I wouldn't sit in a tree with full blaze orange on with all the slugs flying. This whole thing is drivne by money. Notice the lack of common sense in it? Usually when something suddenly pops up and has little sense to it, money is the driving force behind it. Do we really want to start killing off all the deer in Iowa? Wow. No, that won't really happen, but over the last year things have started to get really screwy.
 
I've been in contact with DNR officials, the specical Nov. season will allow all weapons ML, Handguns,Shotguns and Bows.
This will be by county,if all the doe tags have been purchased by Nov.12th there will be NO hunting in your county during that 3 day season. If you buy doe tags before the 12th they must be used during the regular gun season or whatever season you purchased them for.

WJS, please correct me if I'm wrong, that is the information I got from DM office.
 
The problem with that is... most gun hunters won't run down to the store to buy their tags until after November 12th anyway.
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May not be able to shoot a buck that weekend,...but it sure sounds like we are going to have a gun season during the rut...
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What about regular bow tags during the three days?

So you could have your bow tag for a buck, be packing a .44 MAG or a shotgun for your bonus early doe tag???

What a mess...
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i'll be in my stand, with a .357, for self defeense, a bow to shoot deer, and a cell to call the law.

how about this....some dude is in his stand, and out comes a buck he has tried to get all bow season, he comes to 60 yards and won't budge. he leaves the bow in the hanger, and pulls out his muzzleloader. drops the buck, slaps his first season shotgun tag on it hides it for a week. pretty easy
 
Teeroy,.....I'm not sure the people pushing these type of regulations really care, they want the deer dead.
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Your scenario is only one of many that I'm afraid will happen. Why would he bother with his regular season gun tag anyway. He would slap his bow tag on it, not hide the deer, and be good to go with his regular gun season.

It's a "any legal weapon free for all!"
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Folks - this is is your chance to have a say in what the future of deer hunting will become in Iowa ... please do as Supertech has asked, make some phone calls while being very consise and most of all polite.
 
If I'm reading the rules correctly, under Method of Take, the November antler-less season allows the following to be used:

106.7(4) November antlerless-deer-only seasons. Bows, muzzleloaders and handguns as described in this rule may be used.

So at least shotguns won't be legal, thank God.

It's also only in counties where the quota of antler-less tags hasn't been sold out. So buy doe tags early and often if you don't want gun hunters in your area during bow season.

Like others here, I don't think this was necessary and it still doesn't address the problem in high density/low access areas. I also think that there's enough political pressure that the commission is willing to try just about anything to drop numbers.

To quote the desk Sgt. from Hill Street Blues,

"And hey ... let's all be careful out there!"
 
I already have enough problems with deadbeat poachers shooting everything that moves with high powers...All that we need is to open it up for them to shoot brown fuzzy things while the archery hunters are still in the woods. Which person came up with this assinine idea...I will write a dozen letters.
 
If I understand this correctly there's probably not time for letters as they could make a decision as early as tomorrow ... again I urge everyone that cares to pick up the phone.
 
They could possibly vote on it on thursday. If the Commission approves the proposed seasons, it will have a comment period and go before the legislative rules committee. So there can be some public input, BUT these legislators that are on the rules committee are the same ones telling the DNR to get control of the Deer Herd.


If you want to make a difference in Iowa, you need to contact these people now! I have had many good conversations with them, I talked to one of them for over and hour. They all told me that I was one of the first to inform them of the Iowan hunters point of view! If they dont hear from us, then they wont know any better.

it will be a lot harder to remove theses seasons and weapons once they are installed, than to not have them at all!
Just my honest opinion!
 
So here comes the stupid question. Who do I call? DNR? Legislators? Which is best? I would assume my legislator. Who did you speak to? Sounds like they gave you an hour, which says something to me.
 
Looks like double bull better make a bullet proof blind, because that is the only way I would be out there with a bow if that happens. what a shame
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Hi!

This is my first post here. I just wish it were under more favorable circumstances.

I have to take credit for being one of the "dumb" @$$es who came up with these ideas. I'll try to explain why these items are going to the commission on Thursday.

After examining the harvest data from last year along with the results from the aerial and spotlight surveys it is very evident to me that we need to kill more does in some parts of the state. This is true in the southern 1/3 and as well as in parts of eastern and northeastern Iowa. We may be holding our own in parts of southern Iowa but barely.

The department's goal is a stable deer population capable of sustaining a harvest of 140,000 deer. To put that in perspective that would be about where deer numbers were in 1997. At that time all hunters could obtain 2 any-deer tags, 1 for the archery season and one for a firearms season. Bonus antlerless licenses were restricted to southern Iowa.

To get back to that point we need to reduce deer numbers by about 25%. In the northern parts of the state we may already be close. But the data from the surveys suggests we are not below that goal at this point so no changes were made for this fall.

In southern Iowa we have not filled the antlerless quotas for the about 15 counties in the past 2 years. It is these areas that need the extra kill.

We could do this 2 ways.
1.) Make people shoot does.
2.) Find a way to increase the kill by adding opportunities.

The first option was seriously considered. Specifically we talked about requiring first season shotgun hunters to shoot antlerless deer for the first weekend (or maybe just Saturday). We did not choose this option because we thought it would be very unpopular and would not target those counties where extra does need to be killed. We also thought about an earn-a-buck system but without deer check stations this is not a viable option in my opinion.

So the second option was to find a way to increase the kill by adding opportunities. The last weekend of November was picked because we felt it would have the least impact on other deer hunters. Yes it does impact bow hunters as well as pheasant and duck hunters who traditionally go out this weekend. It may also impact first season shotgun hunters as well since the deer will be “disturbed”.

In an attempt to reduce the impact and direct pressure where it is needed we decided to only make these licenses available for purchase 2 weeks before the season opens. Last year by Nov 15th 42 counties had filled their quota and another 5 had less than 100 antlerless licenses left. So there would be no licenses available in those counties with low quotas. In those counties with higher quotas hunters then would have the opportunity to go out and get a doe before the gun season.

I know this may be unpopular with some hunters however I believe there are some advantages.

It allows hunters (no matter what firearms season they normally hunt) to go out and take a doe. Also licenses that are used in this season will not be available for the January season. I have heard many negative comments about the number of “shed antler” bucks that are taken during the January season. Our data suggest “shed antler” bucks make up about 5% of the kill during the January season. So this % should go down and would be a positive. There is also some evidence that having an antlerless season before the regular firearms season will make older bucks less vulnerable. But this is uncertain...

If I thought that enough people would take advantage of the November option then I would not have proposed the use of high power rifles... but I am not that confident. And anyone involved in the deer “controversy” this past year knows that the tolerance for deer is very low in this state. I feel that if we don’t take serious steps to show that we (the DNR) is serious about reducing deer numbers then “other” more drastic decisions will be made by politicians.

So we talked about and decided to propose the high power season mainly because we feel it would be effective in generating interest in killing some more does. We would restrict this to the southern 2 tiers of counties and it would take place during an extension of the late January season.

I know these proposals won’t solve all the problems. There will still be too many deer in places where access is restricted and we will hammer the deer on our public areas.

Unfortunately I do not have a “magic” solution for obtaining/maintaining access for the “average” hunter. I do know that there are hunter willing to take does if we can “connect” them with landowners. We will be trying to actively recruit landowners in 4 counties in southern Iowa as well this summer.

These proposed regulations will go to the natural resources commission on Thursday. Please let them know your feelings.

Well for a first post... this was a long one. Sorry. I have followed this forum for a long time and think you have many valuable opinions. I do not want to “interfere” with your discussions. I will answer your questions and provide info if you request and it is useful for the group. Thanks for your support of the deer resource in Iowa!

wjs
 
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