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If YOU could write the rules

muddy

muddy

Well-Known Member
Now that the 3rd shotgun season is over and most everyones nerves have come back down to normal I'd like to pose a hypothetical question.

How would you deal with the excess does in the problem counties? Take into consideration the November doe season, the rifle hunting in the southern counties, and the late late antlerless season. Also, keep in mind that this is an open discussion and discussion only. If you disagree so strongly with someone please do not resort to slinging mud, simply agree to disagree.

I know I don't have all the answers but here are some things I think could be addressed.

1. What about an EARLY doe only season? Get rid of that November season and the late antlerless season! Say bump the youth season up a weekend and have a 5-7 day stretch BEFORE October 1 to shoot does only. This would solve the problem of shooting shed bucks wouldn't it? Honestly, how many of us really hit it hard before October 20th? Any bucks that got educated would come back into a more normal routine as the rut approaches. The biggest problem I see with this is the HEAT. Who wants to hunt then? But who wants to hunt in the blistering cold of late late season?

2. I see the late late antlerless season going no where so why not make it so that ANY unfilled tag from throughout the season is legal to use with any legal weapon during the late late season? I always hunt the late muzzleloader season so I'm in "mature buck" mode and any doe tag I have gets put on hold. Last year I tagged out on Jan 10 and still had 4 doe tags left. If I could have used them for the following week I would have.

3. I really can't say that the rifle season affects me in any way, but as a serious bowhunter I only see it as a "foot in the door" leading to a regular rifle season. Yes, I know several states have rifle seasons (Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota) and they produce hawgs every year, but I am simply ignorant and don't want to see a regular rifle season in Iowa. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Ok, discuss and play like adults!

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I would love to see an early do season. But moreover I would like to see an earn a buck program put in.

Also i think that if we truely are worried about the doe population than we should have any left over tags available to use in the late season.

I'll put it this way. Many of you guys that shoot big deer. NOT all, but many. Have sections of ground that either yourself or your family/group are the only ones hunting. Sooo you can manage your land the way you want. I am not going to care how many people shoot shed bucks down by des moines simply because I dont hunt there. So what I am saying is that you can manage your land/area the way you want and hunt it to manage deer.. I dont know that this is making sense. I guess what I am saying is the places that are serious about shooting and managing for big deer no enough about what there doing not to shoot shed bucks. So I think that factor is out.

Also I think that the people who are serious are definetly capable of shooting a doe before a buck. just a thought.

Also with posing an early doe season would you allow drives?? seems a little dangerous.
 
A group of hunters should always consider safety regardless of the time of year, but I can see where drives earlier in the year would be more dangerous with all the leaves.

Earn a buck, eh? Good idea, I've thought of that myself but forgot to post about it.

How about only allowing one either sex tag for the year instead of two?
 
I agree with the one either sex tag per year. I am happy to shoot only one buck a year and a bunch of does.
 
No way man. that would cut the Harvest posts in half /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
Seriously though. I passed tweener bucks knowing that I have late season muzz to try to make up for it. I know of a few bucks I would have taken (or tried) without that thought in the back of my head.

I would feel bad for the people who hunt less than adequate ground that are lucky to have a buck come in front of them once a year and are unable to shoot a doe though.. But I do feel It is going to put iowas deer herd on the top of the priority list.

Also safety should always be an issue, agreed. But those big chunks of public ground have too many people that do no coordinate with neighboring groups. Also I have had two friends die gun hunting and so I am scared to death of the gun seasons. so I am not the norm. But it makes you think.

Also how to you feel about paying a price for your first tag. Maybe higher and than getting another doe tag given to you after you fill your first?? Or make doe tags state wide?
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> ANY unfilled tag from throughout the season is legal to use with any legal weapon during the late late season? </div></div>

I like that idea but I'm not sure if it would really result in more deer being killed? IDNR would frown on it because it would result in less income.

I have always liked the idea of some type of "earn a buck" program at least in problem areas like SE Iowa. Not many people favor that idea but...most all of us are guilty of waiting for a buck as you mention Muddy.

I look at the urban hunt success and how hunters are eager to harvest large numbers of does just for the chance at drawing a buck tag. I can't help but wonder how we would look at things if we had to harvest antlerless deer first. Rest assured I'd be getting on the stick in early October! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

In SE Iowa all the seasons, long or short, type of weapon, etc, etc. is all a moot point when hunters have no access and I have no answer for that problem.

Good discussion Muddy!
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: gundog870</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Also how to you feel about paying a price for your first tag. Maybe higher and than getting another doe tag given to you after you fill your first?? Or make doe tags state wide?
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I don't like the idea of having to pay any higher prices for buck OR doe tags in my home state. It cheeses my a$$ to hear of some states selling doe tags for $1 a piece and I have to spend $26 for my first and $12 for each additional.

State wide doe tags would not solve the problem of over population in the counties that have real problems would they?

Perhaps stricter rules and regulations on leasing ground or else on outfitters that only allow bucks to be taken. I have no idea how you'd fund that, but in my "perfect world" it's easy. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
I would love to see the shotgun longer, say maybe extend the second season to 3 weeks. If you can only hunt on weekends, 2 weekends is really to short.

Also, I learned this year that its really hard to distinguish between a yearling doe and a button buck. Next year, I will not shoot any yearling deer for this reason. To increase your buck population, hopefully others will follow suit.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: GregBickal</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
I would love to see the shotgun longer, say maybe extend the second season to 3 weeks. If you can only hunt on weekends, 2 weekends is really to short.
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Regarding the shotgun season I'd like to see it one continuous season rather than a 1st season and a 2nd season with a few days break in between. I don't see why there are two seasons now that the 1st season isn't buck only like it used to be. Everyone wants to get "first crack" at the deer that the 2nd season is sorta ignored from what I noticed.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: muddy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Perhaps stricter rules and regulations on leasing ground or else on outfitters that only allow bucks to be taken. </div></div>

This will be more and more of a problem as time goes on. I think the earn a buck would work just fine for the outfitters and leases. I think most of these guys are with the QDM program though and know they need a good buck/doe ratio. I do not think they are the ones that are totally the problem.

What though should we do about the people that just will not let you hunt period? They like to watch the 60 plus deer on their twenty acre patch. Deer stay there all year long.

Have this now with an out of stater that has twenty acres, does
not hunt, comes here once a summer and will not let anyone hunt. Great sanctuary and they stay there. For twenty acres he sure has a lot of deer there.
 
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I kind of like the “bundle tags” idea for resident and nonresidents. If you want to hunt deer in Iowa then you must purchase one buck tag and two doe tags. I think more hunters would fill those two doe tags if they had to purchase the tags to hunt a buck.

Another bundle tag idea I like is if one of those doe tags was valid only for one of the Southern two tier counties. We have many of these counties with over a 1,000 tags still available. I realize that this idea would require some traveling for many of you deer hunters. But if we want to keep our deer season regulations even close to what they have been in the past then we all need to get involved in harvesting does where the population problems exist.

I don’t much care for the “Earn a Buck” idea. I do think it would be effective if they required a hunter to shot one doe and be able to prove they shot the doe prior to being issued a buck tag.

While I would like to think otherwise, I see the Earn a Buck idea turning into a legal and ethical problem for some hunters. I don’t think some of these hunters are going to pass on “Big MO” just because they have yet to fill their doe tag.

Access is certainly a problem in some Southern Counties, however I know of many farmers that will welcome a hunter standing in front of him with doe tags. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

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I think the "Earn a Buck" program would do some really good things for the state, only problem is the fact that the IDNR doesn't have the resources or funding to create enough check points to make it happen. Cheaper doe tags would also make it a-lot easier on some of us........I personally love shooting does, but at 12 bucks a pop it's not as much fun as it would be for say 5 dollars a tag. Regaurdless of what we think some of the answers are, it all boils down to the fact that the state isn't going to change anything that will reduce their annual income from hunters purchasing harvest tags, and chances are they aren't going to create anything such as "earn a buck" that will force them to spend more money to monitor. These are both questions that I asked at the last Teleconference held a few years ago throughout the state, and my answers to those questions were pretty much just as I described them. I've said it before, and I'll say it again......it's all about the money.
 
I like the idea of "earn a buck tag" but like Critr said I don't think the IDNR has the manpower or money to make it happen. I do think it would help in areas that need the help. I know of a couple of outfitters in the areas I hunt don't help out by taking any does. They are looking for that P&Y buck which in the end doesn't help the farmers or DNR out. I do like the idea of an early doe hunt and I think it would be better than the Thanksgiving doe hunt or the extra weekend for gun hunters. One shotgun season would be fine with me. I think this year a lot of shed bucks are going to be shot late season. I have seen ten times the amount of shed bucks than saw last year at this time and its not even January.
I don't know what the answer would be but I know a lot of farmers want the deer population down but they don't deer hunt. What about making it possible to use the farmers landowner doe tags to shoot does throughout the seasons. With the $26 for a first tag and $12 after that, it could motivate more people if they didn't have to shell out the $$$ to shoot does. Any thoughts?
 
How many hunters go first season and how many go second? Imagine all of them in the woods and on the fields at once. Good for my business, but for the hunter.

The 'Bonker
 
1. Two sets of rules, one for the areas selling out of antlerless and another for the areas that are not. We already have a little of this but not enough.

2. Quit making it about the revenue. Sell those antlerless tags in the problem areas for $1-$2 each with 100% of that going to HUSH.

3. I don't like earn a buck but if we do, do it only in the problem areas and the does you shoot this year earn you that buck tag for next year, not this year's doe to shoot this year's buck.

4. Make those unfilled antlerless tags from any season legal during the late bonus season. Again, only in the problem areas.
 
I think the hardest part is just getting people to actually go out and hunt, and to buy into the thought of shooting does. Let's face it, there isn't many die hards out there right now. Maybe on this site there is, but overall I dont see anyone out hunting right now. Hell this time of year is just as good as the rut if you can hunt where they are. This is also the best time of year to shoot does. They are just piling to the fields right now and you can shoot multiple deer in one sitting. However, the problem is not many people are willing to go out and do it.

That is why I think the late doe seasons are good. On the years that I do still have a buck tag until the traditional jan 10th. I don't shoot many does in an effort to outsmart a big buck. However, when the season is over, the does better watch out because its shake and bake time. No pressure just lots of shooting. The only reason shed bucks get shot is because the people shooting arent paying attention to what they are shooting at. you can spot a shed buck a mile away if you just look at it. The little 1.5ers are a little trickier but I dont see how a 4+ year old buck could ever get mistaken for a doe.

I dont think that an early doe season will help much. I cant see myself hunting in 90 degree weather for a doe. It just seems stupid, especially when meat spoils super fast that time of year. Its just not an enjoyable time of year to hunt.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 150 Class</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

4. Make those unfilled antlerless tags from any season legal during the late bonus season.
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I think that the people buying multiple doe tags are the diehard hunters. I've filled 5 archery antlerless tags this year and have 2 left. They're gonna be in my pocket until my ML tag is filled. If that dosen't happen they won't get filled. If they would be valid during the late late season with a gun, I could all but guarantee they'd be filled in one night.

Honestly I think that we can give suggestions until we're blue in the face, but none of these will be implemented until someone in the wildlife bureau can take credit for coming up with it.

Believe me boys, they don't care how much you hunt or how well you know your area's deer patterns and numbers etc. If you don't have a degree and work for them you don't know what you're talking about. I was talking to one of the wildlife guys about the special season before it passed and was giving alternate ideas- many that I've seen on this site- given by very knowledgable hunters. I was told that the seasons and regs were made by people who actually went to school for this and I quote "Just because I take a s--- everyday dosen't make me a plumber." The conversation quickly deteriorated and was then over.

Sorry this got so long, but I think until the DNR drops their elitist attitude and actually listens to suggestions, we're at the mercy of whatever they decide. This has been pretty critical of them, but I do have faith in them. I'll take them setting seasons anyday over the politicians.
 
Does are just piling into the fields? Not in my area of SE iowa. I guess the shot gunners really scared them in my area. I am waiting for them to settle down. Read the article in this current issue of deer and deer hunting about buck to doe ratios. It is interesting. Also,, if your area does not seem to have too many does,,like mine,,shoting them early means less girls to attract the boys, during the rut. another thing to contemplate.
 
IOWA DNR 2008 DEER RULES

No printing booklets this year, no reading about what tags you can get...

1) Does only for 2008

2) Doe quotas are set for each individual county

3) Doe tags are $10 bucks a pop, buy all you want and tag transfer (like party hunting) until the quotas for all counties are filled.

4) No bucks shot period for one year in Iowa.....

This would be my dream season..... Kind of silly, but think of what this would do for the deer herd.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Ghost</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
IOWA DNR 2008 DEER RULES

No printing booklets this year, no reading about what tags you can get...

1) Does only for 2008

2) Doe quotas are set for each individual county

3) Doe tags are $10 bucks a pop, buy all you want and tag transfer (like party hunting) until the quotas for all counties are filled.

4) No bucks shot period for one year in Iowa.....

This would be my dream season..... Kind of silly, but think of what this would do for the deer herd.
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I'd still be out 40-50 days.
 
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