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Options for 2006?

Here are the problems that I see.
1. We are promoting shooting deer and not quality hunts. Ie: dead does left in the field. What does a person do with four or five deer. We found 5 basket racks dead that had been crippled last year during the gun season. Crippling deer happens, but leave the little bucks alone.

2. We have hunters who are very uneducated about deer managment and what needs to be done. Ie: Seven bucks and 4 fawns in a truck being given to the HUSH program. All bucks were small basket racks. The guys response was "we don't want that much meat and the DNR wants deer shot, so we shoot deer."

3.I know revenue is, and always has been an issue with the DNR. I also know that the insurance companies are putting presure on the DNR to reduce the herd.

4. To many bucks are being shot during early and late antlerless seasons by people who are out to just shoot deer.
Ie: enforcement problem when you have this many days in the field. I am in law enforcement and know how hard it is to enforce the regulations and check hunters and answer calls.

5. You are wanting the hunters to manage deer on private lands. This does not work and never has. You end up with ares (public) with low pop.densities and private, low presure, no access areas, with high pop. densities.

6. My opinion, but I have to question what the real goal in this program is. I feel it is driven by revenue and presure from the insurance companies. Since when does the legislature know anything about wildlife managment, but I feel they are having a big impact on all this.
I don't think we have a deer population problem. Are we seeing dead deer from starvation? We have a doe to buck ratio problem, but that is not going to be solved until we get people to leave the fawns and little bucks alone and shoot adult does. Yes we have car deer altercations, why, more cars, more people, and habitat loss that pushes deer into areas that causes problems because they have no place else to go.
Not trying to piss anyone off, just the way I see things, and I do hunt with, and have friends in the DNR, so these are thoughts that have been discussed with them.
 
To kill a few extra yet this year, tell the hunters that their unfilled antlerless tags are valid with any weapon during the late antlerless season.
 
I don't know if this has already been suggested but why not combine the two shotgun seasons? I realize the DNR's reason for having two seasons is probably something along the lines of 1) more access to more people with two seasons 2) Safer if everyone is not in the woods together at the same time.

I think the biggest obstacle to harvesting the most deer during shotgun is the deer quickly figure out where the pressure is and where the pressure is not. So they simply hang out where no one is hunting. Some land gets hunted only first season, other land only gets hunted second.

To me, access is the biggest obstacle to reducing the herd. Obviously buying land to place in public hunting is not a feasible alternative for the DNR. So why not combine the shotgun seasons so you can ensure the most hunters are out moving the deer around.
 
Here in central Iowa around Des Moines it will be useless to issue more antlerless permits. Housing developments, unhuntableareas. no access to private land protects too well. Also, the massive hunting pressure of first shotgun season moves a lot of deer out in middle of sections and makes them completely noctural. Being that we have the largest human population around here and the most vehicles I'm assuming that the deer accidents are the greatest and it is going to be impossible to control short of baiting and using hired guns.

On suggestion might be to legalize the use of the deer attractant things like Deer co cain and the like. These are deadly and definetly make deer change their habits. If we are just out to be the tool to slaughter the herd then lets just legalize all the violations I see. Night hunting, shooting from windows(ever notice all the vehicle tracks along the timber), still lots of rifle shots. I just hate having said that. As a diehard bow hunter I don't like being a pawn in the slaughter. We will never control the deer herd. I listened in on a multi person conversation in the rotunda last year and these people want the deer herd down to 1960's level in 5 years. That's what some are believing will happen with all the antlerless licenses. It won't and can't happen. I something doesn't happen to control the accidents though, the negative publicity will stimulate the public to DEMAND what Iowa city does and that is paid nightly slaughter by professionals. I hunted second season within sight of downtown DM and heard 6 shots and saw no more than a dozen hunters and saw 6 does. I am forced to hunt public land. By the way, one of those shots was at 6:05.
 
I'm a proud NRLO and I have made some great friends and am drawn to Iowa because I have a love of deer & trophy deer hunting. I have met many residents and other NRs that are hunting in my area in SE Iowa for the same reason. They are part of a brotherhood of deer hunters. :grin: Iowa has too few resident hunters in this area to take care of the over population of deer. These deer are a great asset to the state that should be maximised. Passing out tags to residents at little or no cost is not the only answer. :crazy: It seems that to get the herd under control and to get the most out of this asset that making multible doe-only licenses available to NRs makes sense. It isn't easy for an individual hunter to shoot a lot of does no matter how many licenses he may have. It is only the most avid of the hunters that will take to the field and harvest #s of does. Hopefully, the state would use these additional revenues to buy up more public hunting land. :D
 
Im just going to throw my 2 cents in: I happen to live in a southern county, Decatur to be exact and you guys are mostly right, you have large tracts of land that are locked up. The Drury brothers own a crap load of ground down here and obviously by their videos you can see what they like to hunt. Also over a thousand acres just sold west of me and asked the guy to hunt and he said no that he was going to farm it and make hunting videos on it. Land access is a problem in the lower counties because of
1. Trespassing and then no one gets to hunt it. Happened to the 400 acres i had permission to hunt because the idiots put ruts in the guys hayfield.
2. To much of the ground is owned by out of staters or outfitters.
3. Poachers, people that hunt thier own land dont trust others with just taking does.
My suggestion is that this needs to happen, have some sort of sign up where landowners can apply their names to, to allow people to come and harvest does off of their land. And make a limit of the # of people based on acreage of area. Also i would move the doe season to the middle of September so we dont kill any dropped bucks, our group killed 3 this year.
I am sad to here that you are worried about revenue but just think when you are worried about money in the DNR's pocket, what about the people that are injured or killed because of car/deer accidents and the money they loose out on. I like someone's comment about lowing the doe tags, because $23 dollars is just to much when you already buying 2 any sex tags. I say that you lower the doe tag to 10-15 dollars because more people would by them then. Or make a package deal depending on what the hunter buys. If he buys the 2 any sex tags give him a doe tag for free. Or give the hunter a incentive to purchase that doe tag. Maybe apply it to next year or something to that effect.
You still need these doe seasons and know of a lot of people that hunt them down around here, but a lot of the problems is the crap that hunters themselves do to omit themselves from ground they could possibly hunt.
Trespassing when priviledge was given in the past doesnt mean it is given again. This is why i lost the ground i did because someone else not being responsible.
Down around here that is the biggest problem, because people dont know where fence lines are when they step right over them. And walk right past public hunting boarder and private ground signs.
Need to give the bow hunter more incentive to shoot the does. I seen plenty this year buy passed them up because i wasnt going to spend the $23 dollars when i am already spending $100 to go deer hunting in Iowa. That is a turkey tag for the spring when most of the hunters i see are on a limited budget and all they can afford are the any-sex tag and the license.
Hope this helped. Thanks for reading my post
 
I hate to throw this out there because I am an NR and it is Iowa's Problem, but WI is under the same kind of problems. Private Land being so called managed and no access to help control the deer population.

Here are a couple things that I have seen work in WI that you may want to think about, and I know you will probably hate this idea but here it is...IT IS WORKING IN WI though on the private lands.

1) EARN-A-BUCK, ya I know, but just listen, each person would have to shoot an antlerless deer in order to get their buck tag. NOT STATE WIDE, just in the units with over population. Sure you will get a some buck fawns shot, but is that a price to high to pay to stop what will turn into in breeding and inturn hurt the gene pool? For as many deer that are in the NE, I can't believe that loosing a couple buck fawn will hurt the buck population with as many does that are running around over there. Also, it comes down to the, no offence to any hunter, but not sure what I want to call us, die hards? People need to exercise some good judgement and not just shoot the first antlerless deer either. You can tell the difference between a 120lb doe and an 80 fawn.

2) Access on to those locked up private lands. Put together a Resume. It is simple, just get some land owners who's land you have hunted on in the past and taken some antlerless deer from, have them give you a reference. You would not believe how well this has worked for me with in the Metro Unit in WI that I hunt in late season. This land is locked up so tight that you would swear they were mormans protecting their good looking daughter with a chastidy belt. How ever that is spelt. Other land owners word, goes a long way! People see that you will respect their land and take care of it.

3) This is another no-no but offer them the goods. No not money, TENDER LOINS! Ever deer hunter loves tender loins or the loins. Maybe make some jerkey or something and give the land owner in return. This as well will go a long ways.

4) ABOVE ALL RESPECT THE LAND AND THE PERSON WHO OWNES IT! If he only wantes does shot, so be it. Ya you might have to restrain yourself, but this is his land and you must abided by his rules. Who knows, after a few years of shooting does for him, he may let you shoot a buck in the future. I have also had to go as far as having a lawyer put together a disclamer for the property owner stating that I will no sue him or her if I fall from my tree stand. For me that is a give, but for others, I don't know.

The property owner was gracious enough to let you in, why would you go and sue them. It is your own damn fault if you fall out of your stand or if something happens when your afield.

My 2 cents.

I just wish the DNR would drop the antlerless deer tag price, I would be more than willing to come and shoot does, but not at $158 a pop. $58 maybe, but not $158. I love venison and venison jerkey, but not that much. I will wait for my either sex tag.

OLETOM
 
Its pretty simple.

You do not have a deer overpopulation problem.

You have a hunter access problem.

The situation will continue to get worse overtime.

In my home state the WDNR has been giving out free antlerless tags and having special antlerless only seasons and they still cant control the deer densities.

However on public lands in the national forest, state and county lands we are doing an excellent job controlling
deer because there is no limitations on hunter access.
I would definately recommend a hunter access program such as neighbooring states in Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana etc.
 
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