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Resident Bow Hunters:

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loneranger

Well-Known Member
With all the talk about non-resident hunters, just thought I'd put in my observations about the increase in resident bow hunters. Not saying this is bad, but when I bought my property in southern IA, some yrs ago, I was told bow hunters were few. Since then I have met,,I can't count how many,,people who tell me they were gun hunters for yrs and only recently took up bow hunting. Had three guys I met this season in just one week. I own a small acreage, so thought might be good idea to scout out some extra land to get permission to hunt on, as I was told originally many farms around had no hunters. I checked this out, and there is no land around me available. All the farms have friends or relatives filling the trees with stands. I read alot deer hunters are dwindling in numbers but you can't prove it by me. Again,,not that this is a bad thing.
 
How many are bowhunters and how many are guys that sit in trees and become bored with the whole patient game of bowhunting and the practice, and disipline that archery takes? Not too many people can sit in a tree for hours on end. It takes a special breed. I've seen them come and go. They won't last long IMO, and will be back to the once a week shotgun hunting warrior.
 
I also find it hard to believe that the numbers in bowhunters have decreased. Im young but for as long as I can remember every year I run into more guys trying to get on my land or taking over the nieboring land. At least in my area.
 
I agree with Hardcore about the people who just sit in a tree. There are people that hunt near me who sit till 9:00 every day. When they leave it seems like the deer start to move. Funny how they pattern us better than we pattern them. It DOES take a special breed of person/nutjob to sit there for hours on end!!
 
The number of people that truly hunt hard may be decreasing but I bet you the number of guys that try it only to give up early or half a$$ it are in the serious increase. its to bad, alot of good land out there being taken up by guys that dont have a clue what they have or or a clue on what to do with it.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: antlerfreak</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The number of people that truly hunt hard may be decreasing but I bet you the number of guys that try it only to give up early or half a$$ it are in the serious increase. its to bad, alot of good land out there being taken up by guys that dont have a clue what they have or or a clue on what to do with it. </div></div>Yea, but it puts some damn nice, hardly been used, bows, treestands, and blinds on the market. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
i agree, it seems every hunter around here is now a bow hunter. It has tied up a ton of land. I also know a growing number of used to be hunters that have given it up for the reason that its just to much of a pain to get permission to hunt anything anymore. I have no more right to bow hunt than anyone else , but it just seems to get a little more crowded every year.
 
If you check the DNR site you will see that in 1987 there were 28910 archery licenses issued, and in 2006 there were 76,358 archery licenses issued for an increase of 260% in only 19 years. That is why it seems that there are more bow hunters tying up more hunting ground! Also you will see that in 1987 the archery harvest was 9,722 total deer and in 2006 it was still only 22,008 total deer. These numbers include all the extra doe tags and the urban hunts and any other archery only hunts. Interestingly enough in 2006 the archery tags went up by 7% but the harvest went down, even with all the extra antlerless tags, by 31% over the previous year. To me this points out what can happen with a combination of more hunters in less habitat with fewer deer. What will happen if we reach the projected goal of only 170,000 deer? It seems to me we probably will have fewer hunters buying fewer licenses, both bow and gun, and there fore much lower revenue for the DNR, which will more than likely lead to more and higher prices NR licenses to help make up the short fall. It will take a while for the real information to trickle out to NR hunters that Iowa is no longer a BIG DEER MECA, so they will continue to come for a few years meaning that the big outfitters will lease up more land for them so they can cash in while the cow is still giving milk. Then when they realize that deer hunting here is not worth the money and effort, they will all abandon us with our deer hunting and deer herd in shambles. Sorry, this is my gloom and doom day for now!
 
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