I would be against decreasing the length of the deer season. Not sure why people would want decreased days afield. All you accomplish by doing that is concentrating the hunters afield on any given day. If you own your own property you are able to decide what is harvested regardless of the number of days. If you hunt public or by permission you should want as many days as possible to be afield to allow you time to be more selective and decrease the number of hunters on the given parcel you are hunting. If you want 10 less days to be afield then hang your equipment up December 31. Let the rest hunt until the 10th. Deer season has been from Oct 1-January 10 for well over 30 years. And the addition of 15 days in September for kids to get after them isn’t hurting our deer herd. Season length or the number of bucks allowed hasn’t stopped Iowa from being the best State for deer hunting. I guarantee if you decrease the length of any seasons that you will do the exact opposite of what you are hoping to accomplish. You think more bucks will survive and age class will improve. I think that belief is very miss guided, what will happen is guys will be less selective and shoot the first decent buck they see because they don’t have as many days afield to get an opportunity. More 1 1/2, 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 year olds will be killed because hunters won’t feel that they have the time to wait for a 4 1/2 or older buck. Think about it. If they said bow season will only be 15 days long next year. Would you be more or less selective??? Look at NW Iowa. They drove the population down to where they have buck only for first season shotgun. Guys I know started shooting younger bucks to fill tags. Less deer=less bucks=less opportunity. Only have five days to hunt. Most guys only have two days because they have jobs to be at on Monday. So what do they shoot??? 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year olds mostly. Then second season rolls around and the only thing left are does. So what gets shot to fill tags, does. Population continues to decline or stays depressed. I promise you that the hope of getting out afield one more time before season ends has saved more young bucks than any regulation could ever do. Those that keep saying to leave things alone and quit trying to change what we already have are correct. These threads only stir the pot with proposed changes. It distracts people from the real threats to our deer hunting quality. Which is the potential for crossbows to become legal for regular archery season. Currently, If you want better deer hunting (quality) the answer is easy. Increase the deer population back up closer to what we had in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. How do you do that??? Shoot less does and manage where you hunt. Talk to other hunters that hunt in your area and get them to shoot less does. If populations get too high then take some extra does. A higher deer population means more bucks. More bucks mean that more will survive to the next year. Each year older a buck gets usually means they get smarter and are harder to kill. Being allowed one anysex bow and one gun buck is not hurting our quality. As far as landowners getting the third buck tag, I personally don’t know one landowner that is managing that has ever killed three bucks in a year unless they were trying to cull specific bucks. I know I have never shot three bucks in one season and only a couple of times shot two. Many years I didn’t even shoot a buck even though I can have three bucks. Most guys that bow and gun hunt don’t fill both tags with bucks anyway. Many guys only hunt with one weapon so they only have one buck tag. Just look at the number of licenses sold and the number of bucks harvested. Quit worrying about trying to change number of bucks allowed and season lengths. Stay focused on keeping crossbows out of the regular archery season. That is the real threat to Iowa’s deer quality in regards to buck age structure. These other “What if”/ “What would you change” threads are really a waste of time in Iowa and will only add to the already declining resident deer hunter participation. Not to mention getting people focused on the wrong issues. Again, Everyone better stay focused on keeping crossbows out of the regular archery season. That is the real threat to our buck age structure. The deer population issue is already in our/your hands.
