Southern Iowa Deer hunters take action

[thecreedeer]

In the past three years I as well as other hunters in Appanoose,Davis, Monroe and Wayne counties have seen a drastic decline in the deer numbers. The late season rifle hunting and disease has greatly affected our deer and I fear it is going to take several years before it gets back to where it was.
It is very important that hunters get involved and take some pressure off the deer. The first week of the gun season I saw many convoys of hunters driving every piece of timber in the area. There is a point when the desire to kill as many deer as possible should be eliminated. I realize everyone is not a trophy hunter, but is it necessary to kill many deer only to give the meat away? Iowa is the Mecca for deer hunting in all of North America ,and as human nature often does we take it for granted. I hope all hunters understand the importance of letting our deer herd grow. Don't be afraid to speak up to other hunters and voice your opinion. Our deers future depends on it!

 

[flugge]

The problem is, I pay for my tag, and can shoot what I want... I shot 3 does this morning to fill doe tags on ground that first season wasnt allowed does...
All my tags were landowners, we do not shoot does on any other ground. I only manage the does on my property.... that being said, when the neighbors pushed over 200 through our woods, I dont think we have a shortage in our area...

 

[IowaBuckSlayer2013]

That is why Iowa made it where first season was not allowed doe tags. When you have a group of 100 guys pushing a area odds are everything and anything will be shot. Was in Monona County today taking count and will be safe to say everything from castana to Missouri Valley has been massacred. Only chance of salvaging late season archery is to find a nice lite piece of private land.

 

[pamarcole]

Its to bad people don't understand that we cant just keep killing everything because "I paid for 3 doe tags and I'm gonna use them". And then complain down the road that there are no deer ....yeah ...yeah ...yeah .....those hunters always say" all the deer are down the road in that standing corn" or " all the deer are over at old man Smith's place ...because he don't let anyone hunt there". No ...the fact is we've killed off 75% of the herd! And the State and or the insurance companies are laughing at us because a large % of us just keep on killing ...shooting ourselves in the foot! What we should all do is have everybody leave one tag at home when we go hunting ....don't fill it! We are not going to starve! that will make a huge difference down the road!

 

[SEIowaDeerslayer]

Does were shot before the dnr implemented the late season antlerless. Now that the season is gone I look forward to seeing the numbers rebound.

 

[redcorn]

That is why Iowa made it where first season was not allowed doe tags. When you have a group of 100 guys pushing a area odds are everything and anything will be shot. Was in Monona County today taking count and will be safe to say everything from castana to Missouri Valley has been massacred. Only chance of salvaging late season archery is to find a nice lite piece of private land.

Thats nice to hear...there werent many deer in Monona Co. BEFORE the season started.

 

[southcentral]

I agree that if the numbers are down in your area by all means lay off the trigger BUT in my area of Wayne county it is nothing for me to see 30-40 deer a night in my crop fields. I don't feel it is fair that the majority of contributors to this site look down upon me for filling as many doe tags as needed to get MY farm closer to what the habitat will comfortably support. I receive 25 depredation tags a year. This was supposed to be the final of a 3 year plan and then we will re-evaluate next spring. I can say I haven't killed all 75 deer in the last 3 years but between my kids and friends kids we have filled the majority. If u hadn't been to my farm before today u wouldn't be able to tell we had killed any. I am fortunate to not have lost any to EHD that we found and to still have a good population. when I start to see a sustainable number then I will lay off on numbers harvested.

 

[pamarcole]

Good point Southcentral we cant forget about the places that do still have a problem with to many deer! Those places do exist.... Wow to kill that many deer and still have that many deer is crazy. For city folks that just see a field full of deer it's way cool! For the farmer that's trying to make a living off of that land it's looked at differently! Finding that balance is difficult!

 

[camo658]

It is very depressing to see the deer numbers at the level there at, but I know the changes that the governor has made is an encouraging sign that we are heading in the right direction. It’s going to take time before the Deer herd bounces back to when and where we all really enjoyed being in the stand. We ultimately can’t control what other people decide to do regarding what deer they decide to harvest on their land. All you can really do is be the best representation of a hunter you can possibly be. Show non hunters that you respect and properly honor the animals in which you hunt and you may being able to impact people in such a way to where they are more warming to hunters by allowing them to hunt their land or let them at least practice some habitat restoration on their land or be more sensitive to issues regarding conservation. I really want to make an attempt to try to plant some more habitat on the lands that I hunt to help encourage a larger deer herd as well as other animals. I know we are loosing habitat to urban sprawl, farmland, and some other things. If I know that I’m giving back in some capacity... It helps take the sadness away realizing all these issues are happening. Also, other hunters will be watching what I do and ask why I do all these things. From there, I can explain why I believe what I do is so important and that we aren’t the only out there who can enjoy and benefit from what was given to us from beforehand.

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Also, I am glad there are other hunters out there who aren’t only feeding their families, but supplying meat to those less fortunate or at least, making a difference to another family. Of course, there are those who are going try to rationalize harvesting everything deer out there by giving the meat away just so they can get the thrill out of playing recon in the deer woods.​

 

[loneranger]

Well over here in SE Wapello CO the usual. I bow hunted 3 wks -end of Oct thru to mid Nov . You do not see 20 or 30 deer in a field here. I saw total of 15 deer hunting every, morns and eves. Actially saw more bucks than usual but all 2 yr olds or I should say most were. Sure there are some farms full but not near me.

 

[Hardwood11]

In the past three years I as well as other hunters in Appanoose,Davis, Monroe and Wayne counties have seen a drastic decline in the deer numbers. The late season rifle hunting and disease has greatly affected our deer and I fear it is going to take several years before it gets back to where it was.
It is very important that hunters get involved and take some pressure off the deer. The first week of the gun season I saw many convoys of hunters driving every piece of timber in the area. There is a point when the desire to kill as many deer as possible should be eliminated. I realize everyone is not a trophy hunter, but is it necessary to kill many deer only to give the meat away? Iowa is the Mecca for deer hunting in all of North America ,and as human nature often does we take it for granted. I hope all hunters understand the importance of letting our deer herd grow. Don't be afraid to speak up to other hunters and voice your opinion. Our deers future depends on it!

I'd be interested in hearing what your typical sightings per sit now and what they used to be?

 

[HorseDoctor]

Okay, no doubt that deer numbers are down in many areas, way down in some. Some areas still have pretty decent numbers. Doesn't do much good to come on IW whining about it. You are "preaching to the choir"! Not many folks here need convincing. Talk to your neighbors, buddies and anyone who hunts your area. In addition, be sure and voice you opinion when the DNR has public comment sessions about what you did & didn't like about this years hunting.

 

[JNRBRONC]

the fact is we've killed off 75% of the herd! And the State and or the insurance companies are laughing at us because a large % of us just keep on killing ...shooting ourselves in the foot!

Has anybody's insurance gone down with the deer population????

I'm waiting to hear somebody say yes, but all I'm hearing are crickets.

 

[DoneRight]

It all comes down to this: know the ground your hunting, know the population the ground can handle and know your deer herd your hunting and the area around you. The people that kill just to kill are the problem. Coming on here to gripe is preaching to the choir. By all means if the ground you hunt ( knowing population/ herd capabilities) is capable of excess deer population by all means shoot anterless deer. It is our job as conservationists to manage the population! Not the state and definitely not FB or the other insurance companies. It is up to us as hunters and no one else! The problem is the guys who pick the gun out of the safe for 2-5 days and think they are true hunters. When we all should be conservationist instead or killers

 

[meyeri]

It all comes down to this: know the ground your hunting, know the population the ground can handle and know your deer herd your hunting and the area around you. The people that kill just to kill are the problem. Coming on here to gripe is preaching to the choir. By all means if the ground you hunt ( knowing population/ herd capabilities) is capable of excess deer population by all means shoot anterless deer. It is our job as conservationists to manage the population! Not the state and definitely not FB or the other insurance companies. It is up to us as hunters and no one else! The problem is the guys who pick the gun out of the safe for 2-5 days and think they are true hunters. When we all should be conservationist instead or killers

Agreed.



I always think deer sightings this time of year can be a bit deceiving since major food sources draw deer from a long ways away. Any farm with major food sources and cover will turn into a deer traffic jam while the neighboring farm with no late season food sources can seem like a ghost town.

I think the point of the post was to advocate encouraging other ignorant hunters to shoot less does this year. Which I agree with.

 

[IowaBuckSlayer2013]

Same with Plymouth County. I've seen less deer the last few years. And a lot of that is managed by a few guys that run scheels archery department. Excluding one who hunts mostly southern Iowa...

 

[stanley]

I think if we look at it realistically there are less deer in every county compared to a few years ago. How could there not be? Guys are popping does like they are rats. It doesn't matter to most of the hunters how many deer there are. They are going to get theirs no matter.

I hear all the excuses. Buck to doe ratios are skewed, too many deer for the habitat, we have deer in our area, one doe doesn't matter in the big picture, deer are eating my corn, I kill does for the meat, I'm killing does not bucks, and yada yada yada.

The truth is most guys are greedy and just want to kill deer. I know of areas where the deer numbers are so low it is alarming. In those very areas guys are getting doe tags for their wives and their wives friends. This happens way more than you would like to admit.

You can't reason with brown and downers they could care less about over all deer numbers. For the guys that do care, we are stuck with guys killing too many of our buck producers.

Most of the hunters can't relate to the days when there were very few deer in Iowa. They have only seen the good years the last 25 years or so. 40 years ago it was not like this. You could hunt for weeks and not see one deer period. There were no outfitters as as there were no deer. Timber ground was worth $100.00 an acre or less. River bottom ground was worth $25.00 an acre and you had to pay taxes on it.

I gun hunted in the late 60s you could not kill any does. The season was for 3 days only and the hrs were 8:00AM to 4:00 PM. The deer populations slowly increased over the years and Iowa became renown for killing big bucks. I would like to see it stay this way. It won't, if guys keep over killing the buck producers. It is just that simple.

 

[gundog870]

I think if we look at it realistically there are less deer in every county compared to a few years ago. How could there not be? Guys are popping does like they are rats. It doesn't matter to most of the hunters how many deer there are. They are going to get theirs no matter.

I hear all the excuses. Buck to doe ratios are skewed, too many deer for the habitat, we have deer in our area, one doe doesn't matter in the big picture, deer are eating my corn, I kill does for the meat, I'm killing does not bucks, and yada yada yada.

The truth is most guys are greedy and just want to kill deer. I know of areas where the deer numbers are so low it is alarming. In those very areas guys are getting doe tags for their wives and their wives friends. This happens way more than you would like to admit.

You can't reason with brown and downers they could care less about over all deer numbers. For the guys that do care, we are stuck with guys killing too many of our buck producers.

Most of the hunters can't relate to the days when there were very few deer in Iowa. They have only seen the good years the last 25 years or so. 40 years ago it was not like this. You could hunt for weeks and not see one deer period. There were no outfitters as as there were no deer. Timber ground was worth $100.00 an acre or less. River bottom ground was worth $25.00 an acre and you had to pay taxes on it.

I gun hunted in the late 60s you could not kill any does. The season was for 3 days only and the hrs were 8:00AM to 4:00 PM. The deer populations slowly increased over the years and Iowa became renown for killing big bucks. I would like to see it stay this way. It won't, if guys keep over killing the buck producers. It is just that simple.

It's so simple, I don't understand what piece of the puzzle guys are missing??

 

[DannyBoy]

I agree that if the numbers are down in your area by all means lay off the trigger BUT in my area of Wayne county it is nothing for me to see 30-40 deer a night in my crop fields. I don't feel it is fair that the majority of contributors to this site look down upon me for filling as many doe tags as needed to get MY farm closer to what the habitat will comfortably support. I receive 25 depredation tags a year. This was supposed to be the final of a 3 year plan and then we will re-evaluate next spring. I can say I haven't killed all 75 deer in the last 3 years but between my kids and friends kids we have filled the majority. If u hadn't been to my farm before today u wouldn't be able to tell we had killed any. I am fortunate to not have lost any to EHD that we found and to still have a good population. when I start to see a sustainable number then I will lay off on numbers harvested.

Is seeing that amount of deer a common occurrence year round or just late season when deer are yarded up around the best combo of food/bedding within the area? Surely not questioning your intent but I feel we need to walk a tightrope with observations and arguments like this because I've seen firsthand where this scenario has played out because a lot of deer are congregated in a small area, they get blasted, then once they leave for their normal home ranges, a whole bunch of properties are now short on deer.

One example: last year late muzz I was hunting a group of deer and was seeing upwards of 90 head per sit. I'm the only hunter to take one out of this group but sure enough come bow season this year, I really didn't see enough deer to declare the population 'too high' because really, it was probably about where it should be. This is an area with lots of timber, other habitat and fair amount of ag (food).