Dear “DNR ***” or “LEGISLATURE ****”
This is my Educated, passionate, informed voice on the issues Iowa’s outdoorsmen & women are soon facing.
Below is a brief summary on myself, followed by the Status Quo Issues Iowa Outdoorsmen & women are facing, SPECIFIC LEGISLATION & brief summary.
My name is *Michael Jackson*: Iowa Farmer, Conservationist, Landowner, Family-Man, Young Hunter Recruiter, Voter & Passionate Hunter & Outdoorsman. I own *****Acres in **** Iowa that contain well managed Forest, CRP, Tillable, a Commercial Tree Nursery, etc.
I’m EXTREMELY CONCERNED with our constant yearly proposals and changes to our Deer Hunting Regulations in particular. I’ve spent countless hours and years helping vast #’s of other landowners with projects, conservation and making their land better for wildlife & the ecosystem.
The Status-Quo of the EVERY DAY DEER HUNTER:
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We have almost 4 months of deer season, starting September 15th with Youth season and running until January 10th. This comprises: 6 Deer Seasons (youth season, Bow Season, Early Muzzleloader, Gun 1, Gun 2 & Late Muzzleloader). It allows the use of 5 weapon types: Bow, Shotguns, Pistols, Muzzleloaders & Crossbows during Muzzleloader season and for use by Seniors & Disabled. There’s a HUGE amount of time & weapons to kill deer almost 1/3rd of the whole year.
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Iowa has approximately 5-6% forested area in our state. A tiny deer herd compared to other neighboring states. A bad regulation change could ripple through this fragile system very easily. We all saw what happened to pheasant hunting becoming almost “non-existent” VS its time in the 70’s to 90’s. The deer hunting could do the same thing if Iowa isn’t extremely careful with this very fragile resource!!!!!
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Access is incredibly hard for new hunters trying to find land or a place to hunt. I meet hundreds of hunters every year who lose permission, have too many hunters on small parcels, are pushed off, lose to leases, etc. There’s a handful each year that simply throw in the towel as hunting over-hunted public is out of the question or too much of a hassle. I allow as many hunters on my land as I can but I can’t accommodate even 1% of the amount I could let on that ask. Almost every parcel folks try to secure permission “we already have lots of hunters during many of the 6 seasons in place, sorry, can’t help you out”.
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Getting a ”healthy balanced deer herd” or a deer to maturity, is extremely hard even with big parcels. More folks are out with a variety of weapons and often the shooting is at running deer with medium range guns. My point: the deer have PLENTY of pressure as it is… farms either have vastly too much pressure OR a few owners & pockets that protect the resource.
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The POCKETS of high populations are due to large landowners who will never allow their land to be impacted by foolish & Liberal Regulations! They dislike the mobs of people hunting and the disastrous seasons that have been in place like the Late Antlerless season for example.. No Regulation will change those farms. They limit the amount of people hunting and will not participate in further Liberal Regulations.
The guys that suffer from added seasons are the small parcel - by permission hunters. Those parcels of land get deer hammered badly & leave little opportunity for “good hunting”. By further Liberalizing & increasing the weapons, seasons, etc – all it’s doing is causing more folks to lock land down and deny access to other hunters to protect the resource from being exploited and degraded. This results in more pressure on “regular little tracts”, less access overall and larger pockets of folks trying to protect the wildlife. Adding seasons, weapons and the added pressure on the deer herd has a NEGATIVE & OPPOSITE IMPACT some legislatures or non-hunters might not realize. It’s extremely harmful and has gotten much worse the last decade.
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WE NEED TO LEAVE OUR DEER SEASONS ALONE! NO MORE SEASONS, NO MORE WEAPONS, NO MORE EXPANSION, ETC. 4 Months, 6 seasons and 5 weapons is OVER THE TOP as it is now. Creating “OPPORTUNITY” has beyond tipped the scale where more “opportunity” in regulations will actually mean LESS for the average outdoors-person. If anything, the regulations need to be reined in & dialed back!
SPECIFIC LEGISLATION:
LATE ANTLERLESS SEASON:
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The disastrous season that was done away with due to an outcry of hunters. It may be coming back to life. This is pure dread to the serious sportsman who cares about our resource. Again, wildly unpopular. Again, read any Sportsman Forum & ask for the outrage expressed by hunters when we finally got it removed a couple years ago! This Monster needs to stay dead! Here’s some hunter opinion on the matter:
https://www.iowawhitetail.com/forum/threads/shed-buck-season-is-in-the-way-back.55834/
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Here’s the facts & reality of this season that are critically important!!…. 1) Large landowners will protect their land from this foolish shooting season. They don’t allow it & for good reason.
2) The small parcels of land will get shot up & decimated disproportionately. You will have pockets of high deer #’s where large landowners won’t allow this and the “regular guy” will be hunting deer decimated small parcels.
3) It often attracts “hunters” who simply want to “shoot a bunch of deer”. They shoot at running deer with high power rifles at 200-500 yards. They have no clue if it’s a Shed Buck, Button buck or a doe. Hunters have become outraged when the season was in place at the amount of Shed Bucks & extra Button bucks killed. Guys from “Up north” come to these areas for shooting and don’t have any care as to the ramifications to other hunters.
4) This accomplishes nothing except wiping out the “everyday hunters land”, loss of access, degradation of our resource & collateral damage, etc. How many bucks I’ve personally seen that made it through all deer season to be shot down with a high power almost to February is a travesty.
5) This season is after January 10th, its disturbingly late in the year – many stressed bucks have shed their antlers (especially in cold winters) and does have large, somewhat developed fawns in their bodies at this time. It’s a sickening season that should never return & for countless other reasons.
HF 210 – Straight Wall Rifle Bill. Allows pistol rounds for deer hunting in rifle type weapon.
· Please read any outdoor website, some of which have voting buttons for Iowa Sportsman. This is wildly unpopular.
· One reason it’s so unpopular: it’s not needed and hunters see it as the natural stepping stone to “more weapons, more killing & a slippery slope into far more weapons & regulation change”.
· Hunters have been bombarded with late rifle season, the Crossbow lobby & every other further exploitation of hunting you can imagine. This is just one more step forward. It needs to stop.
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HERE’S SPECIFICALLY WHY IT’S NOT NEEDED!!!..... 1) If “recoil” of a gun is an issue to smaller or younger hunters… hunters may use 50-60 grains of powder in a muzzleloader already to get an almost non-existent recoil. There’s also new low-recoil shotgun rounds. Bows & Crossbows have no recoil – Crossbows can be used by seniors & disabled and also be used by anyone late Muzzleloader season.
2) Cost for shooting Muzzleloaders, basic shotgun loads or arrows is extremely minimal as it is.
3) Arrows are reusable and one could reload a shotgun slug if they so desired – cost & use is NOT an issue anyone I’ve ever met experiences.
4) Other states have destroyed their hunting with Liberal regulations & adding weapons – please ask any Iowa hunter if their neighborhood is flooded with Non-Resident landowners owning many parcels for hunting since the hunting in their own state has gone down the tubes.
5) This will not provide further revenue as massive amounts of hunters we all know are being pushed out of the sport as it is. We saw massive amount of deer tags NOT SELL for the last several seasons. Access is terrible, getting worse & more guns into Iowa’s small amount of habitat is not needed.
6) Hunters overwhelmingly do not support this!!! Go to ANY Iowa Sporstsman/Hunting forum easily and look. One example is here where they actually took a poll on this:
https://www.iowawhitetail.com/forum/conversations/legislation.33794/#message-34179
PLEASE STOP ADDING SEASONS, ADDING WEAPONS, LIBERALISING & EXPLOITING OUR DEER HERD!!! It’s a fragile resource that’s already way too far over the edge of “opportunity”. If anything, please rein in the regulations, shorten the seasons and protect our fragile resource. Please stand up against special interest that wish to make $ off our resource or the Lobbyists who wish to make any step forward to eradicating the deer. The pendulum is swung way too far in their direction as it is. We need a friend in the DNR & Legislature to please swing the pendulum back towards the fragile resource and every day hunter. Thank you!