Unused Deer Tag Survey

[iatreehugger]

Everywhere I go, I hear about the numbers being down (it has been very true in our group this year). I was thinking of starting a thread to see how many tags your group started their gun seasons with, and how many unused tags you had left at the end of the season. Also, if you are willing to put what part of the state you hunt in, that would be interesting as well. I'm doing this primarily as a way for us to find out how bad of shape the deer herd is actually in, or if the problem is...we have to take responsibility for killing too many does and continuing to believe the states rhetoric that there is a deer numbers problems while selling us a very large number of doe tags and continuing to have longer and longer seasons.

We are making one more run this afternoon, but so far we started with 10 tags, and we still have 8 of those tags left.

 

[hawkjosh22]

In our area, it seems the deer population was up quite a bit from where it was last year. We hunt in Webster co. and we got 9, a few small ones though.

 

[bukket]

The best gauge for deer population is to visit the DNR page that shows real time harvest statistics. As of today around 1:00 there have been a little over 66,000 deer reported.

As a general rule the past few years:

- by the last day of the first archery season (including youth and early muzzy seasons) there are around 40k deer reported

-by the last day of shotgun 1 there should be around 90k reported

-by the end of shotgun 2 there should be around 125k reported

-after the late muzzy,bow, and southern rifle seasons the total should be between 140k and 150k

 

[risto2351]

Everywhere I go, I hear about the numbers being down (it has been very true in our group this year). I was thinking of starting a thread to see how many tags your group started their gun seasons with, and how many unused tags you had left at the end of the season. Also, if you are willing to put what part of the state you hunt in, that would be interesting as well. I'm doing this primarily as a way for us to find out how bad of shape the deer herd is actually in, or if the problem is...we have to take responsibility for killing too many does and continuing to believe the states rhetoric that there is a deer numbers problems while selling us a very large number of doe tags and continuing to have longer and longer seasons.

We are making one more run this afternoon, but so far we started with 10 tags, and we still have 8 of those tags left.

Treehugger one thing I am interested in is how many that are holding tags because they are not seeing anything to shoot at.

Some people will eat a tag instead of putting it on a doe.

I know of a group that let 11 does go through with tags in their pocket yesterday because they want a buck.

 

[dedgeez]

In our area, it seems the deer population was up quite a bit from where it was last year.

Based off of what? I'm just curious! Is this fact or just based on personal observation during shotgun season? Could it be that the properties that you hunted had different crop rotations, deer pushed in by other hunters before you hunted it, pulling deer from other places based on availability of food, etc...?

I'm not trying to start a argument, just curious as to what leads you to believe the deer numbers are up in your area, when they are way down statewide? Are there less people hunting around you now? It's just weird when you hear a group of shotgun hunters say that they saw plenty of deer and there's no issue with deer numbers, when in all reality the piece that they pushed just happened to have a bunch of deer in it due to pressure and other variables. I live in the most heavily "populated" part of the state and I can tell you first hand along with everyone else I have talked to that the deer numbers in NE Iowa are scary compared to even 2 years ago. You are the first person I have heard say that the population was up in their area (not their land) their Area.

Just curious :way: Maybe you guys have the secret by you :grin:

 

[PROGEAR1]

I'd be curious to understand how the DNR uses the harvest information to determine quotas for next year. Would they take a lower than normal number as a sign the numbers are in check and not issue as many antlerless tags next year or would they issue as many because not enough deer were taken.

Also if the numbers are higher with higher success rate would they think enough were shot or because a high harvest number that's a sign more deer still need to be taken?

Personally I bought an any sex tag and 2 antlerless but didn't see enough deer to warrant using them so all were unfilled, hunted first 3 days in VanBuren County. Some of the ground we hunt has been overhunted during the gun and rifle seasons that you don't see as much anymore and big buck sightings are way down.

 

[bukket]

@Progear....the DNR made recommendations THIS year to lower the amount of doe tags being sold. Gov. Branstad ignored the recommendation of our state deer bioligists and caved to the Iowa Farm Bureau to keep keep tags at their current levels.

After Branstad's moves over the past 12 months to bring politics into deer management and the Board of Regents I will not be voting for him again.

 

[dedgeez]

I'd be curious to understand how the DNR uses the harvest information to determine quotas for next year. Would they take a lower than normal number as a sign the numbers are in check and not issue as many antlerless tags next year or would they issue as many because not enough deer were taken.

In a nutshell....

The DNR wanted to cut antlerless tags significantly last year, but their hands were tied and eventually the ruling of our awesome Governor trumped their decision. He was worried about revenue loss based on less tags for sale. This is what is scary to me is the fact that our DNR think or thought deer numbers were about right before this season started and weren't allowed to do their jobs and continue to manage it correctly. Thanks to Branstad and his ignorance when it comes to everything 'deer' we will once again have 'over harvest' on a percentage basis and next year I'm guessing we will really be hurting. Farm Bureau has deep pockets and a stranglehold on Ol Terry and unfortunately that means we get shafted. I really hope he sees the light after this season and realizes what he is doing or could potentially do.

 

[dedgeez]

Bukket beat me to it, but I think you definitely get the point now of what we are up against

 

[AIRASSAULT]

Our group had so many tags I don't think we even counted.. I would guess in the 30's including landowner tags. We filled 16. Quite a few deer were passed and a lot were taken that I would liked to have seen be passed. I didn't notice a 'Big' difference in numbers around where we hunted (muscatine and cedar county), but last year we filled 27 tags. This year a lot more deer seemed to be in fence lines out in the open. I have vowed to not take anymore antlerless deer for the next several years in my home area until I see an increase in populations

 

[flugge]

12 tags...0 tags left.. Small bucks were shot instead of does because we were having a hard time finding any deer....so didnt make sense for the guys to shoot the does... North Central Iowa

 

[PROGEAR1]

So here's a question: If everyone who had an unused tag and called in that they shot a doe, does that hurt or help the cause of trying to reduce the number of extra tags issued in following years if the numbers are inflated vs what was harvested?

Not advocating, just wondering how much influence the numbers have on their recommendations. My guess is the numbers reported are low anyway due to some individuals not calling in their deer.

 

[bukket]

The rules say that you need to report your deer, so that's what we should all do. If you haven't shot a deer don't report one. It's ludicrous to think that filing a false report with the DNR is going to help anything.

This is part of the bigger problem with our governor's actions. The DNR was able to successfully use hunters as a tool to control the deer herd. They have taken that a step further buy implementing the online reporting tool and making great use of the bowhunter surveys. The governor's decision to overrule the recommendations of the DNR has actually put them in the middle. Hunter's are showing discontent, even mistrust, with the entities regulating our deer herds and are now showing they are willing to skew numbers on their own to correct a perceived shortage.

In the end we all lose.

 

[risto2351]

I live in the most heavily "populated" part of the state and I can tell you first hand along with everyone else I have talked to that the deer numbers in NE Iowa are scary compared to even 2 years ago.

I have a shotgun landowner so I will be hunting this weekend also.
We hardly seen any deer to speak of. Hunting food sources in the evening was a waste of time they were not going to them. First time I have seen that in awhile.
I am not going to say if I am down numbers in my area or not yet until after this weekend. I am seeing 0-3 deer a sit everytime I am out.
Numbers are down or I am not in the right place yet.

 

[nannyslayer]

If you talk to the "one a year shotgun hunters" here at my work place, they say the DNR is full of crap, there are still WAY to many deer. They said that they see at least 5-7 on their drive to work every morning, and they say just imagine how many deer are in the timber that they can't see.

You can't reason with people like that. If they see 1 deer a week, then automatically the population is too thick and there are plenty of deer there. I will say, our area still has a pretty good deer population, but it is definitely on the down hill slide, and fast. a couple more years of the extreme high kills of antlerless deer in this area, and when the "once a year" guys go out and see 3 deer all week, then maybe they will say something then. But until then, there is no convincing them otherwise, they are the experts.

 

[SCOFFIN]

So here's a question: If everyone who had an unused tag and called in that they shot a doe, does that hurt or help the cause of trying to reduce the number of extra tags issued in following years if the numbers are inflated vs what was harvested?

Not advocating, just wondering how much influence the numbers have on their recommendations. My guess is the numbers reported are low anyway due to some individuals not calling in their deer.

This is exactly what I do. I don't know if it helps, but every tag I have left over after that season ends gets reported as a doe kill. I know it's probably not the best approach, but I figure all the deer that get wounded during gun season, some of them eventually die. So I would think that my practice doesn't do a whole lot to skew the numbers, but probably makes it more accurate. I'd like to see more people do it this way.

 

[flugge]

So if every hunter turned in their tag, and it looked like there was such a good success rate...wouldnt it look like there were a lot more deer out there than there actually are? No offense, but pretty stupid IMO

Also, I read somewhere once that they do factor in wounded deer in there overall estimates....

 

[Iowa_Buckeye]

Yes, I would assume if you are calling in tags that you didn't fill that it would look like everyone is getting their deer and that the population is too high.
BTW, I had 3 antlerless tags for first shotgun and filled them all, with no issue.

 

[bigbuckhunter88]

We had 8 tags, and killed 3 does. Passed on alot of young bucks and does in certain areas. Harvested one doe out of an area where there was a high concentration due to no hunting across the road from it. My younger brother harvested his second deer ever and my other lil bro's girlfriend killed her first deer. We were perfectly fine eating that many tags hoping that groups around us do the same due to the declining number of deer in the area.

 

[hawkjosh22]

Based off of what? I'm just curious! Is this fact or just based on personal observation during shotgun season? Could it be that the properties that you hunted had different crop rotations, deer pushed in by other hunters before you hunted it, pulling deer from other places based on availability of food, etc...?

I'm not trying to start a argument, just curious as to what leads you to believe the deer numbers are up in your area, when they are way down statewide? Are there less people hunting around you now? It's just weird when you hear a group of shotgun hunters say that they saw plenty of deer and there's no issue with deer numbers, when in all reality the piece that they pushed just happened to have a bunch of deer in it due to pressure and other variables. I live in the most heavily "populated" part of the state and I can tell you first hand along with everyone else I have talked to that the deer numbers in NE Iowa are scary compared to even 2 years ago. You are the first person I have heard say that the population was up in their area (not their land) their Area.

Just curious :way: Maybe you guys have the secret by you :grin:

I guess I'm just referring to our land, we hunted one spot which we usually year in and year out get one, maybe two deer off each year. This year we got seven. I personally feel that I have seen more deer this year during shotgun than I did last year. But I also didn't see but three or four deer while bowhunting the 3 times I went out either.

I don't know about the pressure around us, I didn't see a single hunter around our area. The land we have is primarily timber, with crp land that is all tall grass. The spot where we got the most deer has a field on one side of it, not sure of what is is as I didn't see it. To be completely honest, most of the deer that we shot were young unfortunately, the only true mature deer that our group shot was a doe that I shot. I try to tell the group to pass on young bucks and immature deer, but most are "meat hunters" and shoot what is available. Also, desperation sets in on Sunday as most can only hunt on the weekend so it's shoot what is available. Take it for what it's worth. :way:

P.S. We hunt in Webster County.