sep0667
Land of the Whitetail
People like this drive me crazy. There really is no sense in trying to convince them. They see a couple deer on a 20 mile drive or so for example, and they think deer are "all over."
Unused Deer Tag Survey
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People like this drive me crazy. There really is no sense in trying to convince them. They see a couple deer on a 20 mile drive or so for example, and they think deer are "all over."
Dustin DG
Dutch Hunter
My group had four tags and we still have four tags. One member shot a nice buck and we looked for three days for it but never found it. We all four passed on young bucks(all under 2 years old). We didn't shoot a die because we felt that there didn't seem to be enough does in the area to shoot one. We are hoping for more of a selection next year. To each their own.
Hardwood11
It is going to be a good fall!
No tags filled
No tags filled for me, looking for a big one and didn't connect, I did see plenty of deer and passed several small bucks.
Hunting near Warren/Lucas Line
No tags filled for me, looking for a big one and didn't connect, I did see plenty of deer and passed several small bucks.
Hunting near Warren/Lucas Line
mplane72
PMA Member
Well, my son and I were out this weekend and tonight with his youth tag and we still have it, he missed a doe tonight. Just sitting in a blind and saw deer every time out but a lot of them were probably repeat sightings. There were no drives conducted on this ground. But it does set up well for drives and the land owner says in years past one push would yield 10-12 deer. I don't think it would have this year. I did here a lot of shooting from the surrounding area. North Clinton Co.
If you really believe you need to do something about it you can....just stop shooting the does.
This is from a post that I made in September of 2008 and based on harvest reports from 2006 and 2007. Today it still appears that we actually are our own worst enemies, and the over harvest of does still continues. As of this morning there have been 40,245 antler-less deer reported consisting of 33,258 does, 6,883 button bucks, and 104 shed bucks. That is 57% of our total harvest which is currently only 71,092 deer, after our youth season, our early ML season, the November season, 1st shotgun season and the best part of the bow season. How much longer can this go on, or should this go on?
Well I am back at it again. I just found some of the stats that have been missing from the DNR site, or at least I could not find them for a while. http://www.iowadnr.com/wildlife/files/logbook.html is where I found this info. In looking at this current and past info it looks like the DNR maybe looking for some ways to make up for the potential short fall on license fees if they in fact reduce the deer herd to early 1990's levels. I know that I tend to over analyze some of this stuff but at least I think I am right.
license info
Total Licenses Total Hunters NR Licenses Total Dollars
2006 377,525 339,966 6500 +6500 $12,851,824
1993 168017 168017 0 $4,200,425
The total dollars reflect 6500 NR licenses @ $400 and 6500 NR antlerless @$200 339,966 @ $26 and 37,599 @ $12
In 1993 I don't believe there were any NR licenses and every license was the same price but you could get both a bow and a shotgun license. These figures show a difference of $8,651,399. For a while there may not be that much of a shortage because there will still be a lot of licenses sold but as the deer population drops and as a consequence the success ratio drops what will happen to the numbers of deer hunters.
In 2005 there were 211451 deer killed with 391864 licensed issued for a success ratio of 54% and in 2006 there were 150552 killed with 377525 licenses issued for a ratio of 40%. They have not posted the number of licenses for 2007 but I read that there was a little over 140000 deer killed.
Now take us back to the years of yesterday to 1993 there were only 76430 deer killed by 168017 licenses issued for a ratio of 45.49%. At our current rate of travel if 2008 brings a number licenses of 350,000 and a further reduced kill of say around 130,000 deer that will drop the ratio to only 37%. That means that there will be over 200,000 of us deer hunters who won't tag a deer, meaning any deer, buck or doe that year.
Is this really what the DNR wants or what we deer hunters want? How long until those casual deer hunters who only hunt a day or two per year get frustrated with the lack of deer and places to hunt just give up? What happens to DNR revenue when the license numbers drop to 200,000 and the revenue drops $4,000,000? I know what I think will happen, unlimited over the counter NR licenses at $500 or $600 a pop, which will lead to more outfitter leasing and NR land ownership which will further limit resident hunting access. Why is it that it seems that the DNR is listening to and trying to placate all the groups who don't pay a penny to support the DNR and deer programs and ignoring or propagandizing the people, deer hunters, who do pay the bills. Some where I must be missing the big picture so can some one enlighten me why I should continue to kill more and more does so that the deer population will drop to a level where even if I can buy all the licenses I want, I can't find deer to fill them?
No where on the DNR site could I find an actual population number even if it was just an estimate of the deer we have in Iowa. I found a couple of charts and graphs that were almost impossible to read, but I could make out the population GOAL, 170,000 deer. If they should meet that goal and still expect to sell 250,000 licenses, which entitles every holder to harvest one deer, a success ratio of just 50% means that we have just put the white tail deer on the endangered species list in Iowa. WHAT ARE WE DOING? Do we want to go back to having 200,000 hunters applying for a lottery for 100,000 licenses so that we might be able to kill 50,000 deer.
I know that I sound like a dooms day prophet and keep harping on this subject, but i continue to read posts about people wanting to kill more does and to donate them to Hush just so they can shoot more, or they want to shoot 10 or more in an urban hunt just so they can earn a urban buck tag. All of the bow hunters should take note and read some of the stats on the DNR page. for example in 2001 there were 52002 bow licenses issued and a bow harvest of 18798 deer for 39%. In 2006 there were 76258 bow licenses issued but with a kill of only 22008 reported for only 29%. Now there has been many questions about the new reporting system that went into effect in 2006, but I would hope that bow hunters were responsible enough to report every thing that they killed. What happens in 2008 when there will probably be just as many licenses sold and fewer deer. If the overall harvest drops by 10,000 or 15,000 deer and you figure that maybe 30% of those are bow kills, 3000 to 5000 deer, that would mean that about 75,000 bow licenses were used to bow harvest maybe 19,000 deer for a ratio of only 25%. Is it ok with 75% of all the bow hunters to pay your money and know that you won't tag any deer?
I need to stop now before I make this thing 2 pages long and loose too many of your interests. Read the DNR stuff and please give it a little thought before you go out and "whack a whole freezer full of skin heads" especially if you want your kids to become deer hunters with something to hunt.
Well I am back at it again. I just found some of the stats that have been missing from the DNR site, or at least I could not find them for a while. http://www.iowadnr.com/wildlife/files/logbook.html is where I found this info. In looking at this current and past info it looks like the DNR maybe looking for some ways to make up for the potential short fall on license fees if they in fact reduce the deer herd to early 1990's levels. I know that I tend to over analyze some of this stuff but at least I think I am right.
license info
Total Licenses Total Hunters NR Licenses Total Dollars
2006 377,525 339,966 6500 +6500 $12,851,824
1993 168017 168017 0 $4,200,425
The total dollars reflect 6500 NR licenses @ $400 and 6500 NR antlerless @$200 339,966 @ $26 and 37,599 @ $12
In 1993 I don't believe there were any NR licenses and every license was the same price but you could get both a bow and a shotgun license. These figures show a difference of $8,651,399. For a while there may not be that much of a shortage because there will still be a lot of licenses sold but as the deer population drops and as a consequence the success ratio drops what will happen to the numbers of deer hunters.
In 2005 there were 211451 deer killed with 391864 licensed issued for a success ratio of 54% and in 2006 there were 150552 killed with 377525 licenses issued for a ratio of 40%. They have not posted the number of licenses for 2007 but I read that there was a little over 140000 deer killed.
Now take us back to the years of yesterday to 1993 there were only 76430 deer killed by 168017 licenses issued for a ratio of 45.49%. At our current rate of travel if 2008 brings a number licenses of 350,000 and a further reduced kill of say around 130,000 deer that will drop the ratio to only 37%. That means that there will be over 200,000 of us deer hunters who won't tag a deer, meaning any deer, buck or doe that year.
Is this really what the DNR wants or what we deer hunters want? How long until those casual deer hunters who only hunt a day or two per year get frustrated with the lack of deer and places to hunt just give up? What happens to DNR revenue when the license numbers drop to 200,000 and the revenue drops $4,000,000? I know what I think will happen, unlimited over the counter NR licenses at $500 or $600 a pop, which will lead to more outfitter leasing and NR land ownership which will further limit resident hunting access. Why is it that it seems that the DNR is listening to and trying to placate all the groups who don't pay a penny to support the DNR and deer programs and ignoring or propagandizing the people, deer hunters, who do pay the bills. Some where I must be missing the big picture so can some one enlighten me why I should continue to kill more and more does so that the deer population will drop to a level where even if I can buy all the licenses I want, I can't find deer to fill them?
No where on the DNR site could I find an actual population number even if it was just an estimate of the deer we have in Iowa. I found a couple of charts and graphs that were almost impossible to read, but I could make out the population GOAL, 170,000 deer. If they should meet that goal and still expect to sell 250,000 licenses, which entitles every holder to harvest one deer, a success ratio of just 50% means that we have just put the white tail deer on the endangered species list in Iowa. WHAT ARE WE DOING? Do we want to go back to having 200,000 hunters applying for a lottery for 100,000 licenses so that we might be able to kill 50,000 deer.
I know that I sound like a dooms day prophet and keep harping on this subject, but i continue to read posts about people wanting to kill more does and to donate them to Hush just so they can shoot more, or they want to shoot 10 or more in an urban hunt just so they can earn a urban buck tag. All of the bow hunters should take note and read some of the stats on the DNR page. for example in 2001 there were 52002 bow licenses issued and a bow harvest of 18798 deer for 39%. In 2006 there were 76258 bow licenses issued but with a kill of only 22008 reported for only 29%. Now there has been many questions about the new reporting system that went into effect in 2006, but I would hope that bow hunters were responsible enough to report every thing that they killed. What happens in 2008 when there will probably be just as many licenses sold and fewer deer. If the overall harvest drops by 10,000 or 15,000 deer and you figure that maybe 30% of those are bow kills, 3000 to 5000 deer, that would mean that about 75,000 bow licenses were used to bow harvest maybe 19,000 deer for a ratio of only 25%. Is it ok with 75% of all the bow hunters to pay your money and know that you won't tag any deer?
I need to stop now before I make this thing 2 pages long and loose too many of your interests. Read the DNR stuff and please give it a little thought before you go out and "whack a whole freezer full of skin heads" especially if you want your kids to become deer hunters with something to hunt.
NWBuck
PMA Member
Honestly, I think this is the direction I'll be heading soon as well. I know it flies in the face of the "let 'em grow" philosophy, but I like to shoot and eat deer. Even the farmers in our area agree deer numbers are down. I'm probably more apt next year to pick on year and a half bucks (as opposed to 2 and 3 year olds) to put venison in the freezer and help the population rebound a bit.
NWBuck
muskiemike
New Member
I ate 2 shotgun tags, one any sex, one doe. I still have an archery doe tag left. I see does every time I'm out, no matter which stand I sit in. Kind of spoiled though, I hunt a central Iowa county that is historically loaded with deer.
skyleralan
PMA Member
I have got a doe every year, but as far as filling my buck/any deer tag I haven't used it the past two seasons.
We will see, come late muzzleloader I guess.
We will see, come late muzzleloader I guess.
H
huntemup
Guest
You are doing a huge disservice to all fellow hunters. You and everyone like you is indicating that there are more deer than there really are. Not to mention you are breaking the harvest report law. Personally, I hope you get caught. (You may) The DNR finally implements a harvest reporting tool and some of you "tools" use it to ruin it for everyone else. Nice. That is exactly why some officials wont pay attention to the harvest report. Unbelieveable.
BuckDownBuckup
New Member
It was horrible first day we saw six does out in 100 acre corn field, second day saw 3 deer. third day shot one. Fourth day shot a doe on public ground, only deer seen. Private land was a bust. Shot three deer with five tags left unused
rookie10pt
New Member
out of a 9 tags we filled 1. Didn't even see any deer last Saturday...like everyone else said DEER NUMBERS ARE DOWN!!!
dedgeez
death from above
There's starving people in China ya know............ Any good recipes? I have a feeling a lot of people may need them after this season.
LoessHillsArcher
PMA Member
Here is where our shotgun 2 buck tag went...
