Week 3 Legislation. There are some head scratchers here.

[Sligh1]

REVENUE!!!! That’s a point I’ve heard from several folks now.
IF it’s black & white GOVERNMENT MAXIMIZING REVENUE…. & disregarding resource & completely taking emotion out….
1) increase NR tags to $2,000. If it’s a 5 year wait, that will trim the wait & still sell every tag.
2) deer hunting is a luxury when u travel from a state that has more deer than iowa. From the gov perspective- no need for others to come here - if we want to take emotion out- which is what the government would be doing if we only care about revenue!!!
3) if we only care about revenue- add 1,500 auction tags instead where half the $ goes to the charity & half to the dnr. Those tags would be $5-10k all day (which currently they bring in $35k).

All this is a bogus argument. We can do a million things to maximize revenue far better than this silly legislation. To be clear: this is the exact path Illinois took!!! “1,500 more! No biggy and more revenue!!!” 2 years later, repeated for MORE. Third time they said “let’s just guarantee everyone a tag- more revenue yet!” & the state was degraded so fast your head would spin. Literally every tract I knew of was leased up at crazy prices. Outfitters on darn near every block. That state went from great to garbage in more like 5 or so years. All these arguments are smoke screens so the public doesn’t look to hard at it & they just continue to add more & more & more.

How fast have we seen certain hunting go down the tubes? I’ve seen pheasants go from boom to bust in <10 years. Seen deer states have great hunting to junk in <10 years (Illinois for example). Turkeys go down in <10 years. We can ruin Iowa’s deer hunting in less than 10 years- NO PROBLEM!!! Let these folks take the reins & it absolutely will be ruined in <10 years!!!!!

 

[LKennedy11]

From some of what I’ve been told… the 1,500 more tags is being driven by outfitters. Start with 1500 with a push to increase it every couple years.
You wanna see destruction? Go hunt in IL where you are surrounded by outfitters & look at what it’s done to their deer herd. It’s the exact opposite of what anyone here would ever want. The younger best bucks are wiped out. The younger or casual hunter in IL- there is no access to good quality land. It’s degraded that state horribly!!!

As someone who has hunted and in Illinois my whole life( until recently owning my own farm in Iowa to move too) I have done years of public land and past 4 years hunted private in Adams County, Illinois Majority of None residents kill everything they see, they pretty much have the same excuse "well I paid the money i'm going home with something." I'm not saying all none residents are bad, but in my opinion and from what i've seen in the past, majority of NR shoot the first thing they see mature or not.
Illinois is greatly being ruined by politics and greed. I truly hope Iowa doesn't go down that path.

 

[oldman570]

From some of what I’ve been told… the 1,500 more tags is being driven by outfitters. Start with 1500 with a push to increase it every couple years.
You wanna see destruction? Go hunt in IL where you are surrounded by outfitters & look at what it’s done to their deer herd. It’s the exact opposite of what anyone here would ever want. The younger best bucks are wiped out. The younger or casual hunter in IL- there is no access to good quality land. It’s degraded that state horribly!!!

You are very correct about all the outfitters in Illinois. They have bought or leased a lot of the best hunting ground in the state. The rest of the hunters are left to hunt the public hunting areas of the state or where ever they can find some one that will allow them to hunt. I was lucky enough to be able o buy a small (13 acre } patch of timber with all tillable around it. I still have trouble with other hunters trespassing and hunting on it.