what a "great" find

[muddy]

well, with the rain last night i decided to do a little still hunting through the timber today. total dead deer found that weren't there 3 weeks ago...three. one in a ravine and two tossed in the creek. the one was probably a no find type of deal but the other two were feet away from each other in the creek. 2 decent bucks each with thumb sized holes in their side. now i know that not every group of hunters is bad but there is definately a bad element around where i'm hunting. two years in a row now that i've found dead, unclaimed deer. really, REALLY gets under a guys skin. i wish i could find a landowner that would give a damn too. i tell them and all they say is good, kill all them damn deer. anybody out there need a huntin' buddy that cares about trophy management?

sorry for the rant but this is getting ridiculous in my area.

 

[Don K]

Man that stinks. The thing is you wonder what really happened to them bucks? Did they get poached? Did someone shoot them and get to them and figure they where to small to tag? Where they shot legally and not found?

You probably will never know the truth. Sucks big time that the landowner doesnt care either........

 

[ironwood]

As far as the land owners go I see three possible views:
1. If they are not interested in deer hunting personally the only way to gain from hunting is if deer are killed that will no longer damage their crops.
2. If they are interested in hunting for their own pleasure non owners are largely out.
3. If there is some financial gain to manage for trophy deer they would, otherwise why would they expend energy working toward such a goal.

Maybe there are views I am over looking but these seem obvious to me. Why complain about the obvious. Take an active role with the land owner and see if you can change his point of view. Who knows maybe it will help secure your hunting future on that property.

 

[muddy]

there is no way that any landowner in this area would even want to consider managing for more/bigger deer. EVERY single one of them says the same thing every year when i ger permission. "shoot every one you see, leave 'em lay, i don't care". i shake my head and hang up the phone. the number of deer per square mile has been counted above 50 in the winter and all the farmers look at here is deer eating crops. i might as well get used to it as there is nothing i can do about it. as far as the deer i found, they had slug holes in their rib cages. i do'nt know for a fact but am 99.9% sure that the "hunters" shot the deer and probably had too many to tag so they threw them in the creek. the deer are 5 feet apart in a corner of the creek. it's totally obvious if you could see it.

 

[Bingo529]

I know a lot of older farmers around my area say the same thing,"shoot them all so they quit destroying my crops."Yeah I can see where it is frustrating to those wanting to manage deer,but I can also see the farmers points in a way because the deer do cause a lot of damage to the crops.I am not justifying it but your chances of getting them talked into working with you are slim because they hate deer and don't care whether it is a buck or a doe,they all still eat the crops so kill them all.

 

[moose270]

lol, can some one tell me the name of these old farmers. we will go help them manage there land and take a few iowa monsters off of there hands or at least a few flat toppers

 

[Shredder]

Muddy, I would guess you are just SOL on the deer getting shot but you have to consider yourself lucky you are able to find a spot you can hunt. Here in Illinois, we are facing the same problem of deer numbers but literally no one will let you hunt. Do what you can to educate the landowner about QDM. I know a lot of areas that are hunted like in Iowa that that hold exceptional bucks though, despite the "if its brown its down theory".

 

[Windwalker]

It makes me sick if the buck is too far to drag or not big enough theres a group of hunters that drag them in to the brush and leave it and go after another. Happens all the time here! Slide the tags off the legs and reuse CB radios, pop bottle rockets, fire truck sirens, its unreal ....

 

[muddy]

you think it's funny moose270? THANKS. it's not a matter of managing land here. people come onto the ground by tresspassing and then shoot the deer and leave the deer on the ground to rot.


shredder - yeah, i figure i'm SOL but i just have to get it off my chest. good thing is the area is mega tough to push and there's ample escape routes so the big boys seem to make it through (knock on wood) and the little guys get nailed. hmmmmm...a there are old abandoned cisterns in the area...i could ambush those "hunters" myself and get some payback, eh?

 

[Liv4Rut]

that definitely does suck muddy for sure, as my grandpa says every deer should be poisoned lol down in southern iowa most of the farmers ive hunted on wanted them all dead too, now the farmers where i hunt around cj all want the turkeys dead, i guess either way if they wont hunt them i will!!! suprisingly i havent found one dead deer yet after shotgun season, im gonna keep my fingers crossed and hope i dont find any, unlike last year we found over 20

 

[moose270]

its not a matter of finding it funny muddy. god knows i think it sucks, what i was chuckling to myself at the fact people should be forced to come up and hunt on our wild life desert and that is what i find funny

 

[Bowhunt]

I know alot of farmers that want all deer dead. It is amazing that alot of farmers want less deer, but are happy when hunters come and kill only bucks. I wonder if they know bucks do not have fawns?? I have asked them and they say "Ya know your right, I never thought of that." So just ask them, they really may not understand, and trust me it happens!

 

[ironwood]

Good reply bowhunt. If we can't sell the idea as a benefit to the land owners we're not trying hard enough. The DNR should allow non hunting land owners, or hunting land owners for that matter, to control a given (large) number of doe tags. These tags should be made available at zero cost to hunters willing to take does to be donate to the HUSH program. Look at all the needs that are being filled with a proposal like that. You've got QDM, population control, fun experience for the hunters, hunters helping land owners and helping the state’s budget with cheap meat for the state prisoners/needy families.

 

[Two Beards]

Sorry to hear about your "find" Muddy,
it sucks

. My situation is the same on a couple of the farms I hunt

, although this year doesn't appear to have been as bad as the last couple...at least not yet.

Not to question what happened, because I DO understand, but isn't it strange the coyotes hadn't got to these deer yet? I know where I hunt the coyotes are on downed deer ASAP, there would be nothing but bones after a week.

Anyway, it's sad to see things like this happen. With all the doe tags available and the HUSH program....abosolutely no reason for this

.

 

[muddy]

twobeards - the deer in question are dumped into a creek and are pretty much completely submerged in ice right now. the other buck is not much but bones. i'm basically questioning the creek deer.

 

[fishorhunt]

I've gotta agree with Ironwood. Let the landowners get a quota of free doe tags based on crop damage, acres owned or some formula. Then they can enlist the help of local hunters. I'm working hard now to keep a landowner happy who wants does taken and lined up two friends with the late bonus season tags to shoot 4 does for him. While he appreciated the offer, another group had already offered to do the same. Nice to see there are others out there thinking about QDM and finding ways to keep landowners happy.

Muddy - sorry to hear about your find.

 

[FurDog]

Nice.....
I also found two bucks dead in a creek where I hunt.
One was a nice 5 on one side, and sort of a long spike on the other side with nubs.
The other one had his rack cut off. I cannot understand why anyone would want a rack they did not harvest legally.

 

[Kaylray]

If you really want the land owners to be involved in deer management, you need to sweeten the pot for them.

Wyoming use to have a tag on all their licenses that if you gave it to the land owner they got 5 or 10 bucks (can't remember the exact amount). The ranchers I ran acrossed were extremely friendly and helpful as a result.

Maybe you should work with DNR to do the same for tags in Iowa?

That's the only way you are going to get farmers to care about the deer heard.

Or you can do what I did and marry the farmers daughter. Daddy's little girl likes to hunt big bucks!!! He use to have the same "shoot'em all" attitude, now he puts in food plots and plants trees.

 

[horst]

That does suck.We got a couple farmers south of town here who shoot every deer they see and leave em lay.One year I found 7 bucks dead in a 3 mile square, all had been shot with rifles right after the corn came out.Talked to the DNR about it and they said I hadnt see half of it, they found 7 dead deer in one fencline.

Another guy shoots em only when they come in his yard but hes got a lotta deer around his place.On the bright side he does cut em up and eat em instead of wasting em.And I can see why he does it, they destroy his garden, flowers, and trees every year.

A guy out at the lake here gut shoots em when they come into his yard after apples with a 22.Then they run out and die in the state ground.ive reported this SOB twice but they cant prove he shot em.He actually acted pretty proud of himself when he was telling me about it.

And finally the shotgun hunters.Or I should say poachers since the ones Im talking about are in no way doing anyhing legally.2 years ago I pulled into a old grove and found 3 dead deer piled up next to each other with slug holes in em.A young 7 pointer and two does.The tracks in the snow pretty much told the story.They pulled back into the grove, the deer ran out, they killed 3 outta the bunch without getting outta the truck, turned around and pulled out.Plus theres the headless deer I find every year while late muzzleloading in the sloughs.its much easierr apparently to wack a bucks head off and carry out then to drag a deer through the cattails.

We got a real problem here to but in some cases I can understand why its done.But mostly its just pointless killing their doing.Really pisses me off some times but if they aint picking the deer up and they aint caught in the act of shooting em they apparently cant do much about it