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Deer Numbers???

bowtech150

bowtech150

Backstrap Assassin
Does anyone else think that deer numbers are lower this year than before. I hardly seen any movement anywhere this year. A guy at a meat locker said that the number of deer brought in were way lower than usual. As well as a sheriff said road kill numbers were down by about 45% in November this year. What does everyone else think about this or heard.
 
I am a nerd so I like numbers. I kept track of the Harvest report after shotgun. Here it goes.

Last day of Bow season 31,791 deer
End of 1st Season 78,028 deer. Roughly 46,237 deer shot.
End of 2nd Season 103,536 deer. Roughly 25,508 deer shot.

Thought it was interesting. My buddies and I ran 6 drives 1st day of late muzzleloader and didn't see one deer. CRAZY!!!
 
This crap with insurance companies lobbying and dictating deer #'s is garbage. It's low hanging fruit that's easy for them to lower deer collision costs. The amount it saves them is trivial but vs the low cost of them to raise a fit and the DNR to cave- it's $ well spent for them. The part that frustrates me is when they get more power on influencing deer #'s and harvest VS the hunters and citizens of our state. This issue of insurance companies and deer #'s is GARBAGE!
I'll change the debate & have the debate of carrying capacity of land/herd, cost to put up 8' wire fence on high deer collision areas, more hunter input on deer #'s and other solutions any day. Let me at it any day. It's not right how this influence is being played out currently.
 
Yes this is so true I never did understand why they didnt just but high fences up to keep deer of of interstates.
 
They dont put up high fences because it costs money. Why would the state want to spend money when they can make money. Its a win win for everybody... except the deer hunter and future deer hunters. The worst part of it is we are doing it to ourselves and 90 percent of us are to dumb to figure it out or just dont care.
 
wtj43089 said:
The worst part of it is we are doing it to ourselves and 90 percent of us are to dumb to figure it out or just dont care.
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I completely agree with this statement. I ran into a gentleman last weekend that I had just seen at our local DNR meeting 3 weeks ago, (same guy that was lobbying for more deer, less doe tags, etc..) I asked him how his season was going and he proceeded to tell me about how his group shot 16 does on Saturday. It's each individuals perrogative if they want to shoot 10 deer a year, but then don't bitch about not having any deer! I know deer hunting is fun and the point of going hunting is to kill something, but until people learn how to show some restraint, it's only going to get worse. I for one am seriously worried about the future of deer hunting in Iowa.

I also am a firm believer that the guys on the this website are definately the minority. We all care very deeply about our sport and want to see it thrive, but most "deer" hunters are 1 week or weekend a year hunters and don't even have a clue what is going on right now, nor do they care. Last night I was sitting over my food plot on the North farm and about 4pm I heard a loud truck going down the road,come to a stop, gunshot, loud truck speeds away. :mad: I am seriously so pissed off right now at gun season and these type of A holes that are giving us all a bad name, and could care less if there was one deer left in the whole state, they would still kill it. I am never going to stop fighting for my sport, but ill tell ya, some days it is so hard to stay positive, when you not only have to compete with the Farm Bureau, DNR, Anti Hunters, but also fellow Deer hunters that just dont care about our wildlife.

I'm done for now, sorry for the post. I'm trying to keep my cool, but DAMN! "where's the tylenol"
 
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wtj43089 said:
They dont put up high fences because it costs money. Why would the state want to spend money when they can make money. Its a win win for everybody... except the deer hunter and future deer hunters. The worst part of it is we are doing it to ourselves and 90 percent of us are to dumb to figure it out or just dont care.
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Just the fencing issue, I could write 20 paragraphs of cost and analysis. I'll save you some time and keep a bit shorter :) In short, when constructing a new highway, the cost of the fence is a absolute tiny fraction of added cost. When it's weighed out VS deer collision and safety, it's a no brainer and would EASILY save money. Look at a few locations across the state....
Iowa falls has a stretch on highway 20 that's about 2 miles on both sides, saves countless collisions, lives, damage, etc. highway 80 by Greenfield exit (just west of DSM about 40 mins) has same thing.

2 new areas of highway have been created over the last few years....
OTTUMWA has a 1.5 mile area that cut right through deer habitat- we're talking an absolute massacre on the road. Fairfield (15 miles away) did the same thing. Fairfield hwy had the "bad deer area" which is a couple miles fenced in- they knew it would not be safe not put up, knew it would be minor $ in the new highway budget and knew they were cutting a highway through deer habitat.... Fairfield = around zero accidents per year of course on those couple miles of fenced areas. Ottumwa = I will NO JOKE claim the 1st year over 50 deer were hit there on that new section of highway, NO FENCE of course.

Fairfield highway (both 34 in Ottumwa too) probably costed a few million dollars for a couple miles of highway? Probably, let's just say I'm close. 2 miles of 8 foot high fence on both sides could be done for $75,000- maybe it's more because of unions & all the bureaucracy BUT let's say I'm in ballpark. Fairfield the $ was spent and a lot has to do with SAFETY! They are creating highways they know will be safe with fence or knowingly creating highways they know are going to be MASSACRES!!!!.....

Fairfield, basically zero collisions, zero injuries, zero $ in damage on that stretch since open. VS Ottumwa... NO WAY did Ottumwa have less than 50 deer hit 1st year and 2 years after AT LEAST another 25 per year- I see it all the time there. So, in 3 years that's 100 deer collisions at highway speeds..... Let's say an AVERAGE of $4,000 per car in damage and some had to have injuries to driver (I won't even add in medical bills from the deer collision injuries that I'm sure occurred on some of these collisions) ...... That's a GRAND TOTAL (in 3 years) of $400,000 VS $75,000 to build a fence. That's not even counting year 4 and on which would save double digit collisions there & again, I didn't include medical costs for those 1st 3 years. Those are the solutions we need, they pencil out and highway folks are not creating safe roads in those areas in my opinion. Just a nerd analysis here! :)
 
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Are you talking of the high fence on I80 east of adair? If so I like it, it was always nice knowing that I didn't have to be as cautious driving to class in dsm everyday.
 
Problem is that large portion of deer hit by vehicles are not in the areas along highways where fences are an option.

We are aggressively managing down the rural deer population while much of the "financial impact" of deer collisions is in the metro areas of the state. If you look at a city like Des Moines and the areas around the city you find abundant abundant deer and lots of deer car issues.

In this mans opinion while I am sure there are rural counties with excessive population, (love to know where so I could hunt there), the real problem is in and around metro areas. We need more cities to get aggressive with bow hunts in the city in the partially developed areas on the edges of the cities where deer are involved in many collisions with people commuting in.
 
I'm talking about a large chunk of collisions that are at high speeds. Yes, those are going to be highways and are easy to pinpoint where you are gong to have massive amounts of collisions. I would say it's a large % (don't know #'s of course) that are hit in these "gimme areas". Yes, of course collisions are happening on dirt roads and in cities and we can't fence those areas. The highway "gimme areas" make sense and make $ sense.

The insurance industry needs to be relieved of most the power on lobbying/dictating deer #'s and citizens/hunters need to be put back in charge- the damage has been done in a lot of areas that are now not seeing deer because of regulations won by insurance companies while these lands are far far lower deer #'s than they could handle.

Yes, that stretch of fenced highway on 80 is Adair co, Greenfield exit. NO BRAINER and this fence was made in last 2 years long after the highway was in place, saved countless collisions.

And yes, I do agree many parts of the state are getting way too low on deer. Thankfully not where I hunt BUT massive portions of state are hurting.
 
Totally unrelated, but I was recently out west and thought it was an interesting mindset difference that instead of deer crossing the it said Game Crossing below the deer picture.
 
Sligh1 said:
The insurance industry needs to be relieved of most the power on lobbying/dictating deer #'s and citizens/hunters need to be put back in charge- the damage has been done in a lot of areas that are now not seeing deer because of regulations won by insurance companies while these lands are far far lower deer #'s than they could handle.

I agree with you on most of this, but I think you are failing to take into account that the Farm Bureau is made up of citizens/hunters/farmers, and that one of the biggest issues is crop damage not just car-deer collisions. Farmers have been making a LOUD statement since our banner year in 2005 and the Farm Bureau has been paying out high sums of money due to deer damage of one sort or another. The fact is now that most of the group at the last DNR meeting were farmers/landowners and they are talking about 0% crop loss this year and few deer on their farms. Our population (although skewed in areas) is down to a manageable level and the insurance companies need to back down a bit. I know there is a high number of farmers who hate crop loss, but still like to hunt, and I think if they are unhappy they may have more leverage than the rest of us do in getting things changed. I live in NE Iowa and keep a close relationship with a huge number of landowners/farmers and I don't know many that aren't concerned with the amount of deer that we have. One of the farmers that lets me hunt had the attitude of Kill them all just 3 yrs ago, and now he doesn't want any does shot. Pretty big swing in attitude if you ask me. I really hope that things turn around or atleast dont get any worse, and judging by the meetings I have attended and the people I have been speaking with, I think it is going to very soon.
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I hate to disagree with most of you but I live and hunt near the fence on I-80 near Casey and there are still deer killed on this stretch of interstate as I drive it every day and it is a constant battle keeping the fence maintained. If you watch along it there are all kinds of bad spots in the fence. I hunt north of there on some of the 2000 acres my cousin farms and the deer #'s are still too high as his crop damage has not decreased over the years. I have 6 acres of food plots on my farm that I use for late muzzy and they have been gone for over 2 months. As for the DNR it is all about money when the depredation tags my cousin has to get are $13.00 apiece they should be free. I'm not saying some parts of the state don't have low #'s but not here. And I love my sport and want to keep it as much as you guys but these farmers living come from these crops and the deer need to be controlled. I also hunt in the Villisca area and it is the same down there as we shot over 30 deer 1st shotgun season and saw as many deer down there as we ever have. Just my opinion.
 
The numbers are down in a lot of areas, be sure to contact our deer biologist and let him know about your areas.


Speaking of I-80, the deer along it are a pain in our butt. Not just the collision factor, but when you see big herds from the interstate, that doesn't help our cause. Everyone who doesn't know any better thinks the whole State must be like that. I've heard the comments more than a few times.
 
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