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Moving shotgun earlier

Sorry Randy, but I did tell you how I feel. :D

I have had a number of converations (emails) with Mr. Litchfield in the past, & in my opinion he is clueless as to the plight of the resident deer hunter.

He thinks only in terms of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ signs and panders to only those in Des Moines that wear fancy suits. :mad:

After thinking about it for 24 hours I have decided to deleted my above post.


My entry to this post does not necessarily reflect the opinion of iowawhitail.com, it’s administrative staff, or any of the moderators other than myself.


This post also doesn't necessarily reflect the opinion of the IBA, it’s administrative staff, and some of the IBA members.
 
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For now this is just wind. It is important that folks have a real good idea where the heads of the DNR are at in their thought processes.
 
I dont get how they think they need to expand the season. Do they ever think there are just not the deer out there...or what about just deal with the weather. What if we get a blizzard in the late bow season, are they going to extend it for us so we can keep going then. I dont see how snow can really make them extend seasons, I mean come on, we live in Iowa...what do you expect, no snow?! What about a few years ago before deer were reported and we had blizzards. They didnt extend them then..just stupid stupid stupid
 
I know lots of shotgun hunters who pray for snow, some even opting for second season because there is a better chance for it. I was tickled pink when snow was in the forecast for first shotgun season this year!

The article doesn't sound like they are going to lengthen the gun season, just that someone is toying with the idea of moving it earlier. Who knows though, once they start messing with things, all bets are off.
 
I'm getting to the point where I would just as soon see them tear it completely down(deer hunting) shake the fluff out, get rid of the big buck hype and start all over. How sweet it was on opening pheasant weekend without a bunch of trucks full of blaze orange, with out-of-state tags roaming the gravel roads. Sorry, but the DNR is torquing me off!:(
 
I suppose the DNR will then move the Nov. antlerless season up a week also. I guess i'm going to focus more on pre-rut bowhunting in the future!
 
if snow keeps hunters at home instead of being in the field...it really shows how many "hunters" only go with shotguns. ANYWAYS...i don't understand that decision at all, it's called hunting for a reason...thats why they make hunting boots and camo clothes made for the snow...it's supposed to be cold during deer season.

It simply comes down to the $
 

I haven't read the article yet and I will. But until I do I'll just say this about Mr. Litchfield. I have met Mr. Litchfield on several occasions and I have personally heard him denounce the budget before biology thought process harbored in some offices of the DNR, at the risk of his job I might add, in front of his superiors. This man held his ground under a withering onslaught from his boss’s boss and stayed true to the biology of the deer herd over the budget of the DNR. He is a friend of the Iowa hunter and I trust his judgment.

Blake, I don’t know what conversations you have had with Mr. Litchfield, but I guaranfreakintee he is not Mr. Culver’s lap dog.

OK, I read the article. I am not worried about what Mr. Litchfield was quoted as saying. One MUST consider how the question was asked, how the answer was interpreted by the reporter, and how the reader interprets both. If you take Mr. Litchfield’s first couple of quotes about the deer herd nearing goals so the pressure to reduce the herd quickly has dissipated and the post rut quote, I’m not concerned about Mr. Litchfield in the least, now if you ask me about his boss’s boss, then that is a totally different matter.

The ‘Bonker
 
Bonker,

You are certainly entitled to your opinion re: Mr. Litchfield.

And so am I, however in the future I will keep my thoughts to myself. Name calling on my part was out of line.

I deleted my post, so Mr. Litchfield if you are reading this please accept my apology. However, for those of you who did read the previous post other than the name calling, I stand behind the rest of my statement.

My entry to this post does not necessarily reflect the opinion of iowawhitail.com, it’s administrative staff, or any of the moderators other than myself.

This post also doesn't necessarily reflect the opinion of the IBA, it’s administrative staff, and some of the IBA members.

I have said all I am going to say on this subject!
 
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In the for what it is worth category, I just checked the report status. It shows a total reported harvest of 94,000 deer as of this morning with 45,797 being does and 241 shed bucks. Over the past 2 years the late ML and January seasons typically totaled about 20,000 deer. So if we do a little math, through the 1st gun season we had 80,000 deer killed. Through the first weekend of 2nd season we added another 14,000 to get to the 94,000. Given the week in between and the last week end don't equal the first weekend harvest we can probably expect a total harvest number at the end of the 2nd gun to be around 104,000. If we then add the maybe 20,000 for the rest of the seasons we get a whopping harvest of around 125,000 for the year with over 400,000 licenses sold. There has always been weather to contend with with cold or snow or ice for some good portions of the Iowa deer seasons, so that just doesn't work as an explanation of the lower and lower harvest numbers. If there are more hunters and more licenses and more seasons and more weapons the only logical reason for lower harvests every year is fewer deer to hunt.
I understand that was the goal, but where do we draw the line? Again the stated goal is a population of 170,000 deer which will give us a harvest of 75,000 or 80,000 deer which will be pretty tough hunting with 400,000 hunters competing for land and deer. :(
 
We hunted hard during 1st season and didn't see the amount of deer we had in the past. I believe expanding the deer season is the wrong move. I understand wanting to control the population but when is the DNR going to wake up. We have no pheasants or quail, they are really scarce. Deer hunting is the only thing keeping the DNR alive. If they want them all killed it will happen with issuing all of these tags and bogus season like the November anterless season. If there aren't any deer how can the state of Iowa have a DNR. I guess they are going weed themselves out of jobs.
 
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