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Giant Deer of Iowa are rapidly becoming a past memory

Bucksnbears said:
If there is any takeaway from this topic is: there is no one reason.

Technology, better/ more efficient weapons and I think the main reason is...
Those of us that have tighty controlled properties.
Few people that don't have that control are not gonna be shooting good bucks every year.

And I have never put a buck or bear in the " book". Guessing most of us don't unless it was many years ago?
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Death by a thousand cuts:
Leasing
Technology-cameras, bows, optics, firearms (rifles)
EHD
Segmentation-ground cut into small rec parcels
Food plots with or without comfy blinds
Habitat loss-keep seeing dozers clearing ground for row crop
High grading
Regulations-too many tags, too many seasons
Pressure-more people afield
Shift in DNR mindset

My first deer hunt was on a family owned 80-acre timber, only the family hunted it. Now 20+ people have permission. I had to enter the license draw lottery and prayed for an either sex tag as the majority was antlered only and you'd be lucky to see one during shotgun, let alone kill it with your pheasant smoothbore shotgun shooting foster style slugs. Bow hunting back then? Technology was NO WHERE NEAR what is out there now, no crossguns. I drive around my area and multiple blinds visible out in the fields from the road and many of the houses have blinds on wagons parked in the yard.
 
DropTine007 said:
No doubt record book buck harvest is down since the 1990's. However, I can guarantee you that Iowa has significantly more record book bucks that are not being included in this data sheet. I'm guessing only around 50% of booners are entered in Iowa vs 95% in Wisconsin and surrounding states. Nobody wants to draw additional attention to your farm.
Ask Skip how many he registered between 2020-2023 shot off his farms. My guess is zero along with his neighbors.
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Definitely a cultural difference between states that make it tough to compare apples to apples. In Wisconsin, I knew lots of people that had every buck that netted P&Y officially scored and entered into the books. In Iowa, I know many that would be embarrased to even bother having something scored that barely meets the minimum. B&C is obviously a whole other level but I definitely believe there is some truth to this.
 
booneriverbucks said:
Definitely a cultural difference between states that make it tough to compare apples to apples. In Wisconsin, I knew lots of people that had every buck that netted P&Y officially scored and entered into the books. In Iowa, I know many that would be embarrased to even bother having something scored that barely meets the minimum. B&C is obviously a whole other level but I definitely believe there is some truth to this.
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I dated a girl from Buffalo County for awhile many years ago- her dad always told me everything they made book got entered regardless- how else do you maintain the #1 ranking of the best county. In a lengthy conversation it seemed like people were paying every one who entered (gift cards, discounts, cash, free meals) because it brought a LOT of money to the area. Now this has been 20 years ago, clearly not the same now but it was a real thing
 
When I started bowhunting in the 90s, I was the only one bowhunting on almost one square mile of properties. It’s not uncommon now to see up to ten trucks of bowhunters on one of my neighbors properties alone in the peak rut. Then add in EHD, cell cams & all of the technological improvements in archery and gun season, and it’s not hard to imagine why there are so few mature bucks compared to the “good old days”. And don’t forget to consider how much more effective and accurate a scoped AR rifle is over an un-scoped smooth bore duck or pheasant gun shooting foster style slugs.
 
Have thought about this for years (not just Iowa) but have not said much but will now on this thread.
One HUGE detriment is Youth Seasons!.
Really, how many of you guys have taken kids out for youth hunts?
How much planning for those hunts included the youths? Did the help put up stands, did they get cold, or wet, did they help cut shooting lanes, did have to get up an hour before light and have to walk in the dark to the stand?
Did they carry their own gear to the stand, or did Dad (mentor) do (EVERYTHING) But pull the trigger?

Sorry ( not) if it pisses you guys off but..., although it's a minor overall factor in big old mature bucks being killed, the long term ramifications are HUGE!.
Ain't no (few) young kid gonna grow up into hunting and learn/ appreciate what hunting is about by climbing into an enclosed blind overlooking a foodplot that they most likely had no part of, having multiple deer to shoot only to have Dad say " let's wait for the BIG one".

You (me), us older guys, think back when we were a young kid..., hell, going out fishing , it was WAY MORE fun catching 100 perch/ sunfish a day then it was trolling for walleyes hoping to catch ONE!.

I know 1000s of acres that have been locked up due to this topic. Even though some properties have more deer then the habitat can handle adequately but once a big buck is spotted......

I'll just say it (again), even though it's a small piece of the pie in the overall scheme of things, youth hunts and big bucks are a part of many states problems.

Off my soap box.
 
Breaking up of farms into smaller pieces and urban sprawl for sure. It is interesting when you talk to locals who used to have permission to party hunt all over and they all say they don’t have access anymore because of private sales to recreational guys but the hunting is worse now. Maybe it was better for them to push through a section once a year and move on because they have lots of other places to hunt instead of pounding the same spots over and over again for the 2 gun seasons? “Tenant floating tags” and issuing of depredation tags with not much science behind it have a big impact as well. Throw in a year of EHD and you have a perfect storm. Plus everyone needs to kill something so they can flex on FB. lol
 
We can all agree, there is an issue. So lets find a solution. Something that gives some of the advantage back to the resource, tipping the odds back in the deers favor.

Back in the day, guys were impressed they killed a buck. Now, its easy. Too easy. Big bucks are obviously a little different. Killing them isn't hard, finding them is. They are becoming more and more rare. So how do we change that?

That's where we're all going to have different opinions, whether its One Buck, shotgun only, no scopes on muzzys, etc
 
DropTine007 said:
No doubt record book buck harvest is down since the 1990's. However, I can guarantee you that Iowa has significantly more record book bucks that are not being included in this data sheet. I'm guessing only around 50% of booners are entered in Iowa vs 95% in Wisconsin and surrounding states. Nobody wants to draw additional attention to your farm.
Ask Skip how many he registered between 2020-2023 shot off his farms. My guess is zero along with his neighbors.
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I doubt it’s even 50% entered . Comparing Iowa to Minnesota. I shot one that scores in the top 5 of my county in Minnesota. I shot 2 “higher” scoring bucks in Iowa, never even thought about registering them , and they would not even be top 50 in that Iowa county .
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
I hope hunters will support some changes that pull things back in favor of the deer a bit. Only way this gets better.
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I have argued that with the Big game commissioner in Minnesota. She acted like I was speaking a foreign language ?

It’s really that simple, fewer seasons, fewer tags, changing dates, ending seasons earlier . It would all help deer/bucks survive !
 
Hardwood11 said:
I doubt it’s even 50% entered . Comparing Iowa to Minnesota. I shot one that scores in the top 5 of my county in Minnesota. I shot 2 “higher” scoring bucks in Iowa, never even thought about registering them , and they would not even be top 50 in that Iowa county .

I have argued that with the Big game commissioner in Minnesota. She acted like I was speaking a foreign language ?

It’s really that simple, fewer seasons, fewer tags, changing dates, ending seasons earlier . It would all help deer/bucks survive !
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I'm in Minnesota as well. Live in the cities and own land in SE Becker and NE Ottertail. Sarah Strommen is only looking to increase DNR revenue and kill as many deer as possible. The state has lost 22% of deer gun hunters since 1994. We're basically barking up the wrong tree with her. We need to work with our political representatives to change the laws that favor the deer more. We've gone so far in the wrong way between CWD hunts, crossbows, early antlers season(wonder how many bucks are getting picked off during this time!?), nine days of gun season in southern 2/3'rds of the state and three weeks in the northern part. Add in the very high numbers of wolves that are not being properly managed and a record high population of bear. The state is quickly going down hill fast.
 
YtailFreak said:
We can all agree, there is an issue. So lets find a solution. Something that gives some of the advantage back to the resource, tipping the odds back in the deers favor.

Back in the day, guys were impressed they killed a buck. Now, its easy. Too easy. Big bucks are obviously a little different. Killing them isn't hard, finding them is. They are becoming more and more rare. So how do we change that?

That's where we're all going to have different opinions, whether its One Buck, shotgun only, no scopes on muzzys, etc
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1. I think an easy one, to me, would be to restrict cell cams...for wildlife tracking purposes. Yes, there are many ways that such a rule could be bent, or violated, but we have LOTS of rules on the books that could be similarly skirted, that shouldn't stop us IMO. No cell cams in hunting areas during the season, let's say for a starting place.

2. Proactively...address drones. Borrowing from what I understand is a rule in Alaska, where they cannot hunt on the same day that they flew in on, make it so you cannot hunt an area that has been "droned" in the previous 48 hours, or whatever timeframe makes sense. But...NO real time, that day "MRI" should be used to then "hunt" the animal.

3. I am neutral on the one buck idea...I don't think I would get too fired up one way or the other, BUT I don't see that as a big driver on the decline of BIG bucks. JMO though.
 
I'm loving what I'm seeing in this thread. I HATE cell cameras. If I could snap my fingers and get rid of them, I would in a heartbeat. I think it's great many here seem to be aligned with me on that issue. I just hope when the rubber meets road, people stand by these sentiments. Talk is cheap.

Remember, a year ago we went through this whole song and dance. Iowa "banned" cell cameras, remember? The crybaby fits people threw were ridiculous and the DNR walked back this "ban" pretty quickly. If I remember right, it started with a broad brush ban and people freaked. Then it was just public. My opinion was it needed to be everything but there was a lot of "eh well, idk.... I need them for surveillance on my farm, I have a trespassing problem." It seemed "very rules for thee, not for me" like and I didn't like it.

They are a problem. There's an enormous advantage in favor of the hunter in the ability to never have to set foot on a property until the perfect moment because they have a camera network running on solar panels that sends pictures and video directly to their phone nearly instantly. Straight wall firearms, high performance muzzleloaders, e-bikes, ozonics, garmin bow sights, cell cams, drones...... the tech is becoming a problem. We need to reverse course. And I don't need any "to far down the rabbit hole now, cell cams are to widespread to walk back now" BS. Arizona did it. Iowa can too.
 
How many people do you know that would quit hunting or not go as much if they didn't have cell cams sending photos to their phones each day?

A few thoughts:

Yes, box blinds have made it easier. But they are expensive and takes effort to put up.

Yes, food plots have increased the odds of killing a good deer. But that also helps the herd out 1000% more.

We can still manage our farms and make properties better for the deer, while getting rid of the technology advancement. (this would kill two birds with one stone)...
 
I gotta agree Ringo, I've used cell cams the past 2 years and they were a pile of fun. I did not use them this year.
There are MANY guys that use them MANY miles from where they live.
Have thier gear pre loaded in the truck and when a big one shows up, they jump in and gooo...

They just make targeting a big buck abit to easy.
 
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I think getting something changed once it’s legal is almost impossible…I’m all for banning cell cams but you imagine what 90% of hunters in Iowa would say if they proposed that. They couldn’t even get it done on public land last year much less trying it on private land. Limiting buck tags would help a lot. One statewide and one landowner tag would be much better than what we have now. I think limiting the technology on muzzle loaders would help some too. No scopes or limit it to a 4x scope?
 
tall@wide said:
I think getting something changed once it’s legal is almost impossible…I’m all for banning cell cams but you imagine what 90% of hunters in Iowa would say if they proposed that. They couldn’t even get it done on public land last year much less trying it on private land. Limiting buck tags would help a lot. One statewide and one landowner tag would be much better than what we have now. I think limiting the technology on muzzle loaders would help some too. No scopes or limit it to a 4x scope?
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Would the scope ban be on all shoulder held guns during all deer seasons? Scoped AR's during shotgun has me shaking my head. How many bucks do ML hunters kill?
2024 harvest numbers don't tell that, but button and shed bucks made up 1/5 of the male deer harvest, and bucks made up half the total deer harvest.


I agree that it is tough to get the toothpaste back into the tube. Maybe get the legislature out of the game law business so that lobbyists don't have as much input. Wouldn't it be nice to have the agency with oversight of wildlife calling the shots based on herd dynamics?
 
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