Poll: How’s Hunting this year vs past seasons? Short & long term choices

[booneriverbucks]

I’m in north central Iowa so I can’t speak for the rest of the state. I do believe we are definitely not back to early 2000’s deer numbers but the overall hunting experience has not really diminished any since then.. There has been some loss of habitat and more ground that used to be private has become public so there are several factors that make comparing eras difficult. Definitely a lot more bow hunters than 20 years ago too and access to private land is harder to obtain for most people. The additional public land helps tho. Strangely enough our gun hunting group has easily had it’s best 5 year stretch ever in terms of number of mature bucks killed per year. Way better than 20 years ago. That’s one of the reasons why there are many of us that don’t buy into the whole the “sky is falling” arguement many use. Major cultural shift and most people passing young bucks has helped maintain trophy quality even with slightly lower overall numbers.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Short term and long term quality of hunting is terrible here out West. I've bowhunted 2 hours so far this year and may hunt a couple more hours yet. Not going to lower standards just to fill tags. I'd rather work on improving habitat now and invest in making the future better. Too many hunters out here yet just wanting to fill tags on an already hurting deer heard out west. Blows me away to here of people still shooting the biggest does they can find and in the same conversation commenting how hard the hunting has been... wild to me!? 90% of people just can't help themself. They get a tag and go hunt and just can't pass a deer and enjoy the hunt. Got to fill tags.

Tough to hear but love the investing in future habitat part.

As I mentioned in the other thread, hoping people self regulate is wishful thinking

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

I’m in north central Iowa so I can’t speak for the rest of the state. I do believe we are definitely not back to early 2000’s deer numbers but the overall hunting experience has not really diminished any since then.. There has been some loss of habitat and more ground that used to be private has become public so there are several factors that make comparing eras difficult. Definitely a lot more bow hunters than 20 years ago too and access to private land is harder to obtain for most people. The additional public land helps tho. Strangely enough our gun hunting group has easily had it’s best 5 year stretch ever in terms of number of mature bucks killed per year. Way better than 20 years ago. That’s one of the reasons why there are many of us that don’t buy into the whole the “sky is falling” arguement many use. Major cultural shift and most people passing young bucks has helped maintain trophy quality even with slightly lower overall numbers.

Ever have ehd that far north?

 

[booneriverbucks]

Yeah

Ever have ehd that far north?

yep! 2012 and 2019 for sure and last year. Last year was the worst. Everybody thought last year was going to be a complete dud because of all the dead deer found. Ended up being good. Luckily being buck only for first shotgun season for awhile improved overall deer numbers to the point where it could withstand it. Now, if EHD had hit in lets say 15/16 I have no doubt it would have had a lot bigger impact. I’d say 2012-2017 were the worst years I’ve seen in the general area. Years of no does during first shotgun and limited county wide tags has paid off big time. Wish we’d go back to that.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Yeah

yep! 2012 and 2019 for sure and last year. Last year was the worst. Everybody thought last year was going to be a complete dud because of all the dead deer found. Ended up being good. Luckily being doe only for first shotgun season for awhile improved overall deer numbers to the point where it could withstand it. Now, if EHD had hit in lets say 15/16 I have no doubt it would have had a lot bigger impact. I’d say 2012-2017 were the worst years I’ve seen in the general area. Years of no does during first shotgun and limited county wide tags has paid off big time. Wish we’d go back to that.

Didn't realize they had went to doe only. Interesting.

Wonder how far north ehd has gone

 

[booneriverbucks]

Didn't realize they had went to doe only. Interesting.

Wonder how far north ehd has gone

Haha. Buck only. Corrected now.. County wide doe tags need to be limited in areas with population problems. Most people that own/farm where deer habitat exists already have LOT tags or depredation tags. Excessive county wide antlerless tags leads to certain areas getting pounded whether it is truely overpopulated or not. Especially public lands.

 

[AU91]

Didn't realize they had went to doe only. Interesting.

Wonder how far north ehd has gone

My family has property in Butler County. Last year there was a moderate EHD die off and that was the first time it had ever affected that area

 

[newfarmer]

My family has property in Butler County. Last year there was a moderate EHD die off and that was the first time it had ever affected that area

Yes, last year areas of Butler, Cerro Gordo, Floyd, Chickasaw, Mitchell, Worth got it (I work in all of them and talk to lots of people. Pockets)

 

[meyeri]

I've seen hunting quality as far as numbers and quality bucks in Iowa decline in the last decade and a half and coincidentally hunting has seen tremendous advancements in the last decade. I see more and more youngsters who are light years ahead of where I was at their age. The availability of information, cell cams, digital maps, tree stands, podcasts, equipment and the wealth of knowledge that hunters have at their fingertips to aid in hunt lethality is insane.

It's a new dawn and I think agencies will have to adjust accordingly; what that means I'm not completely sure, but the old way is clearly not working on a large scale over time. There are still pockets that are fantastic, but there are areas that have fallen off the map and are not rebounding.

We need education to the masses on herd management at the localized level and what that means from year to year. Plenty of shotgun and bowhunters fill doe tags they don't need to, or shoot a buck just so they can get their yearly buck.

 

[lazy_turtle]

Just here to say hunting in MO sucks and is getting worse. Rifles almost all of November. Plus CWD tags are INSANE.

If you get CWD tags, they are valid for any season/any sex. So during ANTERLESS firearm season, folks could shoot FIVE CWD bucks with a rifle.

Okay done venting, back to Iowa

 

[Muskrat24]

I've seen hunting quality as far as numbers and quality bucks in Iowa decline in the last decade and a half and coincidentally hunting has seen tremendous advancements in the last decade. I see more and more youngsters who are light years ahead of where I was at their age. The availability of information, cell cams, digital maps, tree stands, podcasts, equipment and the wealth of knowledge that hunters have at their fingertips to aid in hunt lethality is insane.

It's a new dawn and I think agencies will have to adjust accordingly; what that means I'm not completely sure, but the old way is clearly not working on a large scale over time. There are still pockets that are fantastic, but there are areas that have fallen off the map and are not rebounding.

We need education to the masses on herd management at the localized level and what that means from year to year. Plenty of shotgun and bowhunters fill doe tags they don't need to, or shoot a buck just so they can get their yearly buck.

The problem lies with the direction of DNR, why are there that many antlerless tags if they shouldn’t be filled?? Because DNR has limited interest in increasing the herd IMO. Maybe the fringe counties like western Iowa where there are VERY few deer but in the traditional areas that have more habitat still allowing way too many antlerless tags to have any type of herd increase agenda. If Skip doesn’t mind I’d like to add to this thread and ask what the boots on the ground say about Iowa deer population since 2012, I say slight rebound following 2012 and consistently trending down since with local herd lower now than 2012. Again why I question the DNR herd numbers and objectives. There used to be 50-100 deer that would yard up in areas during the winter and now in those same areas maybe 10-20. Maybe milder winters but combine that with what we are reading here we should be able to connect the dots that the deer just are not there and that flows right into the poor hunting and poor top end trophy quality compared to the past.