Giant Deer of Iowa are rapidly becoming a past memory

[thughart]

Most guys hunt on permission, on public land, or own 40-200 acres. The argument for the “need to cull” and therefore a multi buck regulations is total horse shit and comes from the very few who own or have control over thousands of acres and are delusional that they can play God and cull their way to 200” deer. One buck limits are beneficial to the overwhelming majority of situations faced by most hunters. To keep multiple buck regulations to appease the less than 1% who think they should get multiple tags so that they can “manage” their lands is ridiculous. Culling free range whitetails on average sized properties has never been proven effective and the great majority of hunters do not want it factoring in to game management decisions.


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[iowavf]

One risk I can see going to one buck is that most people I talk to say “one buck tag, any season til you’re done”

Well that’s my biggest hang up with it and that’s why I think it gets thrown around a lot.

If this is what you want OF COURSE you want to trade your statewide bow tag in to hunt 2 gun seasons, 2 muzzleloader seasons, and bow season.
In a state where 85,000 guys don’t fill their gun or muzzleloader tags I’m not surprised one bit that there’s plenty of people on board with using that unfilled tag for 4 more seasons.

For me personally one buck tag should mean bow + one other season the same as it is now with 2.

If my statewide tag would have been floating this year I would have hunted 3 weekends of gun season when the weather was better instead of late muzzleloader when it was warmer.

Biggest killer of mature deer other than the rut is weather, and fully floating tags allow you to hunt every cold front for 100 days.

So in my opinion that is the risk , try to go from 45,000 bucks shot to 41,500 and end up with 60,000 bucks shot because 85,000 guys got an extra 3 seasons.

So what's the point of saying one buck tag if you're still allowed to get two buck tags if you also archery hunt? To me, one buck means exactly that, you choose the season you want to use your one tag in. I also think LO should still be able to get a LO tag, but wish the regs, as to what's considered a big enough piece of property qualifying for LO tag would be adjusted.

 

[Iowa]

So what's the point of saying one buck tag if you're still allowed to get two buck tags if you also archery hunt? To me, one buck means exactly that, you choose the season you want to use your one tag in. I also think LO should still be able to get a LO tag, but wish the regs as to what's considered a big enough piece of property qualify for LO tag.

No I mean the tag floats between bow and one other season.
So you can still only shoot one buck. Just not hunt 5 seasons to fill the one buck tag

 

[Thinkin Rut]

In the ideal world, we raise the population and call it good. That for the most part would solve alot of our problems. If that's not a possibility, then you start looking at one buck or all the cumulative issues like Cell cams. EHD is a huge problem that hopefully gets minimized with time.

 

[Iowa]

Other than joining ISC and going that route, is there any way of just starting a petition to lower the antlerless quotas ? I’m sure I could get 100 signatures pretty easily.
There’s 29 pages of us talking about how to fix the problem and the only one we seem to agree on is we definitely need more deer.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

You cannot legitimately compare acres in Iowa to other states as it correlates to deer population without addressing that fact that 2/3 of the state has zero habitat to support deer. Doing so is a strawman argument.

Start with suitable acres of deer habitat in having an honest discussion.


Does this look anything like Iowa to anyone?

 

[chadw]

Culling free range whitetails on average sized properties has never been proven effective...


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This book convinced me that the opposite is true. I know it isn’t apples to apples (controlled herd, scrub brush of Texas), but I still found the science convincing enough to start implementing on our farm next year.

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[iowavf]

No I mean the tag floats between bow and one other season.
So you can still only shoot one buck. Just not hunt 5 seasons to fill the one buck tag

Might be hard to convince some that only gun hunt, a bow hunter can hunt all bow season and doesn’t see a good buck to shoot, to be able to also go gun hunting. Also a bow hunter could go back out LM with a bow the way the regs are now.

 

[Iowa]

Might be hard to convince some that only gun hunt, a bow hunter can hunt all bow season and doesn’t see a good buck to shoot, to be able to also go gun hunting. Also a bow hunter could go back out LM with a bow the way the regs are now.

If a gun hunter doesn’t bow hunt then he was already only shooting one buck.

But to really restrict harvest, a one buck tag no floating period would really open up access and allow for more bucks to survive.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Culling is a bit misunderstood. Some will tell you they have influenced the genetics by doing so. That's debatable. What is not debatable, in my opinion, is dictating what bucks are allowed to stay alive on your farm and how that influences overall farm quality. There are only so many rooms in the hotel, fill them with quality deer and kick out (kill) the scrubs.

As for those that are anti one buck so that they can cull.... id say there are no shortage of people or kids you could take hunting who would be ELATED to shoot your cull bucks. Providing meaningful experiences to another human being while helping your farm is a major WIN-WIN. I always sit with people so mistakes arnt made and its totally enjoyable. Some should try it. Have taken at least 5 people on this site at some point.

 

[seven twenty]

People just stopped hunting.

I’d say a lot went elsewhere. I saw more plates from those counties than local plates 2nd season. And I saw fewer deer than I did hunters.

 

[seven twenty]

If a gun hunter doesn’t bow hunt then he was already only shooting one buck.

But to really restrict harvest, a one buck tag no floating period would really open up access and allow for more bucks to survive.

I have to disagree with the part about opening up access by going one buck. As it is now, bow hunters have more ground locked up than gun hunters. Around here at least. If they don’t get their “target” deer they sure aren’t going to let people in and risk someone else getting it. With the access issues we already have, going 1 buck will just exacerbate the issue.

Bottom line, we’ve had access to 2 tags since a deer season was created. The “game plan” that got us to a great state was limited antlerless hunting. I’ve been hunting 45 yrs and this was absolutely the worst year I’ve experienced population wise. You’re not going to get bucks without does. The fewer does we have the longer it will take to recover.

 

[Muddyrem]

I’d say a lot went elsewhere. I saw more plates from those counties than local plates 2nd season. And I saw fewer deer than I did hunters.

This right here defends why many of us say this problem can’t be solved without rules and regulations being changed…….

Guys know that population was destroyed, yet here we are, doing what we’ve always done even though we know the population has crashed. Guys coming from all over to hunt an animal that’s not there and if for some reason we do see a deer, guess what; it’s getting shot.

How will populations ever recover if the government doesn’t step up and force people’s hands? It won’t, because we as humans have zero self control. For every 1 guy some of you hardcore guys know, I know 10 more than give 2 sh** less about managing for “Booners” if you give them 5 tags, they’re shooting 5 deer, even if it’s the last 5 deer in the county. If you don’t want them to do something, unfortunately it’s gotta be spelled out and here’s the reason why. Idk why it has to be like this, but unfortunately the select few of us who actively look to better the land and the animals that call it home, there’s a 1000 people who don’t give a rat if all the deer die.

 

[Rjack]

So, it seems we all want more deer. The question is how to do that. If you think the DNR and FB are going to issue fewer tags, I am all for it but I don't see that as very likely. My view is it is more likely to make it harder to fill those tags and have some of the "I only hunt when it is easy" folks drop out.

 

[iowavf]

If a gun hunter doesn’t bow hunt then he was already only shooting one buck.

But to really restrict harvest, a one buck tag no floating period would really open up access and allow for more bucks to survive.

I know because I only gun hunt and don't bow hunt, always had just one anysex tag. What's wrong with everyone only having one anysex tag and hunting the season of their choice, with the exception of LO?

 

[iowavf]

I’d say a lot went elsewhere. I saw more plates from those counties than local plates 2nd season. And I saw fewer deer than I did hunters.

Some of the one I know, could only hunt the 1st season on the property they had permission on because others hunted 2nd season. They like deer and process their own. Said if 1st season was buck only, they were going to pass.

 

[newfarmer]

 

[chadw]

Culling is a bit misunderstood. Some will tell you they have influenced the genetics by doing so. That's debatable. What is not debatable, in my opinion, is dictating what bucks are allowed to stay alive on your farm and how that influences overall farm quality. There are only so many rooms in the hotel, fill them with quality deer and kick out (kill) the scrubs.

As for those that are anti one buck so that they can cull.... id say there are no shortage of people or kids you could take hunting who would be ELATED to shoot your cull bucks. Providing meaningful experiences to another human being while helping your farm is a major WIN-WIN. I always sit with people so mistakes arnt made and its totally enjoyable. Some should try it. Have taken at least 5 people on this site at some point.

100% on both accounts.

While I’m not for a 1 buck tag, this year, I was able to have 3 people who’d never shot a whitetail have that experience.


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[tall@wide]

View attachment 130801

I think eventually Iowa will ban them on public, but as much as we’d like, it will never happen on private..Too many legal issues with doing that on private.

 

[Windlooker]

My taxi has 3 or 4 200” deer and 8 or 9 180 to 190s deer. Located near Indianola. Not sure what counties they came from but I assume not far from Warren County. She’s impressed with the number of big deer this year. Her words. Could def be an outlier as most here agree age and quality are down.