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Haven't watched the podcast...but...I have said a couple of times here that when I hear any Iowa DNR person talk about things today in a way that DOESN'T acknowledge the population AND quality drop...that person loses credibility in my eyes FAST. Yes, there are still plenty of areas in this...

Huh...that seems like a pretty big disparity. Why is that? Is it just culture/habit or something else?

FWIW, I have also considered buying additional ground "elsewhere"...but 2 things have, so far, stopped me from doing that. 1. If the new piece is far enough away to escape the "EHD zone" that we find ourselves in now...how do I know that EHD won't hit there in the future too? Our current...

I appreciate the tone, thank you. To clarify...we had big overall numbers AND good older buck hunting for years, decades even. Then EHD brought us to our knees in 2023, AND some have then maintained buck harvest numbers, even in the absence of 5+ year olds BUT no one that I know of has even...

How many years were we allowed multiple bucks? 25? Maybe longer? For roughly 2/3, or more, of those years we had very good, even great, hunting. Moving to a 1 buck state will not, all by itself, solve the problem. It didn't cause it and it can't solve it.

How many DID the 10 hunters actually take? Your reply is purely hypothetical and not refective of reality. My point is that that the "supply" of older bucks does not equal the "demand" now and further restricting the demand will not appreciably increase the supply. Again...coming from...

Again I say...somebody tell me how a one buck limit is going to help us that much...there are more "trophy" hunters now than there are actual trophies. Our main problem(s) are not guys shooting multiple bucks, so solving that problem doesn't address the main problems/challenges that we have.

OK, good to know, thank you, I thought I had read where people were saying that the population is WAY down. FWIW, I will say that in the last 15 or so years I have driven up through Minnesota to get to Canada probably at least a dozen times and have seen many fewer deer "these days" than I...

One, potentially clarifying point...is the question at hand: a) How many Iowa bucks do get to 180"? OR b) How many Iowa bucks could get to 180"? Two very different answers IMO. Then...are we talking about: a) "In the wild" conditions, as pretty much all of our deer would actually...

I am not an expert on Minnesota deer numbers at all, but I remember many, many moons ago now, (about 40 moons ago :) ) driving up through Minnesota to go fishing in Canada and seeing TONS and TONS of deer, everywhere, including in the great white north region. I don't have historical numbers to...

I think this is a good, accurate summation, FWIW. ^^ Just a tangent from my perspective after reading and digesting so many of the related thoughts expressed here, particularly in the last month or so... While I definitely heard, and read, about low population concerns from others over the...

You aren't wrong. ^^ One could get the impression that those of us that work and pay taxes are somehow funding many who do not. Weird.

FWIW, I agree. ^^ I also think that those that supplemental feed, not just food plots, but mineral/grain, enhanced feed, can get the best results...maybe even better than 5 in 10. Consider penned deer...I think those deer seem to grow A LOT more antler in a year than a wild deer at the same...

I am still a Knight muzzy guy, still using actual blackpowder, not pellets. :) But, I think it was 2022, or earlier, that I last busted it out of the safe. Also, I have loaned my trusty, a little bit rusty, 870 out several times over the years. I do have a rifled barrel for it nowadays...

Another FWIW anecdote...I just returned home from watching the Hawks play the Illini in men's BB at CHA. I overheard 3 guys talking deer hunting in the row behind me. Their words would fit right in this thread..."We used to have big bucks...". "It sucked this year..." erc. At least one of...

Just an anecdote...I have looked at 2 separate farms in the past 60 days or so and both are in historically strong areas and one had zero current year buck pics to show off and the other one had one "shooter" from this year. YIKES! Should have been at least 4 or 5 to look at IMO.

Yep, back when we could only shoot one buck a year. Er, wait a minute...never mind. :)

The problem is that not everyone similarly restricts themseves. :)

A one buck limit where people aren't even shooting one buck per year now does nothing.

Yep...if I remember correctly, only about 1 in 4 people drew the anysex tag. Something like that anyway... Back then I participated in old fashioned deer drives, egad, even...party hunting. :) If there were 10 of us, it seemed like only two or three of us had anysex tags.