Well put Kaare, i agree whole heartedly
and Gundog, same to you.
here is my bit
i consider myself a trophy hunter, but the trophy is in the eye of the beholder.
unfortunately, this past year, my wife and i lost over 1000 acers in three different tracts of land to either leases or "grandsons who moved home" i was unabe to spend my summer evenings scouting for a monster that i wanted to kill. i do have some great friends that madde it possible for me to hunt on their land for the season. up till sunday i passed up many small to medium size bucks. i missed a cake shot at a 125" 8 (no excuses, i choked)
but on sunday night i rattled in a small 5.5 pointer. i have to work all week and would not be able to make it back out to the woods before shotgun season started. so i opted to take him. i made a great double lung shot and found him 150 yards later. he weighed in at 120 pounds dressed. absolutely not a giant, and not one you would like to kill if you are ONLY hunting monsters. but to me, he is a trophy, he has a small rack that will be on my wall displayed with pride. (i actually believe i passed him up a couple times earlier in the season)
the point is this.
i didnt have the option to be overly selective this season, but i love every aspect of the hunt. he is the result and i am still jacked about the whole ordeal. it was 430 on the last night prior to shotgun and i made the most of it.
additionally, i believe there is a lot to be said about QDM and letting smaller bucks grow. But i felt the situation i am in didnt allow me to practice QDm. if i owned 500 acres (or so) you can bet you life id be strict about what gets shot. but if an exception needs to be made i guaruntee i would understand if a smaller buck was taken.
so i dont think antler restrictions need to be inforced. the reason iowa has the quality bucks it does, is because the deer are only hunted by a minority of people during the rut. most bucks get a chance to pass on thier genetics, so that ensures more bucks will be dropped in the spring with good genetics.
imagine what would happen if shotgun season started nov 1 and went through dec 1.
scary thought isnt it?
what the idnr is doing is working, so i say keep it up and there will be many more giants in the future
maybe somday ill get to harvest one of my own
-peace