I was at the Ottumwa meeting along with 4 DNR people and 3 other deer hunters. THAT WAS IT!! In our discussion we went over most of the things already listed. We talked about not being able to feed wild life (deer) for any reason, mainly trail cams from some time in August through February. We talked a little about crossbows, with only one attendee in favor of them, guess who, but I was supported by some of the DNR guys. We talked about actually eliminating the January late season completely and then maybe raising the price of a regular tag to help off set the revenue loss to the DNR. We all disagreed with the people who thought that any unfilled licenses should carry over to other seasons. Definitely not a good idea. If we want and expect the DNR to improve hunting and habitat and public hunting acres, we need to step up and help fund them! Two other sites all from the northern parts of the state actually wanted to reduce the calibers for rifle hunting to only .22 caliber. That one I could not follow any reasoning for trying to hunt deer with a rifle shooting only a 50 grain bullet designed to kill a 30 pound animal but wanting to kill a 200 pound deer. Some of the rounds could include the .222, .223, .220 swift, .221 fireball, and a 22 hornet. All classic deer rifles!!
The attendance for the whole state from what I saw was maybe 50 people not including the DNR reps at each site. There were many sites with only 2 or 3 people and like already pointed out Polk County had 1. How can that be when the DNR actually asked for OUR input?