blake
Life Member
Here is an article posted on the DNR web site:
Shotgun Deer Season
by Joe Wilkinson
Posted: December 2, 2004
Heading into the woods this weekend, Iowa's shotgun deer hunters face a variety of opportunities. Most of them point to another record deer harvest this season.
Besides the traditional statewide, any-sex shotgun deer license that 135,000 or more of us will buy, 84,000 antlerless deer tags...available for muzzleloader, bow and now shotgun seasons...point toward hunters eclipsing the overall 2003-04 mark of more than 186,000 deer taken. Most of those whitetails are killed during the state's two shotgun seasons; December 4-8 and 11-19. The anticipated harvest should help dial down numbers in areas with too many deer. This year's estimated population is about the same as last year's. However, hunters took more fawn-producing does than bucks last year. Another year of that should get us around the corner, to where deer numbers begin dipping.
That's been a hard sell to many hunters who grew up in the 'any buck before a doe' tradition. However, with hunters as Iowa's primary deer management tool, it is still stressed. "The increased antlerless tags will allow us to increase the doe harvest, particularly in the eastern and southern parts of the state," emphasized Willie Suchy, deer research biologist for the Department of Natural Resources. "I'd recommend for shotgun hunters in a party with antlerless tags available for that county; to shoot your does first. Then be selective with the bucks you take, to fill out your tags."
Iowa law allows 'party hunting' in the shotgun seasons, in which one hunter can tag a deer shot by another in his group; if done within 15 minutes and before the deer is moved. Suchy says that if more does are taken, instead of small bucks, those fork-to-basket sized racks will be much more impressive as the deer beneath them approach three, four or five years of age.
While party hunts usually cover the same areas, a scouting trip will update the 'lay of the land'. Around our Delaware County area, for instance, a thickly wooded creek bed has been dammed into a pond. That's going to alter deer escape routes somewhat. Corn and hay rotations; especially with the last of the corn coming out within the last week will mean some other adjustments.
Other than that, Iowa's party hunting system works well. "Our hunters are real effective," says Suchy. "They have figured out, through the traditional drives, watching the wind and where the crops were, how to push deer to where they have a good chance of harvesting them." At the same time, hunters should not to follow traditional drives blindly. "The wind is your key," advises Suchy. "Despite what you want them to do, deer will try to escape into or 'across' the wind, whenever possible." That becomes apparent on a mild day, for instance, with a south or southeast wind in place of the normally prevalent west or north winds of December. Last year, deer let our drivers walk right past, then ran behind us, on an east-to-west drive with the wind at our backs instead of in our faces.
Pay attention to those non-traditional areas, too; field corners, CRP plots or brushy fence rows. "Deer are very adaptable," says Suchy. "If we hunt the same timber over and over again, deer can sometimes pattern us. Pay attention to those small places; CRP fields, the grassy draws." Those small areas are often easy to reach and take only a few minutes to cover, too.
Shotgun Deer Season
by Joe Wilkinson
Posted: December 2, 2004
Heading into the woods this weekend, Iowa's shotgun deer hunters face a variety of opportunities. Most of them point to another record deer harvest this season.
Besides the traditional statewide, any-sex shotgun deer license that 135,000 or more of us will buy, 84,000 antlerless deer tags...available for muzzleloader, bow and now shotgun seasons...point toward hunters eclipsing the overall 2003-04 mark of more than 186,000 deer taken. Most of those whitetails are killed during the state's two shotgun seasons; December 4-8 and 11-19. The anticipated harvest should help dial down numbers in areas with too many deer. This year's estimated population is about the same as last year's. However, hunters took more fawn-producing does than bucks last year. Another year of that should get us around the corner, to where deer numbers begin dipping.
That's been a hard sell to many hunters who grew up in the 'any buck before a doe' tradition. However, with hunters as Iowa's primary deer management tool, it is still stressed. "The increased antlerless tags will allow us to increase the doe harvest, particularly in the eastern and southern parts of the state," emphasized Willie Suchy, deer research biologist for the Department of Natural Resources. "I'd recommend for shotgun hunters in a party with antlerless tags available for that county; to shoot your does first. Then be selective with the bucks you take, to fill out your tags."
Iowa law allows 'party hunting' in the shotgun seasons, in which one hunter can tag a deer shot by another in his group; if done within 15 minutes and before the deer is moved. Suchy says that if more does are taken, instead of small bucks, those fork-to-basket sized racks will be much more impressive as the deer beneath them approach three, four or five years of age.
While party hunts usually cover the same areas, a scouting trip will update the 'lay of the land'. Around our Delaware County area, for instance, a thickly wooded creek bed has been dammed into a pond. That's going to alter deer escape routes somewhat. Corn and hay rotations; especially with the last of the corn coming out within the last week will mean some other adjustments.
Other than that, Iowa's party hunting system works well. "Our hunters are real effective," says Suchy. "They have figured out, through the traditional drives, watching the wind and where the crops were, how to push deer to where they have a good chance of harvesting them." At the same time, hunters should not to follow traditional drives blindly. "The wind is your key," advises Suchy. "Despite what you want them to do, deer will try to escape into or 'across' the wind, whenever possible." That becomes apparent on a mild day, for instance, with a south or southeast wind in place of the normally prevalent west or north winds of December. Last year, deer let our drivers walk right past, then ran behind us, on an east-to-west drive with the wind at our backs instead of in our faces.
Pay attention to those non-traditional areas, too; field corners, CRP plots or brushy fence rows. "Deer are very adaptable," says Suchy. "If we hunt the same timber over and over again, deer can sometimes pattern us. Pay attention to those small places; CRP fields, the grassy draws." Those small areas are often easy to reach and take only a few minutes to cover, too.