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Giant Deer of Iowa are rapidly becoming a past memory

Bucks, great post above. No hijack. You described what all hunting should be about. I have a nice Iowa farm and could care less about trophies anymore. Used to. Not now.

Even in the so called early 2000’s hey days our chances on a 175” plus deer were limited based on the amount of property we had. Over time common sense and making hunting fun again took over.

Like you I enjoy watching others get excited over a harvest whether it’s 2, 3, 4 yrs old. What my farm has it has and love watching those who hunt there enjoy it!
 
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Good stuff. I have been mixing it up for “fun”…. Trapping a lot more. Taking kids out. Pheasant hunting, etc.
IMO - we need a balanced system where both the guys that “wanna shoot what they wanna shoot” have that opportunity. The serious guys that want, enjoy & have fun chasing the older bucks- they also have that opportunity. In well managed systems - both can be accommodated. It might seem counter intuitive but in poorly managed systems - both groups suffer but the first group is also hurt as access issues to quality of hunting are reduced. We absolutely need a system that can support all groups.
Like I’ve said- there truly is no downside to having a balanced age class across the landscape. Quality herd wide spread and being “common” - fixes all issues & especially for the everyday dude. Having no balanced age class along with whacked out ratios or good/bad population issues - hurts every group & the resource. I’m all for making sure anyone in any walk of their hunting journey has a reasonable chance at quality herd, experience & access to a reasonable quality tract of land. Common sense Regs are the ONLY tool to do that across state or county wide levels.
 
Thermal/heat is definitely a form of infrared radiation. The reg was written when non thermal night vision and ir illuminators were more commonly used. Clarifying the regs to clearly state thermal scopes would be right in line with the obvious intent of the original reg. I wonder if new legislation is even necessary or if the current reg could just have the language tweaked a little. The colorized image that appears on a thermal scope is definitely not natural light.
 
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booneriverbucks said:
Thermal/heat is definitely a form of infrared radiation. The reg was written when non thermal night vision and ir illuminators were more commonly used. Clarifying the regs to clearly state thermal scopes would be right in line with the obvious intent of the original reg. I wonder if new legislation is even necessary or if the current reg could just have the language tweaked a little. The colorized image that appears on a thermal scope is definitely not natural light.
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Much like a cell cam is a form of electronic device aiding in a hunt?
 
Matthewfox_45 said:
Much like a cell cam is a form of electronic device aiding in a hunt?
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I think cell cams should go but there is a difference between using a thermal scope while hunting and checking a cell cam at home in the middle of the night. Very hard to get a judge to rule that an unarmed person sitting at home in his underwear scrolling through trail cam pics is “actively” hunting.

There will never be support for it but if we really want to save some bucks all in season trail cam use could be banned. That way there is no question on what “actively hunting” is. Just like the regs currently ban IR during all deer seasons, cam use could also be banned. Too many rely on them and there is too much money behind them to actually do anything like that tho unfortunately. Nobody actually wants to make hunting harder, they just want to make other people’s hunting harder. Can get plenty of inventory before the seasons start.
 
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a bit gray but just looking at ‘25-‘26 rule book- I sure could interpret cell cams being right in there.
Thermals for coyotes are extremely new & for sure the law wasn’t able to catch up to say yes or no. Not based on my opinion but based on law around NV, intent of the law - thermals likely fit in there. For sure into intent of law.
No doubt our laws need updating (whether yes or no) for black & white clarification.
While weighing out “yes or no” for new technologies- I personally believe there needs to be limitations of them. Clear, cut & dry. Such as delay on cameras at minimum. No scouting of deer during deer season with drone. If in fact no NV is allowed for coyotes in deer season (based on posts above) - seems quite sensible that thermal would go with that. Which means- a coyote hunter can hunt during all daylight hours, in snow & with traps during deer season. Dunno how law looks after deer season but I have no issue with NV & thermals being used all other months of year for coyotes, etc. I am absolutely concerned with growing abuse using them to poach deer. Talking to CO’s - right now they are getting lots of reports, calls & poached deer “at night - no lights on” for example. When stopping dudes & if they don’t have a dead deer to pin - there’s zero they can do. It’s absolutely happening & a growing issue.
 
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Kansas has a good law on drones, in my opinion. The key word added in their regs is scouting. If scouting were added to the current prohibitions on electronics,radios ect. instead of just “hunting” it might make limits on cell cams more enforceable.


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It seems to me that the law is already there concerning cell cams, or is it? Are deer considered a furbearing animal? You don’t need a furbearers license. I’m sure the intent was to cover deer but does it? I’m sure you could have a good debate in court if you wanted to test it. There’s been plenty of people ticketed for phones.

The debate I suppose is that if you’re sitting at home when the pic comes are you actively hunting at that time. Hunting is the act of trying to locate game. My argument would be that you were actively hunting as soon as you placed the camera. The camera was placed to locate game and you are using it to “communicate the location or direction” of said game. That makes it illegal.

I’m by no means a lawyer but there shouldn’t be so many questionable or grey areas. I’m sure the intent covered deer but as written it could/should be questioned.
 
newfarmer said:
So everyone that shoots a booner in Iowa if we make the switch going to register them? How many of you guys now don’t register a deer?
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Do you think the odds are higher that the percentage of people registering booners in Indiana went up by over 300% when they changed to a one buck state or do you think the odds are higher that more bucks lived to maturity and the number of booners increased when they went to a 1 buck rule???

Having lived and hunted there for 5 years and having about a dozen close friends and avid hunters I'm still.close to telling me the number of mature deer is up by multiples AND real data like above...i think the answer is obvious
 
2-bucks said:
Do you think the odds are higher that the percentage of people registering booners in Indiana went up by over 300% when they changed to a one buck state or do you think the odds are higher that more bucks lived to maturity and the number of booners increased when they went to a 1 buck rule???

Having lived and hunted there for 5 years and having about a dozen close friends and avid hunters I'm still.close to telling me the number of mature deer is up by multiples AND real data like above...i think the answer is obvious
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You also need to include the fact that the deer population estimates there have doubled from 1995 to today. I can take the stance that your B&C numbers coincide with population change and proves that the deer numbers is the reason for the increase in mature bucks.
 
seven twenty said:
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It seems to me that the law is already there concerning cell cams, or is it? Are deer considered a furbearing animal? You don’t need a furbearers license. I’m sure the intent was to cover deer but does it? I’m sure you could have a good debate in court if you wanted to test it. There’s been plenty of people ticketed for phones.

The debate I suppose is that if you’re sitting at home when the pic comes are you actively hunting at that time. Hunting is the act of trying to locate game. My argument would be that you were actively hunting as soon as you placed the camera. The camera was placed to locate game and you are using it to “communicate the location or direction” of said game. That makes it illegal.

I’m by no means a lawyer but there shouldn’t be so many questionable or grey areas. I’m sure the intent covered deer but as written it could/should be questioned.
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Totally understandable the cell cams are currently banned arguement.. the debate/loophole is more than likely on “hunting”. All regs whether hunting or any other reg in the country eventually come down to court precedent. Until a judge actually convicts someone of illegally using a cell cam while “hunting” on the same property as the cell cam is placed the reg has no balls. Obviously the ruling will/would be appealed up through the court system until the highest court with authority makes a ruling and that would set the precedent. Way too much grey in the current regs to easily say cell cams are completely illegal. Even if a warden were to issue a ticket I doubt many judges would actually convict. Heck, tresspassing is barely enforced.
 
2-bucks said:
Do you think the odds are higher that the percentage of people registering booners in Indiana went up by over 300% when they changed to a one buck state or do you think the odds are higher that more bucks lived to maturity and the number of booners increased when they went to a 1 buck rule???

Having lived and hunted there for 5 years and having about a dozen close friends and avid hunters I'm still.close to telling me the number of mature deer is up by multiples AND real data like above...i think the answer is obvious
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I’d say the # of people reporting went up along with the # of people hunting. I’m sure the overall population increased also. Those yrs represent the same time that chasing big deer really took off. Big deer became more of a focus and everyone was wanting to look good and put their name in the books.
How liberal are they with antlerless tags? Are they one and done?
Unless you use actual #’s instead of percentages, it’s deceptive. Was it an increase of 100 to 300 entries? How many guys are in there more than once? What else changed? Population? Hunter #’s? Access? It all needs to be taken in to consideration.
I don’t know a single person that registers their “Booners”. There were 2 over 200 shot near me last year along with maybe 6 or 8 others that would qualify and none are registered. Is it that way in every state, IDK. Just taking into consideration that there was 1 taken in every county and not reported would add 100 to our total. I’d bet it’s safe to say that less than 1 in 10 people here don’t register anything. I don’t think that’s a bad thing either. Imagine the attention and pressure Iowa would get if the actual #’s were really known.
When the population is cut in half, the # of big deer is going to decrease. Getting our population back up should be the first priority. 1/3 of the state has buck only restrictions now. Another 13 counties offer 100-200 antlerless tags and they are sold out almost as soon as they are available. There are 13 counties that alot over 2k. What’s the age structure like in them? Half the state is already limited considerably compared to the other half so is it a statewide issue? When you look at the counties with the most antlerless available, why are they not selling as well? Are they pressured less? Less liberal access by landowners? One factor I’m sure of is that they aren’t being cleared and farmed as heavily.
I don’t know the solution but I’m not sold on 1 buck. I haven’t shot anything in a couple yrs and am seeing maybe 1/4 the # of deer. That tells me there are fewer of every age class. Going 1 buck would target the mature deer even more.
 
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