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What are you willing to give up

You folks actually have these things and are actually giving them up, or are you speaking about “if” you had you would give up? Is this a hypothetical question thread, or are you actually willing to give up something you have?

JNRBRONC, well said and mine could almost mirror your comments. One thing I can’t do is go traditional with the bow. I’m old enough that I started that way and me doing that again would be unethical for the animals. I would quit before going back to that again. My 600 yard muzzleloader has 140” drop at that range. Almost 12’! Long range smokeless gun. Ya, right. Sure, it can be done, same as compound bows taking animals at 100+ yards, but I am not good enough to go that path and I always try to set up for under 100. I am comfortable to 200. The folks who bash the long range muzzleloader have no clue that they are long range for very very few trigger pullers. No cell cams for me either. I have more cameras than I ever thought one person could use, but no cell cams.

Iowa, you are going antlerless only? Really? Good for you but why? I am 100% opposite. Buck only. No either sex tags going on a doe, and I already ate my one antlerless only tag. Bucks only for me.
If they are following the rules, these lists should be things they currently do but are willing to give up. My list was.
There are a few other things listed here I didn't have on mine but I'd be willing to try, like eliminating a buck tag.
However, no way no how am I giving up hunting November. It'll be pitchforks and torches from me if that's ever tried ;).
 
1. Rifles - we are full rifle in Indiana now, started straight wall and well it didn’t take long. Get rid of all of them including straight walls. I own one. It just for my boy to shoot

2. Cell cam dumps anytime - go to 1 time a day and not during daylight

3. Gun season lengths - 1 week gun and 1 week muzzy - (we have 16 for each in IN)

4. Move gun season later also (goes for IL and IN)
 
I’d give up piles of things…. Some are practical, some are fantasy-land stuff…. Some is stuff I currently do and some are things I’d give up that I don’t participate in anyways…
1) Jan 1 season is done
2) thermals during deer season
3) no bait on grounds being hunted during deer season period.
4) cell cams in hunting areas (gates, buildings & for security & trespass reasons - no issue). Middle ground…. Unlike bait- u could have a required distance from where u hunting…. Say it’s 400 yards.
5) my buddies & folks I know that mock us for giving them celebrity/media tags to hunt here, tags are gone & reallocated to conservation charity tags.
6) a buck tag & A pile of doe tags.
7) 20 yard limit on closest can bow hunt to property line & 50 yards with gun.
8) public lands owned by state of iowa only hunted by residents of iowa or do a lottery system for access so they are not so pounded.
9) no drones for use in deer hunting or scouting period. Sept 1 to last day of season. Licensed pilots can recover deer. Enter parcel # in state run app before flying & then report on results after. No hunting 48 hours. Very strict fines for any violations of this or any other poaching.
10) **had to add this …. I’d give up testing another deer for CWD Ok- I never did do that one either but I’ll give it up :)
 
You could get rid of it all.
Straight Walls,(yes I have one) Farthest kill shot Ive ever made was 150 yards)

Cell Cams(Actually you can get rid of all cams as far as Im concerned) (I have 4)

Go back to Smooth Barreled Shotguns and slugs during the gun season.

Eliminate 1 weekend of the shotgun season. You get 2 weekends, 2 seasons. Pick one.
12/31 is the end of the deer season.
No Smokeless Muzzleloaders.

The floating Landowner tag i dont see as being that big of a deal. Give a Landowner like me the flexibility to throw in a bow hunt in when it wasn't really planned with time restrictions. And I dont have to buy a bunch of stuff to hunt 1 weekend.
 
You folks actually have these things and are actually giving them up, or are you speaking about “if” you had you would give up? Is this a hypothetical question thread, or are you actually willing to give up something you have?
Actually given up. If I mow corn it's after season. This year my cells cams are either solely trespasser patrol and/or set to batch send every 24 hours at midnight. I haven't shot a doe in western IA in 5 years.
 
My answer will be a little murky, as I either never started using some of the "things" or use it/them so rarely that it really wouldn't be a big deal to give up, etc.

Cell cams - we have 3 or 4, but they are strictly used for security purposes. I was never comfortable with them as a tool to track game movement. I did have one in play on a separate piece of my ground last year, but I never hunted there. I would favor their elimination as it relates to hunting.

Straight wall - I did buy a .350 Legend and have shot 3 or 4 does with it, 4+ years ago. I saw it is a novelty mainly and don't remember ever shooting one more than like 50 yards out, a couple of them were within 10 yards. So, it's not like I needed it for long shots. I did also let a young hunter use it once when he shot a doe with it while sitting with me. (Note - we used to need to shoot does, but have shot 2 total, with archery equipment, I think in the last 3 years...on two farms. One was a guest hunters first deer and the other one was because I was out of deer sticks. :) )

Mowing corn - we did mow a small amount of corn this year, but never hunted it. We usually don't mow it until after the seasons is over or we are done hunting.

Scoped muzzy - I do have a scope on my muzzy, which I have continued to use actual black powder and caps to ignite BTW. I could take that off, no big whoop. I don't know when I last shot a deer with it though...10 years?? I only recall shooting one deer with over the years that was further than say 70 yards, most were inside of 40. The one long shot I took...I thought I was shooting at a deer that had been wounded. Turns out, it had a broken front leg that had mainly healed and it was getting along fine, just limping pretty badly. Regarding the muzzy's that let guys take 200+ yard shots...I would like to see those restricted too.

Seasons - I do support cutting back season lengths, etc, but also haven't hunted past the end of the first archery split in several years. I would be fine with ending on Dec. 31.

Tags - strangely, our situation has changed DRAMATCALLY in just 2-1/2 years. We used to have to knock out does, 5-10+ per year...now we shoot very, very few. As I mentioned above, 2 total in three years, on two farms. Pre-EHD (2023) though...if doe tags were cut out/restricted, it would have been a real problem. Floating LO?? - honestly, I didn't even know that was what I had in my pocket...I haven't used a LO tag in at least 3 years. So it could go too. :)
 
I still stand behind what I said about giving up straight walls if needed but:

One thing I will say I’ve noticed from a couple years before straight walls vs every year since was the number of dead bucks I found when I was shed hunting.

I do wonder if more guys were wounding deer with their slug guns vs. straight walls.

That said , straight walls went from 44 magnum and 450 bushmaster to .35 whelen and 408 cheytac pretty quickly ( don’t know a soul using a 408 but it is technically legal)

Kind of a bummer they let the necked down stuff in a couple years ago.
 
Where do we start, no particular order:
No Semi Autos
No scoped Muzzleloaders (iron sights)
Shotgun only during shotgun season (no straight wall/no muzzleloader)
1 weekend for 1st shotgun/1 weekend for 2nd shotgun
Stop seasons 12/31
Shorten bow season start last week in Oct end Nov 30
Make it a one buck state for everyone (landowners included)
Stop floating tags (adults)
No shared tags during gun season or stop with deer drives you pick
Cell cams can only send pictures at night not timely (No cameras on public)
Make a shed hunting fee for nonresidents or even for residents as well
Reduce the number of antlerless tags
No (shed buck) seasons
No ebikes on public (enforce it)

Probably missing some

Make Iowa great again. . .
 
I don’t have nearly as much time to hunt as I used to. If I’m forced to start giving things up, I choose deer hunting. I love it, but people have turned into absolute idiots when it comes to these things. Antlers do crazy things to people!
 
Where do we start, no particular order:
No Semi Autos
No scoped Muzzleloaders (iron sights)
Shotgun only during shotgun season (no straight wall/no muzzleloader)
1 weekend for 1st shotgun/1 weekend for 2nd shotgun
Stop seasons 12/31
Shorten bow season start last week in Oct end Nov 30
Make it a one buck state for everyone (landowners included)
Stop floating tags (adults)
No shared tags during gun season or stop with deer drives you pick
Cell cams can only send pictures at night not timely (No cameras on public)
Make a shed hunting fee for nonresidents or even for residents as well
Reduce the number of antlerless tags
No (shed buck) seasons
No ebikes on public (enforce it)

Probably missing some

Make Iowa great again. . .
You currently do all these things?
 
I stopped shooting does three years ago, even when I'd see plenty of them where I hunt. Cass county stopped allowing doe tags couple years ago. I don't bow hunt, so I'm already doing a one buck limit tag, even though haven't shot anything for a couple years and chances are won't this season either. I have one camera and it takes an SD card. Don't hunt over any corn, so nothing to stop mowing. I do have a 450 Mossberg with 3 round mag, but my longest shot possible is 115 yards where my blind is.
 
From Ohio here so I don't have much dog in this fight. But thought I'd chime in comparing Iowa to Ohio.

I drew Iowa this year with 4 points and hunted only public land. Going back to Sligh1's #8, from what I saw about 80% of the trucks parked on public were Iowa residents. It's the complete opposite here in Ohio, residents don't really have much of a chance at public in November. We cater to the non residents compared to Iowa, so that's about as frustrating as it gets for someone that owns no hunting land.

Why end the season Jan 1 instead of making it bow only. I love late season bowhunting here and is one of the few times the public lands aren't crowded. Of course we are only 1 buck.

I feel like Iowa res have it made compared to Ohio res in terms of the way the season is managed. That being said I felt the deer numbers were very low in the zone I hunted in Iowa. Not sure Iowa wants the non res to know that if that's an issue statewide considering the price tag of a tag.

I wouldn't change a thing about the way you guys are doing things, aside from a few similar issues I deal with here regarding cell cams, bait, and drones. On top of all that were dealing with cross bows all season and baiting all season.

I've pretty much given up everything tech wise here when I switched to trad bows only about 15 years ago. But our state continues to cater to more and more tech without any limits really.
 
I went to a meeting in Minnesota yesterday in my county (Pope). The meeting was on whether the county should be rifles/any caliber or continue as it is now (Slugs) which it had been for 50+ yrs.

It was packed house & it was about 50% for rifles & 50% against it (stay as a slug county) . Most of the actual landowners do not want rifles, but guys that hunt public or wherever, want them as it increases their odds of shooting a deer.

One thing that was brought up was if the deer numbers drop, a lottery system for buck tags might need to be implemented. That went over like a “turd” in a punch bowl ! The rifle guys got very defensive,… “we’ve got plenty of deer, there are 4 dead right now on Hwy 27”

It’s almost comical as to how different hunters are as some want quality and some just want to shoot one. Not sure what our county commissioners are going to do, but 2 of the 5 are not even deer hunters ?

Deer management can be a mess. That’s my point !!
 
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I went to a meeting in Minnesota yesterday in my county (Pope). The meeting was on whether the county should be rifles/any caliber or continue as it is now (Slugs) which it had been for 50+ yrs.

It was packed house & it was about 50% for rifles & 50% against it (stay as a slug county) . Most of the actual landowners do not want rifles, but guys that hunt public or wherever, want them as it increases their odds of shooting a deer.

One thing that was brought up was if the deer numbers drop, a lottery system for buck tags might need to be implemented. That went over like a “turd” in a punch bowl ! The rifle guys got very defensive,… “we’ve got plenty of deer, there are 4 dead right now on Hwy 27”

It’s almost comical as to how different hunters are as some want quality and some just want to shoot one. Not sure what our county commissioners are going to do, but 2 of the 5 are not even deer hunters ?

Deer management can be a mess. That’s my point !!
The ones that want quality AND just want to make it easy make my head hurt!!
 
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