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Iowa deer hunting

Lundy

Lundy

Member
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I have been doing abunch of reading in the Iowa DNR site about their deer management and population assesment techiniques. Very interesting stuff to me. They sure do put a LOT of information on thier website.

Anyway, WITHOUT looking it up, how many deer are killed in Iowa during their archery seasons/

How close can you come?

2011 - ?
 
No clue but I'll guess....70 K's

A lot of leased managed props is what I based my guess on. I figure the gun kills far exceed their bow TOO.
 
Iowa kills a LOT less deer than does Ohio. There are a LOT less people there. Landowners are allowed to kill 3 bucks, and in areas about as many doe as they wish. Bill Winke told me one time he killed 2 bucks, and 24 does that season. This was three or four years ago when he was fooling around with our SS.
 
Yes, I was really surprised. The archery deer harvest was only 23,300 deer. Ohio is almost 4 times that many.

Iowa sure does a great job on their management data that they publish. They thoroughly lay everything out there for all to see, including how the determine populations.

They CLEARLY stated what their population goals were and how they were doing in achieving those goals. They manage deer harvest on a county to county basis.

Because they sell different license (tags) for gun or archery, MZ they are able to better track hunter participation, success rates and harvest. They are also able to accuractly track non resident deer hunter particpation by weapon and harvest.
 
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Iowa is simply amazing. 3 years ago I went on a shed hunt on a 13,000 acre lease. The farmer had prolly 5,000 to 6,000 acres in crops. He is issued 750 kill permits each year and in the past 5 or so years, he and some of the neighbors kill an average of 200 to 250 does in one weekend! The number of trophy bucks that he and his hunters have harvested, just leaves you shaking your head. It gives you goose bumps walking through those CRP fields and cedar thickets, just knowing that an 80" antler can be right around that next bush! What helps Iowa in my opinion, is less hunting pressure and high deer densities, genetics and crop land. It's a deer Mecca!
 
My experience there is very limited as far as being in the field. I used to drive through the State 3 times a week, and seeing deer was very common. A year or two ago I went to a Jay Greggory's farm. He had sold the property to a man that wanted BECs, and I went along to set them up. That property was unreal! We were there the first part of Sept., and just walking around with Jay and Brandon, riding quads and such, I saw more shooter bucks in three or four hours than I do all season in Ohio. We saw probably 100 turkeys too, and a coyote, and more does than you can imagine. It wasn't just that property, but the entire area. It is what we could have with less liberal bag limits. We just have too many people, shooting too many deer. I suppose the excuse would be that we have too many vehicles on the road and creates too dangerous a situation to carry a herd like that. What am I talking about? We have a herd of 700k! haha!
 
BTW, many of the folks in Iowa are concerned they are over-harvesting as well. It's all relative I suppose.
 
Ever notice the only people patting our DNR on the back are the Columbus dispatch and the ODNR themselves...oh and loonskinner
 
Brock, I agree. I not sure exactly where Jay Gregory's farm is, but in south east Iowa. The farms are spread out, houses few and far between. The roads were actually in 1 mile squares and generally gravel roads at best. I saw 4 road signs at major deer crossings that were made out of 4 by 4 treated post. The bucks had rubbed them so much, that you could wrap one hand around them. It's just a completely different world out there. One of the farms that we shed hunted on was where Gene Wensel killed his 222" non- typ dubbed" Woody " a few years back. That farm has produced multiply booners since. That's just great genetics and deer management in my opinion. The farmer drove us around his lease one night and we came to a corn field that was prolly 100 to 110 acres. There was upwards of 100 deer in it. He just laughed and did a backwards U- turn and shined the field behind us, and there were 60 or so in that corn field. It's crazy out there! Lol
 
Those populations are why Iowa implemented a big population reduction program some years ago.

The populations have been going down ever since. They state that some of their counties are now at or below the target populations of the mid 90's
 
That's true Lundy, but what a cool place to be! Wished all you guys could have seen the sheds this farm had in his garage. They were piled up3 to 4 feet high in his two car garage completely around each car and down the middle, only the entrances weren't covered. Unbelievable! The best thing of all for all you shed hunters out there. You can actually go out and tromp around for a couple of hours and carry an arm load out. Nice ones TOO boot.
 
Lundy said:
Those populations are why Iowa implemented a big population reduction program some years ago.

The populations have been going down ever since. They state that some of their counties are now at or below the target populations of the mid 90's
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I have never seen deer in Ohio as I did in that area of Iowa. There may very well be fewer than there once was, but I am confident there is a heck of a lot more there than is here! :)

I think they only estimate their herd at 300k too. Lundy may be able to confirm or clarify as I haven't been on their site for a time.
 
I don't mind leasing I would gladly lease instead of dealing with all the bs I have lately I just hope to find something reasonable .....but that has nothing to do with Iowa's deer herd .
 
You guys are not alone when it comes to hunters not liking the job the state DNR's do. I know we dont like what is going on here in Minnesota and Wisconsin is even worse. What is amazing other than the fact that Iowa set a plan to control deer numbers and have bigger bucks, they accomplished it. They also have ran it like a business perfectly as well. People want to hunt there so bad that they are willing to send in $50 just to buy a preference point for the chance down the road to apply for a license. They were smart when hunting shows really started pushing Iowa as THE PLACE to go. The Iowa DNR cut back the number of non resident tags to 25% of what they used to sell and raised the price four times to really drop the pressure and keep the same $$$ coming in.
 
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I would lean toward a lease. A set price and do it all on my own. Scout, hunt and destroy! Lol. Just have to do some research and go for it.
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I know there is a huge parcel of public land that borders the farm I was on... I wouldn't mind a trip if anyone else wants to start putting in for it. Takes three years for a non-resident to draw a tag. In fact, it takes three years for a non-resident landowner to draw!
 
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