MN Slick
5 year old buck +
In short, high grading and EHD has really hurt areas in Southern Iowa. High grading is the reason in my little world of Missouri.
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Are the glory days of deer hunting coming to a close?
- Thread starter Howboutthemdawgs
- Start date
In short, high grading and EHD has really hurt areas in Southern Iowa. High grading is the reason in my little world of Missouri.
MN Slick
5 year old buck +
I wish for it, as long as there's a good population of deer and a reasonable amount of hunters.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
These are the deer I lose. Just a puppy but has all you would ever want in 3-4 years. I know it’s a lot to ask but I know the guy who shot this. Goons from North Carolina who show up for a week and throw bait and wait. Guarantee this is sitting in the corner of the garage now collecting dust
Hoytvectrix
5 year old buck +
This is a buck I filmed a few times during the firearm season:
About 15 minutes after I saw him heading for the property line I heard a single shot, followed by a bunch of does that ran my way.
I found him this past weekend about 150 yards from the property line as I was checking on some trees I planted a few weeks ago:
With a single bullet hole in his hind leg. Bizarrely, nothing has touched the carcass yet, but it was covered under snow for about two weeks.
I don't even know who shot him because the neighbor doesn't hunt. I was never contacted about tracking him.
About 15 minutes after I saw him heading for the property line I heard a single shot, followed by a bunch of does that ran my way.
I found him this past weekend about 150 yards from the property line as I was checking on some trees I planted a few weeks ago:
With a single bullet hole in his hind leg. Bizarrely, nothing has touched the carcass yet, but it was covered under snow for about two weeks.
I don't even know who shot him because the neighbor doesn't hunt. I was never contacted about tracking him.
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
Impressive shooting.. I’d contact the land owner and ask if he allowed anyone because you heard a shot. He might want to know if he doesn’t allow anyone..
Hoytvectrix
5 year old buck +
Our immediate neighbor doesn't hunt or allow anyone to hunt but he owns just a few acres. I'm trying to track down the people on the other side of them.
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
I think folks are saying they'd rather first legal buck get shot than first high genetic potential 2-4 YO get shot.. Around me, a high genetic potential 3 YO is likely the best buck around on a given year so he's probably not getting a pass from me either.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
It is certainly all relative. Everyone's situation is different and everyone's perspective is different, which makes it both fun and frustrating
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Not everyone from here in the East is looking to tag a 130". If I were to get a license for a Midwest state - or anywhere else - I'd ask what the suggested age / rack size is that they want taken. But that's me.
There are slob hunters everywhere. We get imported hunters here too that want to kill anything & everything. Load their freezers in another state, then go home to protect their own deer interests - age or rack sizes.
T-Max
5 year old buck +
Not just picking on Easterners, but that is who the dreaded outfitter's clients typically are. I've met a bunch of them. Nice folks. And if they ask him what he wants taken, he'll show them pics of the 130" 3 year olds to keep the success rate up!
My own home state of AR has about 350,000 deer hunters and 750,000 deer. We kill about 100,000 bucks. There will never be enough 130 inch bucks around for everyone to shoot one. Our average 5 yr old buck scores about 117”. I usually am hunting for a 140” plus - but i doubt 1 in 10 mature bucks makes 140 or more. I have access to 1300 acres of lightly hunted land, and down here - there might only be 2 deer that size on that acreage. I have a number of 10/20 acres adjacent landowners and all that land is hunted. Yes, they would each like to kill a 140 - or even a 120 - but they arent stupid - they have no false notion that if they pass every buck, they will have a 140” under their corn feeder next year.
A lot of us have younger kids or grandkids. When my 8, 10, 14, or 16 year old grand daughter comes down for their two weekends of hunting, you think I am going to pass out cards with only a few pictures of bucks they can shoot? Hell no I am not. The same with my 40 year old daughter - I get to hunt with her maybe two weekends a year - if that. If a 130” two year old buck walks out - if she wants to shoot it - which she probably would not shoot it - I would let her.
This is all part of the game - neighbors, kids, meat hunters - the goal for me is to kill a big buck in spite of the adversity. I dont want to stay in the batting cage - I want to get out on the field and play against everyone else. It always makes me laugh when so many folks are terribly adverse to high fence hunting - but A lot of those same folks want high fence hunting without a high fence.
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This is a conundrum. All of us experienced guys are thrilled when one of our kids/relatives/rookies harvests a deer that we helped them set up to get. Doe/spike/3 yr old, it's cool, and a right of passage so they can graduate to the next level and spend the time getting it done by themselves.This is all part of the game - neighbors, kids, meat hunters - the goal for me is to kill a big buck in spite of the adversity. I dont want to stay in the batting cage - I want to get out on the field and play against everyone else. It always makes me laugh when so many folks are terribly adverse to high fence hunting - but A lot of those same folks want high fence hunting without a high fence.
It's the circle of the hunting tradition that needs to be passed on to our youth.
Yeah, it will conflict with my trophy hunting for sure, and Swamp said it perfectly, "the goal for me is to kill a big buck in spite of the adversity"
NY this yr- I still have the biggest deer my local processor got at 153/5yo out of now 800+.....yet i have two friends hunting megas, know of 4 killed within an hour of here over 180, and would be on a Booner if it wasnt for 600ac of standing corn and was cold temps. Trespasser caught and cited. Local tsc goes through corn as fast as they do in a legal bait states.
OH- epicenter of EHD (with a couple others on here)- 80% nuked in my area. Bend the rules neighbor shot a 3yo 12 (+3) that was on my place most days and most of the time and then "his wife" was on a garbage 3yo 10 which was the only other buck around. Idiot outfitter a few properties away started strong but hit a wall with his onslaught of two yos before october was over.
If there is a theme- its culture. Laws dont do the needed thing even if people followed them, and morals and ethics were thrown out years ago. Had a great season, which doesnt show with my grumbling here.....but hunting is changing and to be an ugly thing.
OH- epicenter of EHD (with a couple others on here)- 80% nuked in my area. Bend the rules neighbor shot a 3yo 12 (+3) that was on my place most days and most of the time and then "his wife" was on a garbage 3yo 10 which was the only other buck around. Idiot outfitter a few properties away started strong but hit a wall with his onslaught of two yos before october was over.
If there is a theme- its culture. Laws dont do the needed thing even if people followed them, and morals and ethics were thrown out years ago. Had a great season, which doesnt show with my grumbling here.....but hunting is changing and to be an ugly thing.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
Wow, what a waste. I hate to see things like that happen.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Barring disease outbreaks in the coming year, these next few months will probably dictate my target goals/objectives moving forward. I had 9 different bucks using my property this late Summer through November. I had 3 or 4 that were 3 years old or older. Passed them all up. Highest scoring deer would have probably been in the low 140s. 2 new shack/hunting cabins/ have been built within a mile of me this last year. There are already too many neighbors for my liking. If the inventory this coming Summer doesn't reflect what I let walk this year, I will probably shift my "happy to shoot" level down a couple of notches. I would love for there to be a couple of 170" + deer roaming the neighborhood every year, whether I kill them or someone else does I would just like to know that it is possible. However, we all need to keep in mind what is realistic for where we hunt. If the neighbors are going to kill every deer before it reaches 150" then there is no satisfaction in raising deer just for the neighbors to kill them all.
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Westwind
5 year old buck +
@Hoytvectrix that is a crying shame.
I let a very good guy hunt my ground for a few years. He had a wounding incident three years ago and blamed it on a problem with an expanding broad head. The next year he had another incident and I asked him if he had changed broad heads. He said no and I had to tell him at the end of the year that he was gone. It hurt because I really like him as a person and enjoyed hearing how his hunts went.
I let a very good guy hunt my ground for a few years. He had a wounding incident three years ago and blamed it on a problem with an expanding broad head. The next year he had another incident and I asked him if he had changed broad heads. He said no and I had to tell him at the end of the year that he was gone. It hurt because I really like him as a person and enjoyed hearing how his hunts went.
g squared 23
5 year old buck +
We’ve been told hunting is dying with recruitment numbers in the toilet, but on the other hand there are fewer mature bucks than we’ve seen in decades? So which is it? I’d say there are too many hunters, especially non- resident, and the states need to prioritize their residents over out of staters. If every state created a better deer herd, then no one would “have” to go across state lines to have great deer hunting. I’m sorry you’re from Michigan, that doesn’t mean you should buy up land here and be guaranteed tags every year. Let’s mirror Iowa which would reduce the price of lands and leases.
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My deer are definitely becoming more nocturnal. The hogs took about ten years to become almost 100% nocturnal in my area. The bucks are following suit, but took a lot longer. Yes, I still have an odd mature buck that disregards daylight or dark, and during the peak of the rut, that is more common. I have been hunting one buck for four years and he has appeared in daylight four different times in four years - and that is spring, summer, fall, or winter. Most of my mature bucks will daylight in summer, and gradually become almost purely nocturnal by Nov. I have a one acre wheat food plot in a far corner of my my property. Adjacent property is very lightly hunted - if at all. Since planting the food plot early Oct, I visited that foodplot end of Oct to put up a camera. I rode my ranger through it once about first of Dec to see how the wheat was doing. Otherwise, none of us has been within 300 yards of that food plot. There are usually three to five pics every night - mostly bucks. Probably at least ten different bucks if not more and a like number of does. There has been one - one barely daylight picture - since I put the camera up - out of hundreds of pictures. That is in 40 acre block we have visited twice since first of Oct.
I have hunted two different bucks fairly hard this year - since the first weekend of Sept. i only hunt when the wind is perfect. I have been on probably 25 hunts for these two deer. One of them just gradually quit coming by end of Oct. One is still a regular visitor. I am hunting from ground blinds, which were set up in August, usually with a crossbow, over bait, on well established bait sights. I am pretty much doing everything legal that I can do - and can not get a glimpse of these deer. Ten years ago, these deer would have been killable. Deer in my area are definitely becoming more nocturnal.
I have hunted two different bucks fairly hard this year - since the first weekend of Sept. i only hunt when the wind is perfect. I have been on probably 25 hunts for these two deer. One of them just gradually quit coming by end of Oct. One is still a regular visitor. I am hunting from ground blinds, which were set up in August, usually with a crossbow, over bait, on well established bait sights. I am pretty much doing everything legal that I can do - and can not get a glimpse of these deer. Ten years ago, these deer would have been killable. Deer in my area are definitely becoming more nocturnal.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
I’m sure this is a knowable answer (if we can believe government reporting) but I wonder how does a place like iowas dnr revenue compare with say a Kentucky? The two are diametrically opposed in philosophy. Iowa is extremely restrictive to nonresidents and Kentucky would sell a nonresident a dodo bird license if they thought one was alive in the state. Conventional thought would say Kentucky has to be rolling in the money and Iowa is broke but I’m not sure that’s the case. I think people are willing to overspend for quality. Another way to look at it is, if Iowa wasn’t extremely desirable to nonresidents then there wouldn’t be a 7 plus year wait to draw an archery tag.
