Lets look at your facts a little closer.You say 60 bucks over 155 in two years.Ill just look at 2004 alone and see what I can come up with.
http://www.iowadnr.com/wildlife/files/iadeer_racks.html
In the archery catagory Im seeing 44 non typical deer and 50 typical for 2004 all scoring over 155.
2 more for crossbow and handgun hunters
9 non typical for muzzleloader 13 typical
42 non typical for shotgun and about another 50 typical.
These were just the ones people chose to have registered with the state record keeping.Many people dont bother to do this chosing to enter P&Y, B&C, BTR, or other clubs or not enter them at all in anything.This was just for 2004 mind you, I didnt add in anything from 2005.
Fact: In the 2004 calender year 12,737 received their Hunter's Safety Certificate in Iowa.(I realize that they may not all have been deer hunters, but I suspect that a substantial number of them were.)
Fact, the ones recieving hunters safety certificates are primarily children around the ages of 12 or 13.Adults that hunt already have one or they cant get a license.12 is the youngest you can take the course in this state and thats what the majority of these numbers are from.What you are looking at is 12,000 small game and bird hunters for the most part and possibly first time deer hunters.
Fact: Antlered bucks in 2004 only accounted for about 38% of the harvest in the state.Of the deer tags sold in the state 30,500 of them were antlerless only.The rest were either sex.The majority of the hunters werent even trying to kill a buck, the DNR heres on a doe killing campaign and hunters have been killing record numbers of does over the last 5 years.Many others didnt fill thier tags at all.
Fact: Dont know where you got your numbers, but they dont mean much unless youre trying to prove we recruited 12,000 new hunters to the sport.Otherwise theyre pretty worthless.Out of 38% of the deer killed here in 2004 alone at least 210 and probably many moreof them scored over 155.
Fact: Since you dont know how many of these deer came from areas managed for trophy deer, how many unfilled tags there were, how many were killed in the same area and the time frame they were killed in, age of the people hunting them, and what was on thier hats when they killed these deernone of the numbers either one of posted have anything to do with the deer killed in the picture.
