Sorry...........not buying it. Where in Iowa have you hunted? When? Where and when did you hunt Indiana, Illinois & Kansas? Specifically. Please share.
I have seen first hand what bad management has done to these states. If you think quality has not degraded in IN, IL & KS over the last 30 years you have not hunted there. No question about that. It has extremely little to do with loss of habitat. These are rust belt states. Illinois has actually led the nation in population loss the last 7 years and went from the 5th highest state in population to 6th. The attached map shows my work travel area. I know a little bit about these states and their deer quality losses.
You are just plain wrong if you think special interest groups and greased politicians are qualified to make wildlife management decisions. That is exactly where these changes are coming from.
Alabama??? Is this a joke? You know how many P&Y bucks have been taken there in the last 10 years? 90% of the AL hunters are in Illinois in November. And that is to hunt bad public land. Should tell you all you need to know.
I think your ranting about TROPHY bucks and NOT deer numbers in general
and your all worked up about not seeing huge bucks every where over worries about a deer healthy herd or not !
I will say this and you take it how ever you wish
PA< went from being one of the HIGHEST deer number states out there, we had so many deer it was crazy, and Pope and Young bucks were about as rare million dollar winning lottery tickets!
e HAD rifles, and basically archery and flintlock for use as weapons(hand guns too in GUN season)
the state was super slow to realize having SO many deer was BAD for the habitat that the forest and basically land every where was damaged to the point it was causing critical damage to many things!
SO< after the light bulb came on they dropped deer numbers a LOT, its been almost 20 yrs now and the damage from all the excessive amounts of deer, many places are still not recovered , habitat is still poor at best in many areas!
BUT to drop them numbers they started using more seasons, more doe tags, and using more weapons, we started allowing inline muzzloaders, rifles in early seasons,
now some places can use semi auto's
the state also started a an antler restriction when they started dropping deer numbers
and know what?
we have less deer for sure
BUT we have more pope and young bucks NOW than at any time in PA" history, with all them rifles and semi's and hand guns and muzzleloaders, X bows and you nae it
SO, what does this mean
CRAP
it just shows that deer numbers has very little to do with BIG bucks
nor does what weapon being used to hunt deer with
what MAKES for BIG bucks, is quality habitat, hunters willing to LET small bucks walk and grow to GET big
it has NOTHING to do with the weapon being used
you surely missed my point ion Alabama
there have several month long gun season liberal deer per DAY allowance and YET they still have a LOT of deer!
THAT was my point, I wasn't saying they have HUGE bucks
BUT on a side note, there too, they have killed MORE pope and young bucks the past 10 yrs than the previous 40 put together!
so, your logic again is failing you by your own words!
you don't like the facts, that HABITAT is what matter s more here than WHAT weapon is being used to kill deer!
there are folks that kill BIG bucks every yr in every state on PRIVATE lands, that are MADE to grow big bucks
stop trying to blame a weapon for deer health issue's. a bucks antlers size or-overall health of an eco system that the deer live in
HUMANS have the bigger overall impact on this
self control
DON"T shoot a young small buck if you want a big one, HUNT where there can age to get big!
its NOT the weapon that decides what BUCK to shoot, its the human holding it!
deer numbers will always be based on the amount of land and the quality of the land that it can support
too many deer on poor land makes for poor quality deer, and since we have less land for deer to live on now than ever
what do you expect?