peakrut

Just think this damn holiday gun season starts down here Dec 24th in the CWD zone.

Handles

You guys are hilarious. Comparing Iowa to Wisconsin? You want their deer harvest?You are already complaining about our 300K or so harvest!The bitching on here would be unreal if we had Iowa's herd. Iowa harvests only about 120,000 deer per year. Thereare only about 250,000 hunters total, and almost the entire state is shotgun only. Go hunt there if you want. just make sure you apply for your out of state tag for about 3 years in advance.
To say Iowa has better hunting is nuts. Sure there are places where it is outstanding, such as the private land/leases that you see on T.V., and there are some big deer in other areas of the state, no question. Low averagehuman population, low# of hunters, and shotgun only helps getage on the bucks, something that I would like to see more of here.But as far as numbers of deer, numbers of bucks, numbers of big bucks, Wisconsin stomps all over Iowa, just check P&Y, B&C, or SCI record books.

PYbuckhunter

Hopefully all the deer from my hunting area are not yarded upon some property, that's hunted bypeople that believe everything the DNR feeds us!

mr.mc54

Peak rut;

The cwd units are set up to have a ZERO DEER POPULATION that is why you have so many seasons! The DNR will try any thing possible to get it down to them numbers. I really feel for the guy's that hunt down there. I really don't think CWD is the problem-it's the car accidents in the populated areas. Someone please tell me why Wyoming is'nt eradicating their deer/elk herds. They have had CWD from the beginning of time. Just look at the large bucks taken in CWD units. Do they look sick to you? Now they have found CWD in other areas of the state, are they going to eradicate the deer there? The people of Wyoming would blow a nut if the Wyoming Game and Fish would even think about eradication. THERE IS TROUBLE BREWING GUYS WE MUST TAKE A STAND.
WE HAVE TOO MANY SEASONS NOW IN THE REST OF THE STATE!

THE REASON THERE ARE ANY DEER LEFT IN CWD ZONES IS MANY LAND OWNERS AND HUNTERSWON'T BUY INTO THE DNR'S PHILOSOPHY!!!!!!

mr.mc54

REPLY TO HANDLES;

WHY IS THERE A WAITING LIST TO HUNT THERE? MAY BE THEY MANAGE WHAT DEER THEY HAVE BETTER...DAH!!!!!!!!!!!

ANY ONE WITH A PEA BRAIN COULD UNDER STAND WHAT WAS MEANT BY THE REFRENCETO IOWA!

WE HAVE BETTER HABITAT AND WE CAN SUPPORT MORE DEER!!!!!!!!

ALL WE WANT IS TO SEE MORE DEER-DON'T YOU GET IT??????????????????????????

wibucks

Being a landowner/hunter in the CWD zone I followed it close from the start. I remember when it first was found they consulted with the western states that had CWD and they were told to attempt to eradicate or stop the spread of the it. A few years after the eradication/herd reduction hunts, they received kudos from these other states for their efforts. They know now that zero population is not possible. I still think that the DNR thinks CWD is statewide and that is why you have EAB all over the state(herd reduction without the CWD freak out we had 6 years ago). As for Iowa, they can keep it and their TV shows, I'll keep hunting quietly in my little CWD corner of WI(seeing plenty of deer and a few nice bucks every year). The thing that I don't get is the guys in the northern and central part of state that usually see 50+ deer a day now see 2-3 a day. Whatever the problem is the dnrneeds to find answers. I heard Mr. Warnke likes to get e-mails

mr.mc54

WI BUCKS:

THE WAY IT IS NOW,I WOULD BE GLAD TO SEE TWO DEER A DAY. We used to see 10-15 a day till last year . Then it went down to 1-3 deer. This year it was 2 deer all season! That is why every one is outraged with the DNR. What do you think of CWD? Are you afraid to eat the deer you take? Like I said before If it looks sick don't eat it. I hunted many years in the south east area of WI and ate the deer- it never hurt us any.

Handles

Habitation??AndI'm the one with a pea brain? See more deer...In Iowa??? Hahahaha! You are a gem. There are about 1/2 as many deer in iowa as in wisconsin.

TJD

I don't think the point was to compare the potential or hunting in Iowa to Wisconsin. It sounded to me like the point was to compare the overall experience with herd management. Wisconsin, especially in the Mississippi River Block, has almost perfect topography for developing big deer. I can't think of an area in Iowa anything like that.

As for management, again...the DNR grossly overestimated the population of deer across the state as evidenced by the harvest data. By the DNR's own assertion (Keith Warnke's own words), the decreased harvest numbers this year cannot be attributed to either lack of effort by hunters or weather. The goofy SAK method of estimating deer population is now being shown for what it is: nothing more than another glorified way of guessing that is heavily reliant on subjective inputs.

So Handles, either way you look at it a bunch of hunters are ticked off. Whether or notthe angeris all justified is not the core issue; the core issue is that because hunters across the state saw fewer deer than they were led to believe would be there, many of them are P.O.'ed. Why should the DNR care? Well, what happens next year if the number of hunters drops off by 10% or20%, since the DNR repeatedly refers to hunters as their "primary herd management tool"? How does the DNR handle "herd management" then with even fewer hunters? Require hunters to harvest two does before shooting at a buck? Levy a fine on hunters who do not fill a tag? Dust off the "sharpshooters from helicopters" idea again?

Once again, my point is the DNR needs to work with hunters and work with landowners and come up with longer term strategies for managing the herd that will be acceptable to all. Stop ignoring the reports that hunters in many units have given for years stating that the deer population is down, and then simply attributing the reports to things like "changing hunter habits". The DNR's days of the "shoot the deer or go to h***!" attitude needs to end...NOW!!

Handles

If hunter numbers drop, and harvest rates drop, and deer population increases for more than a year or so, we will likely see more EAB, possibly some double EAB (two doe for 1 buck) and possibly some doe only zones. Oh and license costs go up for those remaining hunters, and those who decide to hunt in the future.
How's that sound fellas?

The DNR is like the Grim Reaper. It will get you in the end.