ban party hunting for bucks

Here are my thoughts for what they are worth.

There is nothing wrong with party hunting. The goal is to harvest deer. I have shot 15 bucks that are on my wall, one is 192 inches as a 5X5. The ONLY way to have quality bucks is to get MOST hunters educated and practicing quality deer management. Point restrictions just don’t work. Colorado proved that with elk. All it does is delay those bucks that don’t have great genetics/nutrition one more year before they are shot. I think everyone will agree that for quality deer they mean 4 years old or older and point restrictions won’t acheive that. It all has to start with a commitment to not harvest immature bucks. It has to start with each one of us. If a deer is a trophy to you it is OK to harvest it. That would include kids and elderly shooting smaller deer. The majority of the deer taken would still be mature if that happened. I don’t think it is our states responsibility to dictate to us what is a trophy in EVERYONE’S mind. They have a responsibility to manage for numbers of huntable deer.

Thanks

I think party hunting here in Iowa is just fine the way it is and I personally like it that way. Every hunting group has certain guidelines they follow for themselves and work out amongst themselves on who will shoot what and how many its just working together. I myself am a supporter of QDM and will only shoot a larger buck or a doe no pencil heads. In my group there are others that are just happy to shoot a deer of any kind to each there own… In my opinion moving the gun season back a few weeks in Minnesota would help tremendously on the kind of bucks you have, not hunting them with a gun during the rut.

I think party hunting here in Iowa is just fine the way it is and I personally like it that way. Every hunting group has certain guidelines they follow for themselves and work out amongst themselves on who will shoot what and how many its just working together. I myself am a supporter of QDM and will only shoot a larger buck or a doe no pencil heads. In my group there are others that are just happy to shoot a deer of any kind to each there own… In my opinion moving the gun season back a few weeks in Minnesota would help tremendously on the kind of bucks you have, not hunting them with a gun during the rut.

Quote:

---

I personally prefer trophy fawns or nice shooter fawns. If we end up having a harsh winter, they are the most at risk, so why not take them out while you are waiting for a big buck.

---

But half of those “shooter” fawns are males, which defeats the purpose of letting them walk. The only way we can get the deer HERD in check, is to harvest does. A doe will take one or two deer out of the herd, some of which will problably be bucks, but we will never know.

If the herd is managed, the bucks will follow. I normally try to harvest mature does, and let all small bucks walk. I hunt a lot of public land, and every little bit helps.

I agree that we should stop party hunting for bucks, but how could the DNR possibly enforce the law. As it reads you have to be within shouting distance of your partner. Unless the DNR sees gun gun go off, he has no way of knowing who actually shot the deer. And since they changed the regulation on where a deer needs to be tagged, it would be unenforceable.

Just my $.02

Quote:

---

I personally prefer trophy fawns or nice shooter fawns. If we end up having a harsh winter, they are the most at risk, so why not take them out while you are waiting for a big buck.

---

But half of those “shooter” fawns are males, which defeats the purpose of letting them walk. The only way we can get the deer HERD in check, is to harvest does. A doe will take one or two deer out of the herd, some of which will problably be bucks, but we will never know.

If the herd is managed, the bucks will follow. I normally try to harvest mature does, and let all small bucks walk. I hunt a lot of public land, and every little bit helps.

I agree that we should stop party hunting for bucks, but how could the DNR possibly enforce the law. As it reads you have to be within shouting distance of your partner. Unless the DNR sees gun gun go off, he has no way of knowing who actually shot the deer. And since they changed the regulation on where a deer needs to be tagged, it would be unenforceable.

Just my $.02

Quote:

---

BTW, we hunt all public land. If we pass on a scrub 8pt Buck, the guy(s) hunting away from us will tip it over for sure. QDM rarely works on public land.

---

Blue please do not take this the wrong way I am not trying to pick on you but please please please do not use this as a reason to take a young buck, there are plenty of does out there for hunting parities to fill there tags. Even on public land if you pass up a young buck then maybe just maybe he will make it to see another year. It took CRP a while to catch on it is the same way with passing up young bucks if more of us set the example it will over time catch on. More importantly we need to set this example for our kids to follow and pass on to there kids.

Don’t get the wrong idea I have no problem with a young hunter taking a young buck, but for us seasoned hunters why not pass up that young buck.

Quote:

---

BTW, we hunt all public land. If we pass on a scrub 8pt Buck, the guy(s) hunting away from us will tip it over for sure. QDM rarely works on public land.

---

Blue please do not take this the wrong way I am not trying to pick on you but please please please do not use this as a reason to take a young buck, there are plenty of does out there for hunting parities to fill there tags. Even on public land if you pass up a young buck then maybe just maybe he will make it to see another year. It took CRP a while to catch on it is the same way with passing up young bucks if more of us set the example it will over time catch on. More importantly we need to set this example for our kids to follow and pass on to there kids.

Don’t get the wrong idea I have no problem with a young hunter taking a young buck, but for us seasoned hunters why not pass up that young buck.

Hunter common sense would be to shoot only the big bald ones and the boys beyond the ears.. But you cannot educate ignorance even though it has been proven to work!

Hunter common sense would be to shoot only the big bald ones and the boys beyond the ears.. But you cannot educate ignorance even though it has been proven to work!

I disagree, We stand hunt in the a.m. and drive in the afternoon.Iowa season starts on Saturday and by Monday you have to go into the thick stuff and move them. On Saturday and Sunday you might get a buck to move down wind but after that they break out the sides of the drive and you have to guess where they are going and set up there. In my opinion if they wanted to regulate something it should be the size of the group.We have groups that hunt with 20-50 hunters, it is amaizing that more hunters are not wounded or worse. I have one group that hunts on my farm and they have 25-30 and they all want to shoot bucks .Size really doesnt matter. I really would like them to shoot some does but there group leaders always says “We’re buck hunters ,I really don’t like the meat”.I gotta lay down the law this year , either kill some does and help me out or dont come back. One of the guys owns property next door we hunt across so it is a delicate issue. I should have started a new post.Oh well thats my 2cents.

I disagree, We stand hunt in the a.m. and drive in the afternoon.Iowa season starts on Saturday and by Monday you have to go into the thick stuff and move them. On Saturday and Sunday you might get a buck to move down wind but after that they break out the sides of the drive and you have to guess where they are going and set up there. In my opinion if they wanted to regulate something it should be the size of the group.We have groups that hunt with 20-50 hunters, it is amaizing that more hunters are not wounded or worse. I have one group that hunts on my farm and they have 25-30 and they all want to shoot bucks .Size really doesnt matter. I really would like them to shoot some does but there group leaders always says “We’re buck hunters ,I really don’t like the meat”.I gotta lay down the law this year , either kill some does and help me out or dont come back. One of the guys owns property next door we hunt across so it is a delicate issue. I should have started a new post.Oh well thats my 2cents.