Not going to Apply for Iowa this year.
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Starfire
07-Jun-20
Its just getting too expensive. I'm in it over $800 by the time I get my license and its getting harder and harder every year to find a spot to hunt and the quality of deer (at least where I hunt) has been getting less and less. What do you think? Ive got until midnight to decide.
From: gobble50
07-Jun-20
You’ve already given yourself 3 reasons not to apply for Iowa. You really need more?
From: RK
07-Jun-20
Move on. It's ok
From: live2hunt88
07-Jun-20
There's plenty of good places to hunt that won't cost you near that much. Oklahoma and Missouri offer cheap OTC tags with quality whitetail.
From: Scooby-doo
07-Jun-20
Sorry out of most of the states, I would pay the money and hunt Iowa. Out of the big name states, Illinois, Kansas and a few others are really bad. Think about it Iowa only allows 6000 NR hunters and that is for all seasons. Bowhunting it is less than 2000. Kansas has 40K Illinois over 30K, Ohio, Missouri all way more NRs than Iowa. Shawn
From: Zim
08-Jun-20
Much depends on how much you can scout public. I hunted there since the early 90’s and my work area includes the entire state so I can scout several times every year all expenses pretty much paid for. What an upgrade it was for me to swap the ghettos of Chicago & Milwaukee for Iowa & Minnesota! :)
From: Bou'bound
08-Jun-20
what do i think. I think the neat thing about hunting is you don't have to do it if you don't want to. It also does not matter what anyone else thinks
From: 4nolz@work
08-Jun-20
I have 400 acres in zone 4 that hasnt been bowhunted the last 2 years.There are 2 of us and I posted here looking for a 3rd that would draw a bowtag since we wont.I posted here a month ago and it got deleted.Wish Id seen this thread earlier.
From: standswittaknife
08-Jun-20
I have 7 points but no time to draw... I didn't buy a point because I spaced it. But I think I'm ahead of the game. I usually suck it up and buy the point because the experience is worth the extra funds spread out over the years. It's how I book hunts anyway, years in advance so I can chip away at them. I don't necessarily like it either, but I'll go along because I really don't have a choice if I want to hunt.
From: 4nolz@work
08-Jun-20
You won't need to keep buying points they are good forever
From: JTreeman
08-Jun-20
Yeah, you have already over-spent. There really isn’t any point creep in IA, and your points don’t go away if you don’t buy/apply. You are set for whenever/wherever you want to apply in IA.
—Jim
From: gobbler
08-Jun-20
If more people quit I won’t have to wait as long between tags
From: JL
08-Jun-20
Yes...Iowa is expensive and folks will have to rethink if it's worth it. It's like other expensive states for NR's.
I see this akin to folks bidding for a popular item (Iowa) on EBay. The bidders (hunters) get tunnel vision and caught up in the fog of bidding. They feverishly keep placing bids (buying points) and end up overpaying (points plus tag) for the item (a deer hunt) when they might be able to get the same item (deer hunting) somewhere else cheaper. You can replace deer with moose or elk or sheep/goats and the analogy would still apply.
From: Shawn
08-Jun-20
The way it is going though it looks like to draw some of Iowa you will need at least 5 points in a few years. Some parts it used to be 1 and you had a good chance now 2 if real lucky and 3 will do it. 4 and 5 is taking 4 or more points now. Shawn
From: 12yards
08-Jun-20
Yes, please quit applying. Especially if you are applying for the zone that I apply for.
;^D
From: JW
08-Jun-20
Folks that keep buying points are creating the point creep in Iowa. Figure out how many points you need for your unit and apply for the tag or wait until you want to go.
From: t-roy
08-Jun-20
I don’t think that is correct, JW. If they’re just buying a preference point, they aren’t affecting the odds for the guys actually trying to draw those tags.
I do agree that the guys that already have 4-5 points and continue to buy more points, are just wasting their money.
From: Cheesehead Mike
09-Jun-20
Fifty bucks for one more point than you need is pretty cheap insurance...
From: Mfoster
09-Jun-20
The effect comes when they decide they want to hunt and cash in on those points. When someone with 7 points draws a tag that usually takes 4 it means one less person with 4 points will draw the tag and cause them to need 5, aka point creep.
From: t-roy
09-Jun-20
Wouldn’t the same thing happen if the same guy only had 5 points instead of 7 and applied for said tag?
From: greg simon
09-Jun-20
It does not matter if you have 5 or 50 points it matters how many people have 5 versus how many have 4. Number of applications cause point creep.
From: JW
09-Jun-20
It would Troy, but most folks in the past would build the points they needed to pull the tag in the unit they wanted and hunted that year. Now guys are building up a rediculous amount of points and sitting on them. I know a guy with 7 points now. Hell, he could have drawn and hunted his unit twice already instead of adding to the tiers of point holders. Mfoster has it right.
From: t-roy
09-Jun-20
Still gotta disagree, JW. Those guys sitting on, and banking their points aren’t keeping the guys that are trying to draw a tag from having just as good of a chance of pulling it, until they actually apply as well. They are guaranteed to draw it with their 5-50 points, when they finally do apply. If anything, the guys that are banking more and more points instead of applying, are actually helping to increase the odds (nominally) for the guys trying to draw. If a guy now has 8 points, that’s potentially 2 tags that he WOULD have taken instead of someone else getting them.
From: pav
09-Jun-20
It's only true "point creep" if it creates a consistent slope IMO...not a handful of one offs randomly applying across the state with more points than necessary. That said, back in the late 90's, I drew three Iowa archery tags in a four year span. Today, same zone takes four points. Lots more applicants for the same quota of NR archery tags...THEREIN lies your point creep.
From: JL
09-Jun-20
T...however as more people sit on points and other folks don't draw but get a point....the pool of people who have a higher number of points will out number the folks who have less points just getting into the point game. That is where the upward creep starts to occur. If the DNR increases the number of tags...the point creep will begin to decrease. If the DNR decreases tags...the point creep will get worse. In addition to the tags, I'm thinking the DNR makes money off of point creep. I would think the revenue from the number of folks buying points outweighs the revenue from the folks who buy a fixed number of tags.
From: IdyllwildArcher
09-Jun-20
There is point creep in Iowa, it's just slow.
From: 4nolz@work
09-Jun-20
Guys are sitting on points and padding points deciding if the herd will recover from EHD the glory days seem past now.
From: Mfoster
09-Jun-20
T-Roy, last year in zone 5 the quota for bow tags was 560. Out that 560 44 people had 5 or more points, everyone that applied with 4 points drew and only 24 drew with 3 points. So in theory if 44 people with more than 4 points apply again this year than nobody with 3 points will draw and 20 people with 4 points will not draw and need 5 points next year. Part of point creep is more people applying and the other part is people buying more points than they need.
