Iowa Deer Hunting
Iowa deer hunting regulations, reputation and Association rules mashed together for a general overview. Detailed iowa bow, shotgun and muzzleloader deer hunting web pages get down into further detail.
Iowa deer hunting habitat that provides the best trophy potential is agricultural land, meaning more farm ground than woody cover many deer hunters expect.
Iowa Trophy Deer
The only place on this web site we publish the last name of the hunter shown and state of harvest, in this case Billy Kindrek. We do so for this picture that has been much abused by outfitters as Billy did harvest this trophy Iowa deer off Association lease land. Not any other spot as implied with this picture being used on any other advertisement. And, he harvested this deer off agricultural land within a lightly wooded drainage surrounded by crops.
There are many good deer hunters that have shared their pictures freely knowing full well that each picture makes their Association stronger and more likely to acquire better and better deer hunting land. One such hunter is Kevin.
Iowa deer hunting within Mid-America Hunting Association is within the Grand River Watershed grain farm country of south central Iowa in Iowa deer management zones 4 and 5.
Iowa has a reputation for trophy whitetail that rivals Kansas. While Iowa tags are significantly more difficult to draw than Kansas, those that secure a tag should place a good bit of time into pre season scouting our lease land.
Typical Iowa deer habitat of small wood patches and tree lined creek bottoms with surrounding crop fields.
Many that go to Iowa compare such ground to their home state and shy away from this habitat as lacking sufficient deer cover. However, when the entire region is of this similar habitat and the region is known for its trophy whitetail deer production then perhaps it is the hunter that should change his perspective and give Iowa a good hunt.
Preconceived and misconceived whitetail deer hunter ideas about the right kind of habitat is believed the greatest factor contributing to failure. This is somewhat evident when new Association whitetail hunters call to say:
"The land scouted is insufficient in habitat and buck sign and do we have better ground?"
This is surprising for where we recommend hunters to hunt is based on our first hand sighting of racks.
We manage our Iowa lease land in the same manner as our other states. And, in all three states we have had hunters reject land that has produced racks in the 140 to 186* class (*current best Iowa state whitetail in the Association with third party scoring). At this point we do the best we can for that hunter and simply must let him learn on his own.
Many local hunters successfully hunt a farm with cover patches that are out of direct line of sight from the road and the nearby farmsteads. The wooded/brushed creek bottoms provide transit cover and is the basis for all southern Iowa deer habitat.
The archery hunter will quickly focuses on many potentially good stands, while the shotgun hunter may be concern about the long range shots. Essentially, every habitat element of water in the creek, food crops and large overhead tree cover as well as low level brush necessary for good whitetail habitat is present on many of our farms.
Iowa shotgun season is generally the first two weeks in December. The Iowa deer shotgun hunter is out post peak and an easier tag to draw than the archery tag.
Archery season is October 1 - December 1, closed during gun season, to mid January. Broad heads only. Iowa archery hunters have peak rut before gun season to hunt.
Muzzleloader non-resident season opens the day after regular gun season and runs concurrently with the late Iowa bow season until mid January. An early resident only muzzleloader deer season from mid to late October. While Iowa muzzleloader seasons separate residents and non-residents neither receive much deer hunter pressure.
Youth season is mid September to the first of October.
Non-resident whitetail applications are accepted in May. Call 800-367-1188. Selection is in late June. See the Iowa DNR web site for details.
Hunter education cards are required for those born after January 1, 1967.
Once we begin to get some hunter pressure on our Iowa land we will increase the acreage. As it stands for the last several seasons there has been a good bit of land left un-hunted. This has been due as much to the Iowa tag draw success rates as well as the attraction of Kansas drawing deer hunter members away from Iowa.
An aerial of one golden nugget Iowa lease marked by the yellow square and shown with surrounding acreage of adjoining farms. This is the agricultural region responsible for big bodied deer and turkey with strong winter survival making for strong offspring. Land use ranges between 50 and 55% farming. The overall size of the aerial below is 1 1/2+ by 1 1/2+ miles.
There is much this aerial does and does not show with land use being a trouble point when assessing aerials for hunting value. In the case of this entire picture the majority of the land use is pasture. The west, most of the south, half the east and entire SE corner is all pasture as is the acreage north across the road. Our 160 acre lease however is in row crop most often soybean with the rotation being to corn. The same for the lighter colors to the SW from our lease and some to the NE. While the majority of this Iowa region is typically more row crop than pasture this locality is part of a larger drainage with hills too steep for plow.