|
Iowa Deer Hunts
Deer Hunter Interests
|
Trophy HistoryDo it yourself Iowa deer hunting in south-central Iowa zone 4 & 5 for deer hunters that want to deer hunt without public lands hunter mentality. 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.
Habitat IdeasTypical 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 they 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). 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 in 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.
Details
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 website for details. Hunter education cards are required for those born after January 1, 1967. Zones for Non-Residents
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.
Each link below has greater levels of detail that will give as complete a picture of the self guided deer hunts we offer as is possible with text and pictures. The bottom line is we offer Iowa deer hunts for those that can hunt on their own throughout the entire season. Those deer hunts are on private land isolated to our hunters.
|
