I am preparing for my first out of state hunt for whitetails. I finally have enough points to draw for a tag next season in Iowa. I am choosing Zone 9 because I have a friend that I have found out owns land there in Clayton County. I have been looking at maps and tops looking for funnels and whatnot. However, what I can not see is what worries me, since I have never been there. Here is a run down on the properties - it is two different farms. Both about 160 acres less than 3 miles apart. He has 40 acres of CRP, about 100 acres of timber, 80 acres of pasture, and about 100 acres in corn. The timber is broke down into about 10 stands to equal the 100 acres. It is very hilly it seems as the topo map has elevation as high as 1000 and low as 800. This is vastly different than where I hunt here in Ohio where it is all flat and lots of crops. A few questions are: Is 320 acres in this type of area going to be enough to hunt for a week or so? I travel to hunt ducks, and 320 acres in an area like Saskatchewan or North Dakota is nothing, but 320 in Ohio one two separate farms could be enough to hunt all year. How do deer relate to hills this steep? Will they tend to be on any portion of the hill more than the other? I see no water or creeks on any of the property. Is Clayton Country a dry area or am I going to find little water holes in pastures and small ditches and streams once I am there? How many of you traveling hunters take a scouting trip out there prior to your trip? It is 8 hours each way. I am thinking about going out a month before to set trail cams so I will have data to make my trip as successful as possible. Obviously there is a lot of cost with that option. Thanks for any insight and help.
Hi Did you have any luck? I'm fairly new to this site. I hunt a 400 acre area in Wisconsin and I would say that is enough area to hunt for a week. I'm going to be going g to iowa in 202 . Pretty pumped but I will be on public ground. Any tips or advice would be appreciated. seems kind of overwhelming to look at maps trying to find area . I live about 4 hours away from zone 9 and will try to make a trip or 2 to scout.
