I should draw a archery tag for zone 9 this year. How is the hunting on public land in this area? I've scouted in this area a few times in the last 3 years, deer sign looks very good in most of the spots I checked out. Any tips would be great. Thanks
My mom has relatives up in decorah, I plan on hunting up their in a couple years. Nows the time to scout and look for those bucks bedrooms, rublines leading too alot of rubs. Muddied up trails and fresh buck tracks. What county you hunting? Iowa is good all around, they have a great deer program their!
They only allow a certain amount of non-resident hunters per hunting zone. It's hard for a non-resident to draw unless you have several preference points. Plus their gun season isn't long and drawn out like alot of states. This all allows for the deer to have a better chance to mature!
None of our gun seasons are during the rut. In my opinion, that is extremely important to buck survival.
Exactly this ^^^ I wish Indiana would wise up and make some changes, but I don't see it happening soon Good luck in Iowa antlerman
Yes, but the waters aren't all calm on the Iowa front either....There has been alot of talk the last couple years of needing to change direction BEFORE they find themselves in a situation a that several other states have gotten themselves into in regards to management. That said I am sure with some work and planning you will have great hunt out there. Hopefully I draw as well.
That's the key right there! Now if they would just make party hunting a thing of the past we'd be in real good shape. Also, I'd like them to potentially go to a earn a buck program like some other states. I was looking at the harvest trends and the non-residents aren't filling thier doe tags. Less than 40% of them take advantage of using that tag and it causes the buck to doe harvest percentages to skew quite a bit. Without the non-resident hunters the harvest would be around 41% bucks (total, with shed bucks and button bucks) and 59% does on average. Nothing at all against non-resident hunters, don't get me wrong. It would just be nice to see more of them help the state by filling that tag. If they don't want the meat, they can donate it to the HUSH program at zero cost to the hunter. If you draw in Iowa, please fill that doe tag.
Excellent point, if anyone knows anything about deer management, taking a doe while out their would help!
At around $600 for a licence I will shoot every thing I can, not to mention come back for some coyote hunting. I have a niece that is a basketball coach at Luther, I was hoping she could hook me up with some help, but her husband doesn't hunt (who in Iowa doesn't hunt). LOL. Still alot of time, just trying to get all my ducks in a row before season starts.
You would be surprised...when I moved here I couldn't believe how few local hunters there were. Or, I guess I should restate that. I can't believe there were so few hunters they are the type of hunters like most of us on this site. A lot of the local hunters in Iowa party hunt in the shotgun seasons. They get in big groups and do these big deer drives...it's disgusting! There are probably half a dozen people who get killed here every year while participating in these drives.
Some good big public hunting around Waukon areas that if you are willing to walk in a ways to get away from other hunters. I've mushroom hunted part of it, but didn't go too deep because we didn't need to. I would imagine that it gets hunted, but most would probably hunt closer to road. Keep in mind early muzzleloader season is during archery too and that can create more pressure or less public land to hunt. Not sure how big the area you can hunt is. Decorah should have some public ground around it too. Waukon is just east of Decorah. Buy a public hunting map and scout it a few times in the spring or summer. You can pick one up at cabelas in Prairie Du Chien, WI. You should be good. Most of NE Iowa has really good deer populations.
