Anybody familiar with the quality of bucks in Poweshiek County Iowa? Good? Not so good? I'm thinking about going there.
If I was having to pay nonresident fees and plan a hunt, it would not be in Poweshiek County. Lots and lots of wide open agricultural land and not a lot of good whitetail ground. There are good bucks nearly everywhere, but this would be very marginal. Go to the Iowa DNR website and look. I just went through many pages of the record book and didnt see Poweshiek county once. Sorry to rain on your parade, but I am giving you an honest opinion. You could do much better unless you just happen to have access to a large tract of private land that is managed and has good cover.
Thanks for the honest opinion. That's exactly what I want. I don't want to go and be sadly disappointed. I have access to about 1,000 acres, but it has very little cover and most of the cover is on an 80 that has been hunted. Unfortunately it came out of CRP last year and went into corn. The other 900+ I don't believe gets hunted. The guy that told me about it said he always seen big rubs when he pheasant hunted out there. The farmer with the 900+ acres said he could see about 30 deer feeding from his house every day in the winter when it got real cold after deer season. He said he knows of at least two farmers that carry pistols with them at all times now because there are so many deer. The farmers are not happy with the state for not letting in more non residents because the residents are not killing enough deer. Maybe I should send the land owners some pictures of the size deer I'm looking for and see if they see them like that on their property. What is big to the land owners may not be big to me.
Many of the complainers wouldnt let a nonresident hunt if they asked. Some of them dont even let the locals hunt and then complain about the deer numbers. Believe it or not, most of the loudest compaints come from guys that either dont allow hunting or strictly limit access. The residents have done a great job of filling all the extra doe tags the last few years. In many areas, the herd has now been reduced to goal and bonus tags reduced. Dont believe everything you hear about the deer population. Does 30 deer for 1000 acres sound out of control to you? The farmers that allow hunting during all seasons have few complaints. Dont let the large number of acres fool you into thinking that it will be good hunting. Still sounds very marginal to me. Many of the farmers here think any deer with a rack is a big buck. I mean no offense by this, it is just a fact. If they have little interest in hunting they just dont know what they are looking at. I have been on many wild goose chases to look at what was supposed to be a huge buck, only to find a 125" 8 pointer. I'm not sure your picture idea would do you any good. Trail cameras would be your best bet.
