Heading into Iowa’s busiest outdoor ‘opening day,’ shotgun deer season hunters should expect to see about the same number of deer in the timber as last year – with the possible exception for hunters in southcentral Iowa, where local deer populations were impacted by an outbreak of hemorrhagic disease.
“Our deer herd is trending slightly higher statewide but remains well within our population goals and based on our survey data, I’m expecting another good year for our deer hunters,” said Tyler Harms, with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Bureau. “We are watching certain areas in southcentral Iowa closely and could adjust our future management strategy based on the harvest and population data.”
More than 110,000 blaze orange clad hunters and landowners will be pushing and posting the timber in pursuit of Iowa’s legendary whitetails. The first of Iowa’s shotgun deer seasons is December 7-11 followed by the second from December 14-22. Hunters need to pick one of the seasons – only landowners can hunt both.
“The shotgun seasons are a pretty awesome tradition we have in Iowa,” Harms said. “The two seasons have the highest participation of hunters which yields the highest deer harvest.”
Of the nearly 108,000 deer harvested in Iowa last year, more than 59,000 came from the shotgun seasons. Weather played a factor last year as thousands of hunters switched their licenses from first season to second to avoid a winter storm.
