Statewide Iowa — Blaze orange clad hunters moving through Iowa’s timber will be a common sight when the first of two shotgun deer seasons open Dec. 5. An estimated 120,000 hunters participate in the shotgun seasons, harvesting about half of the total number of deer for the year.
“Shotgun deer seasons are important tradition for Iowa deer hunters as well as an important time for herd management,” said Tyler Harms, deer program leader for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Hunters have reported harvesting more than 26,000 deer so far this year, which is about 1,000 more than this time last year, and that’s good news, Harms said.
“From our standpoint, that’s something we like to see because coming in to the season, people were concerned about reduced deer numbers due to the widespread hemorrhagic disease outbreak last year. If we project this harvest out, not factoring in any curveball Mother Nature would throw at us, we are trending to our goal of harvesting between 100,000 and 120,000 deer,” Harms said.
Iowa’s first shotgun deer season is Dec. 5-9, and second shotgun deer season is Dec. 12-20.
Changes to deer seasons
-The antlerless deer quota has been adjusted in 23 counties.
-The January antlerless deer season will not be offered this year except in certain zones for chronic wasting disease management.
-The first shotgun season buck-only restriction has been removed in Winnebago, Worth, Hancock, Cerro Gordo, Franklin, Hardin and Grundy counties.
