Iowa Early Muzzleloader Season ?

is anyone going ? It is only open to Residents with only 7500 license avaible only 3202 have been sold.
These use to sell out in a couple days not any more, could it be the Dates Oct 12-20th before the Rut and before many crops have been harvested ?
Could it be that CWD has been found in Iowa ?
I know it a nice time to be in the woods without a lot of people, very peaceful.
Anyone else from Iowa going ?

More than likely its just a plain lack of hunters. I don't see that many young hunters out there anymore and sadly statistics bear that out. Guess they'd rather sleep in and play with their joy stick.
Robby

1100 Remington Man said:

is anyone going ? It is only open to Residents with only 7500 license avaible only 3202 have been sold.
These use to sell out in a couple days not any more, could it be the Dates Oct 12-20th before the Rut and before many crops have been harvested ?
Could it be that CWD has been found in Iowa ?
I know it a nice time to be in the woods without a lot of people, very peaceful.
Anyone else from Iowa going ?

Click to expand...

Yes it is Pre-Rut and the bucks are laying low before the rut.It is a beautiful time to be in the woods,but that has it's consequences.Very hot sometimes and you really have to have plans to cool and process your deer.Iowa does have CWD like most Mid-West states but they have it narrowed down to a very small area.Sneaking around food areas,at sunset used to be very productive for my son and me.Good Luck!

Robby said:

More than likely its just a plain lack of hunters. I don't see that many young hunters out there anymore and sadly statistics bear that out. Guess they'd rather sleep in and play with their joy stick.
Robby

Click to expand...

Sad but likely true. I had an absolutely excellent non-resident archery season there last year. More mature bucks sighted than I've ever seen in my life (and I've hunted a lot of different places) during the first week of November. The deer are there to hunt. They just need people to capitalize on the opportunity and actually get their butts in the woods.

Back in the 1990's I used to bowhunt Iowa as a non-resident (before the license fees went through the roof). I'm still a lifetime member of IBA even though I don't hunt there anymore. The lack of hunters during earlier seasons is nothing new. While I had permission on literally thousands of acres of private land in the NE corner of the state, there was some really good hunting on small county or state management areas away from the larger population centers, and for the most part I had the woods all to myself. Good luck to everyone on the early ML hunt. I would actually pay the high license fees if they let non-residents in on that hunt.

If the resident hunters don't buy the tags why not let non residents have them? Seems silly not to.

I believe that the change of game laws restricting the resident to one buck tag for all of the gun seasons is what happened to the early tags selling out quickly. The hunters aren't willing to give up their buck tag for shotgun season to hunt an early season muzzleloader. I enjoy hunting early season but time restraints make it impossible most of the time now. Greg

Logcutter said:

If the resident hunters don't buy the tags why not let non residents have them? Seems silly not to.

Click to expand...

I think it's one of those deals that serves as an extremely low pressure hunt opportunity reserved for residents, so they may not be concerned about overall participation unless it gets exceedingly low. They do the same thing with their Fall turkey season: residents only.

It's a killer as an outsider looking in because that state has some absurdly good game. Like I said, last year's archery season (for which I had to bank some points as a non-res), was pretty spectacular. Bagged a doe the first time I hunted my buddy's farm and arrowed a pretty studly buck with that same bow a few weeks later when I returned for the November pre-rut.



If I was a Iowa resident, there is *zero* question that I would be out there with a .50 cal flintlock as soon as the opportunity came.

That is a lot of buck in the bed of that rig! What did he weigh??

Ricochet said:

That is a lot of buck in the bed of that rig! What did he weigh??

Click to expand...

That's a great question, Ricochet, and I wish I knew the answer!

We never did get a weight on him. As you can imagine, it took an ETERNITY to get him out of the woods. With me and a buddy pulling together, we could barely move him 5 yards so I could get him in a position to field dress (he went down in an awkward spot against a tree). We quickly realized that he was so danged heavy that we needed a game cart.

Went back down the hill, retrieved the cart, and it *still* was brutal negotiating even the gentlest slopes on the hill pulling this bruiser. We finally went down the hill yet again to retrieve my truck and some log chain, and hitched it to the cart to pull him the last 70 yards or so to the top. It took a solid 1.5 hours from the time my friend arrived to help and when we finally got him loaded. At that point, I just wanted to hurry up and get him to the processor.

Too hot to hunt here in WV yet but we checked the lane I go in from. Can't see more then a few feet and have fallen trees to remove.
The crazy part is there is a huge scrape every 20 yards and I can't figure why so early.

That is a big animal! A big deer around here would be dwarfed in comparison to that!

Living and deer huniting in Iowa for the last 40+ years, I have taken a zillion bucks with bow and gun. Flintlock,percussion, and shotgun. The average buck here will field dress @ 150lbs . 185lb field dress buck is big and fairly common. 200+lb are giants and the largest I have seen dead was 258 lbs field dressed. That one was beyond huge! Just guessing by the picture I would guess your buck in the 180lb class. Very nice buck and congrats on a nice harvest! Greg

Logcutter said:

If the resident hunters don't buy the tags why not let non residents have them? Seems silly not to.

Click to expand...

I am a retired Game Warden from the Iowa. Good question, in the past the reason non-res have not been allowed to purchase unused license is that the resident hunters, and specifically a few organized groups of hunters have been very vocal in NOT wanting or allowing non res to purchase these license.
Bob
Iowa

I've always had a bow in hand during the early muzzleloader season. If my shoulder holds out, that will be the case this year as well. We can't hunt with a bow during shotgun season here, so that's when the TC Hawken comes out for me. A lot of the guys I know are bow hunting during that season as well. I'm sure the one buck per hunter is probably a factor for many others though.

GWarden226 said:

I am a retired Game Warden from the Iowa. Good question, in the past the reason non-res have not been allowed to purchase unused license is that the resident hunters, and specifically a few organized groups of hunters have been very vocal in NOT wanting or allowing non res to purchase these license.
Bob
Iowa

Click to expand...

I'm not part of any organized group lobbying against non-residents, but I can understand that feeling. The TV hunters make it seem like there is a 150 or better class buck behind every tree in the state, so lots of out of state hunters have leased land that was once open to resident friends and neighbors. That land is now off limits except for a few days a year when the non-resident lesee shows up to hunt. Before the TV hunting started, out of state hunters generally asked landowner permission and hunted during whatever season they were here for, leaving the land open to others for the rest of the year. That has been replaced by high dollar leases and posted signs around the perimeter. Things like that have no doubt spawned the groups you mentioned.

Ricochet said:

That is a big animal! A big deer around here would be dwarfed in comparison to that!

Click to expand...

The Midwest, in general - Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas, in particular - has just insanely big deer. If you want to take a smokepole out on public land with a legit shot at a giant buck, these states give you as good a shot as any.

Just to give you an idea of what you can bag on public land out this way, here is the 2017 Buck that a friend of mine shot during regular firearms season in Nebraska at a place we've hunted for all manner of game for years. For perspective, my friend weighs about 220 lbs. Use you imagination regarding what this buck had to weigh. He couldn't budge it at all by himself.

Now, imagine going after this caliber of deer with a muzzleloader in December, a full 2 weeks after regular firearm season has closed and the vast majority of the pressure is gone. It's worth the trip if you ever get the chance.

Hey Bob, the retired Game Warden in Iowa. Are you the Bob I know?

Welcome aboard.

Art Fleener

Art
Yup, I am that fella.
Bob

I'm glad to hear of someone connecting with others on the forum but if the conversation is going to continue can I suggest it is done in a private conversation or PM?