Iowa Deer Quality on the Decline ???.....

[Arrowsmith]

Maybe some....but its still dang good.

Some of my local friends have told me how good the deer hunting was in Iowa 10, 20, 30 years ago. They said if you didn't go out and at least see a 140" to a 160" buck a sit during the rut it was a bad hunting day.

Yes...EHD episodes over the last several years has definitely hurt the age structure in some areas.

Habitat loss is also a factor.

Farming is king in Iowa. The farmers over the years have cleared more and more timber to create more tillable acres. I don't blame them. It is their livelihood. I have witnessed it right out of my living room window. My neighbor installed drainage tile in a 40 acre field across the road from our house last year. While he had the heavy equipment in there they cleared the timber right up to the river bank.

Like I said above....the hunting is still pretty dang awesome !!!

Watch this video from the Iowa Deer Classic. There are some awesome bucks and these are just the ones that people made the effort to take to the Classic.

The 176" 8 point that I mentioned in another post is at 1:55 mark.

https://youtu.be/-Q9ZDjG1iPA

[HoustonHunter94]

I’ve got a great friend in Iowa who says the same thing. 10-20yrs ago was amazing and now it’s pretty tough BUT still dang good like you said. EHD was really bad in his area. I only saw one big deer up there this year but it was a dandy and I shot it.

Here’s a few from my friends basement. He got to the point he had no interest in shooting 160” deer anymore. Now the bigger ones are getting fewer and farther between. But still…..hard to beat Iowa. I’m jealous.








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[TheHammer]

I love hunting the Midwest and Iowa was my dream whitetail hunt! Iowa is still king of the Midwest and not behind many for quality booners I would guess….?…

The Drurys got me fired up about Iowa at a young age!

[Iowa1210]

I love hunting the Midwest and Iowa was my dream whitetail hunt! Iowa is still king of the Midwest and not behind many for quality booners I would guess….?…

The Drurys got me fired up about Iowa at a young age!

I've been hunting Iowa for the past 20 years. When we 1st started to hunt we were assured of a non resident archery tag almost every year. Now it takes 4 years of accumulation of preference points to acquire a tag(thanks Drury boys).
Things have changed a lot, we have access to thousands of acres on the largest beef ranches in Iowa. Of course as was mentioned habitat has been destroyed as ranchers clean up these acquired old homesteads.
We now apply for shotgun season which were usually picked every other year for a buck tag. What I have noticed is a decline in party drive hunters which is sometimes a disadvantage for shotgun hunters, big deer just don't get up and move around as much during shotgun deer so less big ones seen.
This past year hunting food sources I had two different 160+ deer at 50 yards and only had doe tag. As always I cannot wait until next year rolls around to see what the next adventure is in Iowa.

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[James]

Looking forward to drawing a tag in Iowa next year hopefully

[trophy8]

It’s those hunting cats!

[Landrover]

Not going to stop me from applying......lol!~~

[mdnabors]

I have 4 points and will buy another this year for hopes of planning a hunt the 2023 season.

[Killer]

Wow

[Arrowsmith]

I’ve got a great friend in Iowa who says the same thing. 10-20yrs ago was amazing and now it’s pretty tough BUT still dang good like you said. EHD was really bad in his area. I only saw one big deer up there this year but it was a dandy and I shot it.

Here’s a few from my friends basement. He got to the point he had no interest in shooting 160” deer anymore. Now the bigger ones are getting fewer and farther between. But still…..hard to beat Iowa. I’m jealous.








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I delivered a pair of binos over to friends house last Tuesday. He is in his 70s and he is kind of a target archery legend here in SE Iowa. I have picked him up a few times to ride with me to 3D shoots but I had never been inside his house. He said "Come in. I want to show you some of my deer mounts". I was shocked!! The room looked much like the picture you posted. The only two bucks we discussed was a 171" and a 204", but they were ALL big.

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[Texas Grown]

Mike, your thread had me late last night, looking at property in Iowa.

[IowaHunter]

Last two years it was the 12 year-olds both taking 170+ deer. Great thing is they both took a doe at the same time. Excited kids with two deer down in minutes.

[Arrowsmith]

It’s those hunting cats!

Waiting at the base of my my tree.[emoji1][emoji106]

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[tps7742]

Those are some awesome looking animals on the walls. I bet allot of the real local hunters trophy kills, the public never gets to see them. And that’s smart on their part imo.

[bbbuck]

Impressive.