New deer hunting season will allow rifles in part of state

Iowa’s deer population should be taken down several thousand notches with the approval of two new hunting seasons. The Iowa Natural Resources Commission voted Thursday to add another week of hunting in January and a shorter season in November. Ken Herring is the D-N-R’s wildlife management supervisor. The first season will be a three-day season, the Friday, Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving Day on antlerless-only deer, using shotgun, bow, muzzleloader and handguns. Herring says the other “new” season is actually just adding one week onto the so-called bonus season in January, which had gone for two weeks and will now run for three. The additional week will be open in all counties statewide where permits still exist, while in the southern two tiers of counties, high-powered rifles will be a legal method of take. Herring says it’s the first time rifles have been allowed for deer hunting in Iowa since the 1950s. Herring says the objective is to reduce the population of antlerless deer. Iowa has continued to raise the number of hunting permits it issues. Another 19-thousand hunting permits will be made available with these two new seasons.