A three-day antlerless deer season kicks off the day after Thanksgiving. Department of Natural Resources deer biologist, Tom Litchfield, says the season is geared around the holiday to allow family and friends to hunt together. He says it’s a time when families are usually together and have some time off where they can get out and hunt.
Litchfield recently joined the Iowa DNR, but says he’s heard the hunting time around the holidays has been popular. Litchfield says especially shotgun hunting, where people tend to go out and hunt with friends. He says the antlerless hunt also helps control the size of the deer herd.
Litchfield says another unique feature of this hunt is the type of weapons allowed, as bows, shotguns, handguns and muzzleloaders can all be used to hunt. The hunt is open in counties that have not filled their antlerless license quota this year.
Litchfield says it’s important to thin out the number of female deer. He says you can shoot all the bucks you want, but there are still enough bucks to breed, and the only way to control the herd is to take more female deer. The DNR says some 11,500 licenses were issued for this hunt last year, with a reported kill of just over 41-hundred deer. For more information on getting a deer hunting license, go to the DNR website .