Iowa’s shotgun deer season, begins Saturday. Thousands of shivering orange-clad hunters will be out in the woods half an hour before dawn — as the D-N-R’s Alan Foster says that’s the moment the season opens. It’s light enough by then to be shooting safely, he says.
Bow-hunters always had that time span and shotgun hunters requested it too, so with half-an-hour before sunrise and the same after sunset, it gives then another hour in the day. He says the shotgun deer season’s without a doubt the biggest one in Iowa.
“We’re expecting somewhere around 200-thousand hunters out for the state’s two shotgun deer-hunting seasons,” Foster says, “It’s the only real big-game hunting Iowa has to offer… and it’s highly popular.” He says it brings more hunters than even the state’s pheasant season, which draws Iowa and out-of-state sportsmen alike.
The weather’s forecast to be bone-chilling cold, but Foster says while hunters won’t enjoy that, they’d prefer to see some snowfall. He says it’s the time of year hunters should dress in layers anyway. A fresh snow cover makes it quieter to walk in the woods, and to spot an animal — and Foster says if hunters wound an animal that runs off, the snow would make it easier to track. The shotgun deer seasons run from Saturday through next Wednesday and again from December 9 through the 17th.
Related web sites:
Iowa D-N-R website