Iowa early bow season on public land

[john1984]

Have any of you ever killed a buck 135" or bigger on public land in Iowa before October 16th????? If not, do you know anyone that has done it? Because someone said its real easy to do and any first year hunter can do it easily.
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[iowa whitetail]

I think mabe you jumped the gun a little lol.you should ask how many have tried

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[john1984]

I think mabe you jumped the gun a little lol.you should ask how many have tried

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So your saying the public land in Iowa gets extremely low hunting pressure the first half of October ?? So if I did try early season public in Iowa I would have the woods to myself for the most part? And I could easily kill a 135" or bigger by just hunting a field edge ?

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[iowa whitetail]

Think your thrown off by the hole 135 inch thing. That's a 2 or 3 year old hear that's not mature. So that being said people that do hunt that time of year or any other time of year let them walk past them.

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[john1984]

Well I guess I better go down there and kill those 2.5 year old 135's then .

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[john1984]

For some reason I can't view some pics on old pics from this site from my phone, but obviously you are a great hunter because you have been very close to knowing the things only a mature buck could possibly know. I'm just jealous of you man, no harm. I hope you live a long happy life.

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[john1984]

I just gotta see it 2 believe it. All these 135" inch bucks walking around in legal shooting time on open for everyone to easily see field edges on public ground for the first 2 weeks in October on public in Iowa . All these public land hunters are just passing em by one at a time???????? Wow! Cool. Iowa is deer hunting paradise.

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[Stanley]

Hunting early in Iowa (most anywhere for that matter) you will not only see less people, you will also see less bucks of any size. Early season, is where knowing where the buck beds are pays off.

[dan]

I have seen some pretty big Iowa early season mature bucks, but can't say I ever shot one in Iowa Early. Hard to do long distance with a tag every 3 or 4 years.

[Whitetailaddict]

I moved from Wisconsin to Iowa for school and have Hunted public the last two years. I can tell you that although the hunting is good there isn't a big buck behind every tree or walking out in the open fields (at least on public). You still have to know your stuff and I think bed hunting is your best bet. This will be my first year hunting needs so I'll let you know how that goes. I've actually shot bigger bucks in Wisconsin on public but as others have said the hunting pressure is low early season. The locals I've talked to say the deer population is down and the big deer you see on tv are on big farms and ate not what you should expect to see on public. Good luck.

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[iowa whitetail]

Ya not a big deer behind every tree and TV has got people to think that. I do think killing a 135 inch any time even early season

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[Stanley]

By my thinking a hunter needs to be diversified. Early season the hunter goes to the buck. During the rut the buck goes to the hunter. Just some food for thought.

[cbigbear]

By my thinking a hunter needs to be diversified. Early season the hunter goes to the buck. During the rut the buck goes to the hunter. Just some food for thought.

Excellent way of putting it, Stan.

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[JoeRE]

There is very little bow hunting pressure the first two weeks of October but there is a whole lot of small game hunters on public land in that time period stomping through everything. I know of no one who has consistently killed that size of deer year after year on public. Big bucks that time of year stay very isolated and you have to really be on your game to find and kill them. Before the corn comes out there is huge amounts of cover available to them.

The few hunters that might be good enough to do it will go after something bigger which can take them longer to get. The proof is in the pudding. If it was easy to kill a 135" buck in the first two weeks on public land just about everyone would do it - quite a few guys can pass a 120" deer - and it might grow a bit by the time they tell somebody about it - but a 135 is a lot tougher to pass.

On the other hand I am sure its easier here in Iowa than compared to WI, MN etc because there are more bucks of that caliber wandering around.

[Stanley]

There is very little bow hunting pressure the first two weeks of October but there is a whole lot of small game hunters on public land in that time period stomping through everything. I know of no one who has consistently killed that size of deer year after year on public. Big bucks that time of year stay very isolated and you have to really be on your game to find and kill them. Before the corn comes out there is huge amounts of cover available to them.

The few hunters that might be good enough to do it will go after something bigger which can take them longer to get. The proof is in the pudding. If it was easy to kill a 135" buck in the first two weeks on public land just about everyone would do it - quite a few guys can pass a 120" deer - and it might grow a bit by the time they tell somebody about it - but a 135 is a lot tougher to pass.

On the other hand I am sure its easier here in Iowa than compared to WI, MN etc because there are more bucks of that caliber wandering around.

Great post. I think Wisconsin has more bucks in the 135 range than Iowa does. It also has more hunters and more hills.