Public Land Whitetail Hunting in Iowa

I am going to Iowa bow hunting whitetails and I was wondering if there public land hunting is any good, or should I try to get permission for private land. I will be hunting the North East section of Iowa. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thanks

Welcome to the site. Someone from Iowa will answer your ? by tommorrow.Good luck

Welcome to In-Depth Outdoors born2hunt!!!

Here is an Iowa buck that was taken on public land with a bow.

Click here

Thanks for replying that is definitely a shooter buck. I guess that answers my ? Thanks

What county in NE Iowa will you be in? I live in Fayette county and there are always nice bucks taken off of public land. And the four countys in this corner all have public ground to hunt. Allamakee county has the Yellow river forest which is a big tract of public land.

Ed

Welcome to the site. Heres the links I just checked out for you. Go to http://www.Ia/dnr.com and click on the first entry on the list. When the page comes up look in the left columb and click on hunting and wildlife. When that page comes up look down on the left under common requests and you’ll see the link that says links to maps and interactive mapping, go there. This will bring up the page that lists the public hunting areas in the whole state. If you know the counties names for the N.E, corner of Iowa look on the list and cick on that heading, it will take you too the list of public areas that are available to hunt. I don’t know but there might be a list of counties on a map under the dnr’s site for the names of those counties, probably is. This will give you the public areas that area available to hunt.

The public areas in all of Eastern Iowa are good and they all hold deer and knock on a few doors because there are farmers who will let you hunt because of crop damage, check that out too. If it were me Id check out those smaller tracts of land and don’t be afraid to hunt those, just because its not 3000 acres that dosen’t mean anything here, some of those smaller tracts are almost unhunted. After shotgun season some of those smaller tracts hold alot of deer because thier almost unhunted and the deer will be pushed into those areas from the shotgunners. Look under mapquest or another site and look for any area that has small rivers and creeks nearby and you’ll find a good place to hunt. This will help get you started, good luck when coming here, you will see deer.

Well, a friend of mine who is also a member here, who lives in Iowa, has a room full of public land bucks mounted on the walls. That doesn’t count the racks sitting in a box, or the ones his hunting party takes every year.
Yeah, Iowa has some decent bucks running around on public land It is also amazing how few people utilize the resources Iowa has.

Thanks for all the info. I will more than likely be hunting Allamakee County. I am from Michigan and a lot of the bucks that people think are nice around here are most of the time passed up in Iowa. I am looking forward to the hunt and am sure I will be seeing some nice deer. I am trying to do all my homework so that this trip will be one to remember. Again thanks for the info and keep it coming.

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How hard do you guys think it would be too find a “trade a trip” with someone from IA? Say, big walleyes on mille lacs for big bucks in IA? I’ve always wanted too check into that.

I think the biggest issue with swapping a hunt for fishing would be the license nightmare. If you plan to gun hunt, it is a draw, and the Northeast corner is at LEAST a 2 year wait and could be 3 years before you are drawn. I am not sure if the bow hunting license is draw as well or not. Then add to the fact that Iowa is cashing in on their deer herd and it is their “cash cow” right now. I beleive the tag and all other licenses are going to run you close to $500 for the chance at a nice buck.
The one good thing about it all is, there is more than enough public land to hunt and those lands hold some great bucks.
For me, if I am going to spend that kind of money on a deer, it definitely wouldn’t be whitetail since they are just about everywhere in the upper Midwest. Mule Deer is where I would put my money and head out West for a change of scenery

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Mule Deer is where I would put my money and head out West for a change of scenery

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A Mule deer hunt is definatly on my to do list someday

But if I am after a record book whitetail for me Iowa is at the top of my list.

I have hunted in Colorado for Elk twice with my bow. It is definitely some awesome scenery. We saw a lot of elk and was in range of a couple of nice bulls but never got any shots off. While we were elk hunting we had some nice mule deer bucks in range but we had no tags. But I really want to shoot a big whitetail buck also. That is why I am paying the big bucks for the tag because I know there are a lot of big bucks in Iowa. I forgot to mention that all those elk and mule deer were on public land and they were do it yourself hunts

If strictly whitetail you are after, then you are correct, Iowa has what you are looking for

You might check into Clayton County also. They have killed almost twice as many deer as any other county.I hunt in Lee and Van Buren.Van Buren is right up there at 2nd or third on the list.We killed a 165 and a 150 plus this weekend plus a few dinks for the first timers. The weather was terrible all weekend but ya gotta go , its only 5 days a year.Good luck

Sorry I saw this so late- send me a PM if you need any help- I am not too familiar with that area, but there is some great public land down my way- Iowa city/cedar rapids area-