Iowa Late Season Muzzleloader

First time doing a late season IA hunt and figured Id see if anyone has any knowledge to offer up.

We own a small 20 acre hardwood lot in Zone 10 just south of the MN border. Thru October we had anywhere from 10-20 different bucks moving thru a day. Now with the cold weather, cell cam pics have dwindled to a couple deer a day. Obviously they seem to be on a higher value food source.

My plan as of now is to touch base with a couple neighbors after gun season and see if they have the deer bedded on their property. There is enough public where I could still hunt in the mornings on smaller chunks and scout out food sources for afternoon sits. My woods could be a refuge after gun season but that will remain to be seen. The long term forecast shows that weather may be on my side with single digit temps.

Anyone have advice or heads up for a guy new to Iowa Muzzleloader? Thanks,

It is worth noting there is a 200 acre thick public lot on the Wapsipinicon river about 1 mile west. They could be there? Most of the public I have my eyes set on border the Wapsi. Thanks,

I hunt Iowa Late season Muzzy and have for 7 or 8 years now. Ideally you want the coldest weather we get all year during that time. Or a lot of fronts which will get the deer on their feet as well. If you get this weather early in the season it will be feast or famine. The deer will bunch up and you will see a lot of nothing. Ultimately if we get that weather food is the number 1 priority. They will be hitting the closest food to their bedding or perhaps changing their bedding so they don’t have to travel very far to get to food.

Most people will say to not hunt mornings during this time of year. Depending on where you are hunting I may or may agree. If you can sit on a travel route from a food source to bedding mornings can be good. The issue with hunting food sources is you jump all the deer off of them as you walk to your stand.

If we have warm weather late season can be brutally hard. This is when still hunting may work better. You can try to get close to bedding areas during the mid morning.

A lot of our success has come on the worst days. A couple years ago it was -15 with a wind chill of -30 and I shot my deer at 9:15ish am. They have to feed all day in that weather.

Good luck!!