Brett Reece. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Iowa’s most popular deer hunting seasons are just around the corner, when roughly 100,000 hunters take to the timber for the long-awaited gun seasons.

Iowa’s first gun season is Dec. 7-11. Second gun season is Dec. 14-22.

Last year, hunters reported harvesting around 60,000 deer during these two seasons, which is more than half of the total deer harvested for all seasons, and wildlife experts are forecasting a similar harvest.

So far this fall, youth, disabled hunter, early muzzleloader and archery hunters have reported more than 25,000 deer through the harvest reporting system, which is about the five-year average.

“We’ve had a strong harvest in Eastern Iowa, but the declining populations in Western Iowa has impacted hunting opportunity and led to an overall lower harvest,” said Jace Elliott, state deer biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The 2024 harvest to date is about six percent behind the 2023 harvest.

Archery season got off to a slow start due to summer temperatures extending into early October but harvest has been strong as the calendar turned to November.

“More hunters participate in cooler temperatures,” Elliott said. “Cold weather puts deer on their feet and hunters in the woods.”

The gun seasons have been traditionally associated with groups of hunters walking through the timber, pushing deer towards other members of the hunting group, but results of the recently completed deer hunter survey found that gun season hunters are divided evenly in how they pursue deer.

About half participate in traditional deer drives, while the other half prefer to hunt from stationary position. The deer hunter survey found that overall, 80 percent of respondents indicated they are satisfied with the overall deer hunting experience, citing the social aspect of the hunting groups and the opportunity to put deer meat in the freezer as two reasons they hunt.

This is the second year the Iowa DNR is requiring hunters to include the main beam antler measurement when reporting their deer. “Last year, for the first time, we could estimate the percentage of yearling bucks as part of the harvest based on the antler measurement. There was a strong variation across counties in Iowa where some counties had 50 percent of their harvest consisting of yearling bucks, compared to other counties where they were 20 percent,” Elliott said. Statewide, yearling bucks made up 38 percent of the total buck harvest.

This year Iowa experienced another outbreak of hemorrhagic disease (EHD) with 93 counties reporting deer mortality. Hemorrhagic disease tends to affect deer in Iowa between late summer and early fall, though outbreak severity can vary from year to year. Hunters and landowners may discover multiple deer carcasses on a property, specifically near a water source, during these months as a result of hemorrhagic disease. There is no effective treatment or known prevention for wild deer in regards to EHD.

“Central Iowa has been the most impacted to date, with Guthrie County reporting the highest deer mortality,” Elliott said. Western Iowa from Lyon County to Monona County have also reported high deer mortality, along with a few Eastern Iowa counties.

“The disease doesn’t impact counties equally, and local deer harvest often lags slightly following outbreaks due to loss of opportunity,” he said. “Populations often recover a few years following the disease, however, in Western Iowa, it may take more time due to an already limited population. As we continue to monitor the effects of this year’s outbreak on county deer populations, hunters in some areas may see responsive regulatory changes in the next hunting season. However, hunters should always remember that the decision to pull a trigger is their own and populations are sensitive to doe harvest.”

In Western Iowa, the DNR has taken steps to recover the deer herd by reducing or eliminating county specific antlerless only deer licenses, and adding six counties to the list where hunters in the first gun season are limited to bucks only.

Almost 2,000 dead deer have been reported across the state with nearly 900 entries coming through the new online reporting option. This number is well below the number of deer that actually succumbed to EHD.

The DNR rolled out a webpage that allows Iowans to report finding dead deer to provide a better picture of the extent that hemorrhagic disease has impacted the deer in a given year. Go to https://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting/Deer-Hunting/Deer-Health then click on Seasonal Diseases.

Identifying hemorrhagic disease is pretty straightforward: mortalities occur between July and September, sometimes later during unseasonably warm weather; more than one deer carcass is found, and carcasses are found near a water source.

Brett Reece is a conservation officer with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.