Iowa deer

[Bob Frapples]

Hello all, I just found out that I will actually be able to go to IOWA this year, due to my job situation and my fathers health we had scratched off the four year wait and 500$+ off as a loss for the year. Last week I was able to move some dates around and delay starting a new job by 2 weeks which reopens this year to have November 14 to the 22 to head to IOWA and see some new country. I m thinking we are staying in centerville during this time but at the moment i cant find my reservation info, hope to make some phone calls tomorrow to confirm this.

Only problem I have now is I never got to do much internet scouting and Im at work now and our internet service makes me long for dial up, its horrible. I hear IA is good hunting basically every where but Im wondering if anyone here knows of any areas to check out or more importantly not to go or any places shutdown or the like? I hate to ask here outright but this caught me with my drawers down to my ankles for sure.

My dad had heart valve replaced last november and is doing good but cant walk far, so Ive not got high hopes for a hard core trip like I had intended to do if this had truned into a solo trip but Im just glad he pepped up enough to go and seemed excited about it. he got permitted to use a crossbow so that will help. We are not meat hunters per-say but not only monster hunting either just wanting to see some good quality deer and maybe be able to have some calling / rattling interaction. Here in Louisiana calling/sounds for deer is a laughable thing, very rarely does calling/rattling/grunting work. Sometimes it does but usually its a hail Mary type thing.

Thanks guys,
hope to be back more regularly on here when I get back to a regular job.

 

[Don K]

Bob,

Do you have Zone 5 tags? It looks like that from what I see as I have hunted north of Centerville numerous times and had Zone 5 tags. If you have zone 5 I can help you out, there is plenty of public land there.

You need to find a place that you can sit down and surf the Internet. Iowa DNR has a incredible hunters atlas online that you can see all the public land that is available to hunt. Get to a library, a friends house or somewhere where you have good Internet.

My father is handicap and it takes him awhile to get places. I took two weeks off last trip there and it took me a week but I was able to find a spot that was close for him to walk to, and nobody was hunting. He shot his buck the second sit of this stand site, and it died about 50 yards from the truck.

 

[Don K]

If you can swing it buy this map book. I have a older copy and it was the most important tool I had. There is lots of public land that is not marked. We have had great success finding small pockets of woods with surrounding grasses.

http://www.amazon.com/Iowa-Sportsma..._UL160_SR120,160_&refRID=0M84MR1JW5VF1BFM29EB

 

[iccyman001]

Bob,

I\'m leaving the woods this afternoon.
I have a few friends who have hunted iowa. I\'ll try to gather something for you. Otherwise I could throw out my two cents on what I\'d do

 

[Bob Frapples]

Thanks guys,

Ill order that book and send it to my dad (im at work offshore and wont be back until the day we leave for Iowa) maybe he will take time to read through it.

Yes we both have Zone 5 tags, we held off to the 4th year so we would know for sure we would draw. Unfortunatley we didnt know about my job situation, but thats life...

I have used the dnr atlas last year and did some prelimnary scouting but dropped all of it when I thought there was no way we were going to get to go. I think i got mad and tossed some of the printouts in the trash, lol Illl try to get on the bosses computer tonight after work, his is a little faster that these they let us peons use.

Thats a nice buck there Don, either one of us would be hard pressed to pass on that one, my dad has never killed one with a bow and i backed my old bow poundage down as far a i dared but he just cant pull it back without going through a lot of staining and motion. he said he felt cracking sounds in his chest so i encouraged him not to push it and to just get the crossbow permit, which he did get, he will turn 70 this December.

 

[Don K]

Whats nice about the map book is you can find land on there that is not marked. Zone 5 has land that is owned by the county and is open to hunting along with state land. With that book I was able to find out of the way small tracks of public land with no other deer hunters. There was some places we hunted that where good but required a long walk and that was out for my dad. We camped at Rathbun lake there is a state campground there with hot showers and there also is a private camping area right down the road that had small cabins and rooms for rent and served food.

I can pull out my maps, and give you some ideas where to go but it will probably be 30 to 45 minutes from Centerville.

There is plenty of public land there but again look \"out of the box\". Everyone seems to be hitting the large state lands with large woodlots. The deer love living in the CRP and grass fields and hitting the small pockets of timber. We had great luck hunting these small wood lots.

 

[Bob Frapples]

Thanks for info, i got a copy of that atlas headed to my dad, hope he will do a little research as I wont have any time other than on the road heading that way to read it.
I have two questions, is the smaller tracts of public land marked well there in Iowa or is it hard to tell if you are getting onto private?

Should I bring a climber or a loc-on? We have a very light 12\' ladder that we have been using for my dad when we go to Kansas But I hate to bring both of my stands as I usually bring to much stuff anyway and my dad is really bad about over packing.

 

[iccyman001]

Bob,


I am a climber person myself and bring it everywhere. So that would be my vote.

 

[Don K]

I use a Summit climber and it works well for me. I had a ladder stand for my father that I put up and that worked great for him. If hes going to a crossbow I would recommend a shooting rail to help him with a rest.

Not all of the land is posted (Private or public) so you need to make sure where your at and that map book will help. One thing is in Iowa if you shoot a deer and it crosses onto private land you are legally able to track it onto that land. You cant bring your weapon, and I would make sure you can prove you shot it on public. I have not had to worry about this yet, but the option is there.

 

[Bob Frapples]

I think he has decided to just hunt from the ground IE make a ground blind out of whats available or I might get him a good ground blind for early Christmas. Think that would be better for him, espicially if it gets jam up cold some of those days we\'re there.

I love the ease and security of my tree walker (climber) but quite a few places ive hunted a loc-on would have given me a lot more location options. i just find they are more of a pain to deal with overall. Was just wondering if in general the trees in south central Iowa severely favored the loc-ons.

Anyone think the onX map would be worth getting?

 

[Don K]

I have the OnXmaps for many Rockie mountain states and really like it. You could get the mobile app for a good price and should have no problem getting cell service so it may be worth the small investment.

 

[Bob Frapples]

anyone use a decoy in Iowa? if so what results?

Will be arriving 14th which should be right in the middle to tail end of the rut so was contemplating getting one to set out in front of my dad in ground blind and maybe jacking up a tree down wind from him if terrain allows.

 

[Don K]

We used one some and had mixed results. I had a guy actually stalk the decoy when I was sitting in a stand watching him come in. If you use one PLEASE be careful with you dad being on the ground, and being on public land.

 

[Bob Frapples]

Thanks Don,

I wanted to try a decoy but am pretty much out of time to get one anyway, especially since im not even started packing. will head home Friday AM to pack then head north, gonna be a long, long day for sure. Weather doesn\'t look to good, forecast a lot a rainy days, maybe that will keep some of the fair weather hunters at home, lol

Will post some pics if anything worth wild errors up and passes by me.

 

[Don K]

Bob,

How did your hunt go?

 

[Zpd307]

x2!

 

[Don K]

Bob, did the rutting Iowa whitetails take you prisoner?

Your leaving us hanging!

 

[Bob Frapples]

Sorry guys had not much time to do much computering....
Wife had health issues and gas prices encouraged me to change jobs. Old place hired me back at the loss of my time off
Already interviewed at place will allow more time off but ain\'t heard yay or nay just yet, next 2 years elk hunting hindging on this.....

At any rate dad and me did make the trip to Iowa, not sure what happened to the rut, never really saw much activity nor any really mature bucks. Did see plenty of bucks but just not what you go to Iowa for. We hunted 9 days daylight till dark, (when I could muster my dad out of bed early on a couple of brutally cold days)

Dad shot twice (crossbow) on first day, at an 8 pt and a ten, lol but they were nothing we couldn\'t get here in Louisiana. He saw 10 bucks on the first day and think that made his trip. Towards the later days I was getting some responses from rattling and grunting, don\'t think my dad even tried much calling. I had intended to stay 2-3 more days but could tell was wearing at my dad so had one shot at semi wide looking buck late one evening and took it. Would have been best buck with bow but he was all broken up, one main beam is broken as well as about half his tines.

Overall still can\'t complain, will be accruing points again. I\'d say Kansas is much easier physically to hunt but there seemed to be more deer in Iowa.

Thanks for insight Don.

Oh, I did kill a yearling doe as well, unfortunately it was with my dads new truck one morning in the snow/sleeting early AM.

 

[bowhunter]

That\'s a nice buck. Too bad he was broken up but that\'s better than tag soup.

 

[cohunter14]

Solid buck for sure! Sorry to hear about the collision...did the truck get much damage?