Iowa shotgun season

[HNTNBUX]

Does anyone have any information as to how most people hunt eastern Iowa during the shotgun season? Are most people putting on drives or stand hunting or combination throughout the day.

I got permission for some land this spring and I was able to draw a tag the first time I applied, DIY. I am going to scout the day after Thanksgiving and I wondering what the best strategy might be: food sources, funnels, escape routes from neighboring land, etc. I have always leaned toward funnels or some type of terrain feature as a catch all.

[picksbigwagon]

travel routes.....we do mostly drive hunting as well as most of the groups around us. we do sit in the evening on the first day though. we were down there last weekend and the bucks were running and rutting for sure. At one point we bumped one bruiser and then watched two other bucks following a doe. Yes we are getting very antsy for the 3rd. What part of Iowa are you heading to???

[HNTNBUX]

Maquoketa, Jackson County.

I will be alone as far as I know on the property. I have not seen it yet and the landowner said the satelite photos by address do not actually show his property, so I am going in blind until a week before the season. Not the way I usually like to operate but I am going to South Dakota Thursday for a week, come home for Thanksgiving and then leave to scout Iowa on Friday. With this hunt being a complete unknown I am very excited. The landowner just said to be careful driving to his place so I don't get me deer before I get there.

[picksbigwagon]

I am familiar with the area a little, I actually hunt around the Cascade/Farley area. that time of year, look for pine or cedar thickets, if the weather turns nasty the deer will bed down in these areas......Be prepared to hear shots from drives. Stay put and wait it out, if you are in a stand be ready for cold. One year it was 8 degree's with a good 20 mph wind, my eye brows were caked with ice since I was wearing a gator on my face. Still hunting will work but definitely sit down and talk with the land owner, ask him which way the deer seem to travel when he spooks them out working in the fields. The deer on the farm I hunt ALWAYS escape to the north, no matter where they get bumped, they hightail it to the north....

[HNTNBUX]

Thank you. I am planning to sit the entire time it is not that big of a property to still hunt and I don't want to chase any deer out of the area that I don't have to. From what I remember he said he has 70 wooded acres that join his neighbors 200 wooded acres and that he has pasture land and corn, the property is also along the river. The way he described it I should be in heaven. Goood luck in your hunt.

[picksbigwagon]

Is he running cattle in the woods? If so, that makes 70 acres of timber seem sparse.......Good Luck to you huntnbucks, there is a little bar/restraunt north of Maquoketa in the town of Hurtsville (yes it is a real town) anyway they have pretty good grub.....Good luck

I suggest taking I35 to Highway 18 which turns into 218, then highway 20 over to one of the country roads and head down that way to Maq. Don't run all the way into Dubuque.

[JIvers]

Drives are popular in Iowa, just as they are in southern Minnesota.

From hunting very similar terrain in southeast Minnesota to that you describe in Jackson County Iowa, I can tell you how the neighboring property is hunted will affect your hunt. If the adjoining land is driven, you may get a lot of deer moving through where you hunt.