The Land of Giant Whitetail – When Preparation Meets Opportunity in Iowa

Iowa:  The Hawkeye State, The Tall Corn State, Land Of The Rolling Prairie – whatever you want to call it…I call it a – must apply state – if you are a serious whitetail deer hunter. Iowa sits on some of the most fertile farming soil in the country. It has wet springs and warm summers which combine for unbelievable corn and soybean stands year-in and year-out. Iowa is universally known for its corn harvest which accounts for roughly 1/5^th of the United States production each year. In addition, Iowa has a long standing and well-run CRP program leaving lands untouched. This provides an abundance of great cover for bucks to hide in and grow to maturity. Furthermore, Iowa has very high deer density and by conducting their gun hunts in December and January, well after the rut, it helps keep mature deer from being over-exposed in their most vulnerable period. All this sets-up for the perfect storm for growing big, mature, nasty whitetail bucks! 

Opportunity: Annually, Iowa consistently produces an incredible number of Pope & Young and Boone & Crockett whitetails, all while having one of the lowest tag allocations in the country (6,000 non-resident for 2020). A walk through the Iowa trophy deer data will leave one with their chin on the floor. It is nothing short of astonishing. 

Breaking It Down – Iowa Whitetail Deer Registration: 

• 170”+ total 2,062
• 171”-179” total 1,022
• 180”-189” total 494
• 190”-199” total 289
• 200”+ total 257

That’s 257 deer registered over the 200” mark!

Our booked clients harvest many deer each year that are over 160” and tell of having encounters with the biggest deer of their lives. In order to have encounters like this you must be hunting where the big boys live, and it is memories like this that keep clients coming back and applying for those valuable preference points year-after-year.

Preparation: Iowa is broken into 10 different game management units, with four hunts to choose from: Archery, 1^st shotgun, 2^nd shotgun and Muzzleloader. Typically, clients drawing the archery tag will book in November, shotgun – December and muzzleloader – January.

Iowa is a preference point state and as a non-resident you will need to play the point game if you want to deer hunt. Archery hunts will typically take 3 to 5 preference points to draw, while the gun hunts can typically be drawn with just 1 point. As you can see the archery hunts, which run through the middle of the rut, require the most points to draw.

The Consultants of WTA TAGS have spent countless hours vetting and working with the best outfitters with some of the best farms in Iowa. We have outfitters who are all set-up in the best units. In general, these outfitters take a limited number of hunters comparatively to the rest of the Midwest, which makes planning ahead and booking early a critical strategy. Many of our archery clients book every fourth year and hunt in an alternate location, like Kansas, while they are building their three Iowa points.

Iowa’s June 5^th deadline to apply is a critical date if you need to build a preference point for the future. Also, if you are already sitting on a handful of points and are ready to get out this fall our Consultants are ready to help. We have a handful of openings still available for 2020 with awesome outfitters over excellent dates. We would love nothing more than to help you in your quest for the whitetail of a lifetime!