Deer season opens Saturday

Iowa's roadways and designated public areas are sure to become busier this Saturday as the first segment of shotgun deer season begins. The first season, which will continue through Wednesday, Dec. 10, will be followed by a second shotgun deer season scheduled from Dec. 13 through Dec. 21. While many more individuals have requested licenses than have been issued, an estimated 130,000 orange-vested hunters are expected to participate in the two seasons.

Part of the state's hunting draw is it's known for its large buck deer with antlers.

"That's because of our unique seasons the way we have it," said Gary Biederman, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources conservation officer. "We're one of the few states that doesn't allow gun hunting during the deer breeding season, or what they call the rut, which allows our deer to grow older and produce larger antlers. ... So Iowa is one of the best states in the whole country to have a chance at harvesting a large buck."

But before a person can purchase a hunting license in Iowa, he or she will need to pass a hunter safety class, and then show proof of it with his or her hunter safety certificate. This rule applies to anyone born after 1972.

Biederman, who's been an area conservation officer since 1980, will be out and about among hunters in Clay County and the eastern half of O'Brien County during both seasons this month. He explained the antlerless tags used in Iowa the last several years have accomplished what they were planned to do: Reduce the deer herd.

"Here in northwest Iowa and the north central Iowa area, this will be the fourth year we have not had antlerless tags available for the public to use. The deer population has also gone down with the education of hunters on reducing the deer herd by shooting does, as well as with the extra tags that were available. A hunter can legally get two paid licenses here in this part of the state without antlerless tags," Biederman said. "Our deer herd is probably where it should be, maybe a little bit low. It will have to be addressed in the future. ... We haven't had that many road kills this fall, which tells me that the deer population has come down quite a ways."

He continued, "When I started in this profession, we didn't allow non-resident hunting. Now, we have 6,000 or 7,000 non-resident deer hunters in the state.

We could sell more licenses, but when we sell more non-resident licenses, it seems to push the residents off to the side."

Meanwhile, the rules and regulations surrounding the sport have increased over the last two decades.

For example, individuals are currently restricted on how much they may use motor vehicles while hunting. Airplanes and ATVs, for example, may not be used, other than to transport a hunter to where he or she needs to go.

"It's what we call the fair chase and being a sportsman," Biederman said.

But the conservation officer indicated "rodeoing," the term used to describe the use of motor vehicles to chase or keep deer moving, does not seem to be as big a problem as it used to be in the immediate area.

"That's because we've got the hunters spread out more," he said. "And, in general, we're losing hunters every year because the greatest generation, the World War II generation, which was a very, very big hunting generation, is slowly dying off. And, with all the electronic stuff and other forms of entertainment available, the sport of hunting isn't becoming as common for people to pass on."

While dogs may not be used to hunt deer in Iowa, radios used to direct hunters or to intercept game are also not allowed.

While public hunting-designated tracts are allowable areas, hunters in Iowa may not shoot from ditches, roadways or rights of way. Since last year, Iowa deer hunters have also needed permission to shoot or to kill a deer on another person's property.

"That was a law that came out of northern Iowa," Biederman explained of the no shooting from ditches or roadways law, "because we have such an open, black country up here in this part of the state. And, it was a problem for a number of years with hunters going around the section, forcing the deer to stay in the section and then hunters shooting them off the roads. They changed that law about 15 years ago. You actually have to be on private property to shoot a deer now. You can't shoot it from the roadway and you can't shoot it from the ditch. And, that's in the northern part of the state. Last year, they passed a law that says you can not shoot on somebody else's property without permission to kill a deer. So, if you're standing on your property and cross a fence onto your neighbor's, you can't shoot that deer without permission."

Wearing "hunter orange," another law enacted in Iowa, has helped to save lives. According to Biederman, the state went without a hunting fatality during deer season for 20 years before its first hunting death was recorded in the 1980s. The first hunting fatality he encountered as a conservation officer -- when a son accidentally shot his father in the leg with a slug as a deer ran between them and the father died from the wound a few days later -- occurred in the late 1990s.

Information associated with hunting injuries, accidents and fatalities is passed along to others during hunter safety classes as a preventative measure.

"The very best thing that's ever happened to hunting is hunter education and teaching the next generations to obey the law and the ethics of hunting," Biederman said. "That's a big thing: The ethics of hunting, what's fair chase, what's right and what's wrong. In 1980, the first year I became a conservation officer, I wrote 30-some tickets for loaded guns in cars without a permit. Now, I write three or four tickets in a year. ... I check a lot of hunters, and they seem to be a lot more law-abiding now. Deer season used to be a lot more work when I first started out. It's still work, but it isn't from call to call-type work anymore."

But Biederman warned that fines and court costs may range from $180 to thousands of dollars for individuals who choose to violate the state's deer-hunting laws.

"A person who breaks the law on a deer will pay a civil penalty between $1,500 and $2,000. And, if it's a large buck, that could go up to $20,000 out-of-season. So," he said, "you could be looking at thousands of dollars worth of fines and damages for the unlawful hunting for deer."

While conservation officers or any other law enforcement officer can write citations for violations, Biederman indicated they receive the majority of their information on hunting infractions that occur from the public.

"We have the TIP (Turn In a Poacher) hotline, which goes to Des Moines and is sent to us automatically. I think the greatest thing that's happened since I've been a conservation officer is cell phones. I'm out in the car and I get calls from the public (about violations)," he said. "I've actually made a deer case within five minutes of being in the right place at the right time and caught a person who just shot a deer out of a window of a car because of a cell phone."

"Having the public out there watching and observing is fine," Biederman said. "But I don't want the public confronting hunters in the situation of a violation because I don't want to have an incident out in the field. People who see something that they think is wrong should call their conservation officer or their respective sheriff's department, and we'll get the information.

"Calling TIP (the toll-free telephone number of 800-532-2020, which is manned by operators 24 hours a day) is also a way of reporting stuff anonymously."

What's required during deer hunting season in Iowa:

Hunters are required to wear solid hunter-orange clothing.

Hunters must carry appropriate licenses with them.

Licensed hunters are restricted to using shotguns that shoot single projectiles, 20-gauge to 10-gauge, muzzleloaders that are 45-caliber and above, and .357-caliber to .45-caliber handguns.

Always transport a gun legally in a vehicle: Unloaded and in a case.

Hunters must always receive permission to hunt on land they do not own. **Permission to hunt is also required within 200 yards of any house that people or livestock inhabit.