DNR alerts hunters to deer hunting season changes

Iowa deer tags are flying off the shelves at area outdoors stores.

Deer tags for various seasons went on sale Wednesday morning ahead of  the approaching muzzle-loader season in October. The Department of Natural Resources expects all 7,500 muzzle-loader tags to be gone within a few days.

In an effort to control the deer population, the DNR has added a couple new rules this year. The first change limits hunters from buying up tags to participle in multiple seasons.

"(The) muzzle-loader demand has been driven by December shotgun season hunters opting for both seasons. Since 2006, participants could purchase a high demand ‘any deer' early muzzle-loader tag and still be eligible for an ‘antlerless' shotgun tag. Hunters could hunt both seasons and, with shotgun season party hunting, even take a buck if another party member was available to legally tag it," the DNR said in a new release posted to their website this week.

Another change will effect the number of county-specific antlerless tags available.  The overall quota has been lowered by about 13,000.  In some counties that's a drop of several hundred tags.  In Johnson County the quota has now been set at 1,400, where in past years it was around 2,000.

"The (deer) numbers have been lowered to the point where they want to start pulling back some of those tags now," said Clint Hartsock, a manager in the hunting department at Fin and Feather in Iowa City.