Snow may slow second shotgun deer season

It remains to be seen whether the foot of snow dumped on Iowa this week will greatly impede hunters participating in the state's second shotgun deer season, which opens Saturday.

If it does, the Department of Natural Resources may need to extend the season to enable hunters to achieve an adequate harvest, said Tom Litchfield, the DNR's deer biologist.

“Right now, we're just going to wait and see how it goes,” he said.

As of Friday, Iowa hunters had harvested about 80,000 deer, which puts them about 7,000 behind the pace that led to last year's total reported harvest of 142,194 deer, according to Litchfield.

Going into the first shotgun season, which ran Dec. 5 through Wednesday, they were 1,200 deer ahead of last year's pace, he said.

“The harvest really tailed off with the storm on Tuesday and Wednesday,” he said.

Deer hunters generally like snow because it improves visibility in the woods and concentrates deer in cover not obliterated by the snow. But too much snow makes walking difficult and may keep some hunters home.

In 2007, when severe December weather impeded hunters, the DNR authorized a special three-day extension to allow hunters to compensate for a harvest target shortfall of more than 13,000 deer.

Because Iowa's deer herd has been reduced substantially since 2007, the need to compensate for inclement weather is no longer as urgent, according to Litchfield.

Using the mandatory electronic harvest reporting system implemented in 2006, the DNR will continue to monitor hunters' progress and evaluate the situation at the conclusion of the second season, which ends Dec. 20, he said.

Litchfield said the DNR has considered starting the shotgun seasons somewhat earlier to decrease the likelihood of hunters' encountering severe winter weather.

The first shotgun season has traditionally started the first Saturday in December, well after the peak of the deer mating season, when bucks become most vulnerable to hunters.

Because the DNR is committed to preserve the post-rut status of Iowa's shotgun hunt, any move forward would likely be no more than a week, Litchfield said.