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Dead is dead. I think it’s overkill (but no more than blasting a deer with a shotgun slug). It would have been better had they allowed reasonable deer calibers like .243 - .308, but too many people are resistant. So instead of hunting with a .243 or .30-30 we will be using .45-70s and 375 H&Hs.

They changed the code last year. 481A.48 establishes a rifle season during youth and disabled season, as well as during first and second shotgun season to licensed and qualified hunters. The law dictates that allowed rifle cartridges shall be of the same caliber and use the same straight wall or...

Not anymore.

I am thinking of dusting off an old .375 H&H that has been sitting around in the family safe for several decades! [DNR confirmed these changes for the upcoming season]

Do many farmers abandon their farm equipment on “areas controlled by the Natural Resources Commission”? And if they do, perhaps that’s exactly the sort of behavior we ought to be prohibiting.

Anyone who disrespects the land enough to litter is not responsible enough to hunt.

Considering the text of the law that was passed, they didn’t have much of a choice. The law is crystal clear: .350 to .500 straight walled cartridges are legal.

How does the method that the quota is filled impact herd quality? If there is a problem with the amount of deer being harvested, the solution is to lower the quota. Removing arbitrary laws that needlessly restrict hunter enjoyment, and that have no meaningful impact on herd quality, is not...

There are certainly people crying but to me it seems like the ones crying are not the ones trying to improve the laws, they're the ones trying to stop them from being improved. Regardless, we are all hunters and can make common cause in achieving the objective of maintaining our quality herd...

My argument is that caliber has negligible effect on herd quality. In 2018, the Allamakee County quota was 3700 antlerless and 861 remained unharvested at the end of the season. In 2019 they had a 3800 allocated and 333 remained. In 2020 they are again at 3800 with 1139 remaining. If we need to...

If you had 100 deer in a field and depredation tags for all of them, I wouldn’t take issue with the whatever means you chose to dispatch them as long as you did so legally, ethically, and within the guidelines of the state’s management program. As for firearm selection, if for example the DNR...

Iowa deer are great, the quality of the hunting experience is average (at best). Some of the problems are fixable, some are not. But it would be wrong to ignore problems that are fixable. As I said in my first post, herd quality is achieved by regulating and managing the following criteria...

The issue you’ve raised is a problem with irresponsible hunters, not the tools with which they are hunting. If a party of hunters are irresponsible with their firearms it isn’t going to matter whether they’re hunting with a .30-30 or a shotgun. Their failure to follow fundamental firearm safety...

I'm a new Iowa resident having lived here just over a year. I reviewed this thread and must say that it seems ridiculous and alarmist. The goal to manage and maintain a high quality deer herd is sound, but the idea that artificial regulations on caliber used to dispatch deer will achieve that...