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Best period to bow hunt

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Monsterbuck1

New Member
I am hoping to draw a tag and bowhunt in southeast Iowa this coming fall. I want to get my vacation days lined up well in advance. I hope to hunt a few early weekends in October as well, but if you had to pick the best consecutive 5-day period to hunt based on past experience, what would it be ? I was considering Nov. 5th - 9th this year but would like to get your thoughts since this would be the first year I hunt in Iowa. Maybe I should consider starting a few days earlier than that ? When do find that the bucks start to become locked-down with the does ? Thanks for your input.

MB1
 
The days you picked will work just fine!
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This coming from a Non-res and one who has only hunted Iowa(SW part) one year(last year), with the way the weekends fall this year...I would pick Nov 11/12th through how ever long you can or want to stay. Last year we hunted Oct. 29th through Nov 5th and that was a big mistake! We hunted public land that just got over the early smokepole season and the deer were pee pounded to say the least. So I guess it matters if your hunting private or public ground and how much pressure it gets. Second reason why it was a big mistake was the weather. We ran into 70+(one day it was 80) degree days with a minimum of 25-30+mph winds most every day. Those weather conditions may not have been the norm, but I guess I wouldn't take the chance on it happening again if your like me and had to take off time in advance and couldn't hunt the weather. I personally think that the rut hits there(depends on where you are going) a week later than I see up here in MN. Hope this helps.

Pat
 
If I picked one day it would be the 12th or a few days leading up to it. Last yr the weather was way to warm. Hope this helps.
 
Last year in my experience the rut kicked in a little later like xtec said. But for me the year before it really started to click a week earlier. We killed 3 big bucks on Nov 7th in 04' but in 05' our big days were nov 12-15. So it depends on so many things like weather,moon, etc in my opinion.

Personally later intrigues me more just because I think if you hit the post rut right you will get into some real mature deer looking for more does. It might not be as heated up like the rut but that is where I seem to see more mature deer.
 
I have had the best success around the second week of November usually. That week of the 10th or so. Good luck!!
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Caught a great seminar on hunting the rut this year at the IL deer classic. Now I am not a big seminar watcher but found this one to be really informative. The seminar talked about everything from moon phase, weather, decoys, calling, etc. It all boiled down to one thing, the rut happens the same time every single year, but depending on when the rut moon is may determine when you actually catch a buck out in daylight chasing does. Anyway to make a long story short the guy predicted the best time of movement this year to be the early part of the peak rut which he picked as Nov. 6-13 for his week to hunt based off of his past experiences. I think that he has chosen a great 7 days, I always see the best movement during that time frame also.

He did mention that their is one thing that will spoil a rut hunt, hot weather. I know you can't control this but if your vacation can be flexible a few days you may want to make sure that the highs are breaking the 50s when you come to hunt
 
First week of November is usually pretty awesome. This year it was kinda shut-down slightly because of the warm temperatures, but it was when I saw the most bucks.
 
I think the 5-9 or any where in that area would be awesome!! Between my brother and I we have killed 3 popes off our new land on these dates, Nov 10, 11, and 5!!! I think that is when the magic happens!!
 
My vacation is somewhat flexible so I will initially concentrate on those dates and modify them slightly based on the weather at the time. Thanks for everyone's input !
 
monsterbuck1, If you are in se wi,you should strongly look at the n.e. corner. the top record book counties of Iowa are right in your neighborhood Allamakee,Clayton just need enough pref pt to make sure you can get a tag before you take vacation good luck
 
and that woul likely take 3 points this year in zone 9, 2 points for sure. The timing question, I believe to be a very hard question to answer! I think the peak activity varies alot from area to area and from year to year. Historically, my best week has been the 1st of Nov through the 7th or so. However, this past year I think, at least where I was hunting in zone 9, it was either prior to nov 3rd (don't know cause i wasn't there, i was in North central KS where it was rocking) , but more likely I believe things really fired up around the 13th I think. Whatever, day the big snow storm came in. That said, my brother and dad were seeing shooter after shooter in SE MN the first week of NOV, while I was seeing squat for 3 1/2 plus animals in NE IA. So, like I was saying its a highly subjective, area-weather dependent question.....Damn, I think I confused myself
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Anyway you cut it, you should do well with the dates you mentioned.
 
I like 3 or 4 days either side of the dark moon phase (new moons) Normally I like the first week of November but it looks like there will be a full moon then.
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I have found that the deer seem to run rampant at night when there's a full moon if it's close to the peak of the rut which is usually right at about the 12th to the 15th. I'm a firm believer that the absolute worse time to hunt is the peak for a big buck since most of them are holed up with does. It looks like the best times are going to be the last full week of Oct. or the last full week of November, at least that's my prediction. I'm not talking 130 inch deer either, I'm talking big boys.
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