Iowa City Hunting Areas ?

[treft133]

Hi my name is Scott and I am going to be getting married in a couple weeks and then my wife and I will be moving to Coralville to live, while she goes to graduate school. Anyways I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me a couple quick pointers on hunting areas in the area. Obviously I have never been in the area to do any scouting, and plan on doing so upon arrival August 1st. I own the public hunting maps for the state and notice all of the areas nearby, but not for sure what areas get over pressured, or have good deer quality. I have heard about the areas around Coralville as being good, but wasn't sure if they got a lot of hunting pressure. So if you have any suggestions or points you would like to offer you can email me or just post here on the forum. I apprecaite any advice that you are willing to offer and I am excited about hunting a new area of Iowa, as before I hunted the Loess Hills of Western Iowa.
Thanks,
Scott

 

[Daver]

Hey Scott - If you are getting married in a couple of weeks I don't know if anyone mentioned this to you before or not...

You may not be hunting as much this year as you are used to.

Seriously, I live just outside of Iowa City and there are a number of good areas in Johnson County to consider. I think your best bet is to find some private ground north of town, however small the acreage. There has been so much housing development in that area that the land is quite "chopped up". This indirectly has led to less gun pressure in the area over time. It may be difficult to knock on doors and find a spot, but if you or your wife get to know someone that lives in the area, etc, then you could end up in a real nice area.

The main public hunting in the area is the Coralville area, it is quite large and receives pretty good pressure in most areas, but nice bucks are still taken there every year. You just have to do your homework and get away from the crowds and do some walking.

 

[treft133]

Ha Ha, you are probably right in most cases, however my wife is pretty understanding of my passion my consider coming a filed a little more often to enjoy it with me. Not too much of course as it is nice to get away on your own. I have heard that around Coralville lake is good and I definatly understand walking a distance to get out of the way of the crowd. I am more than willing to do that. It sounds like I need to do some searching in that area near the lake and hunt on the edge of some the refuge ground or something. I can't wait to get there and start scouting it out. Will thank you for your help and I appreciate your kind input.
Scott

 

[sstevens]

You could try Red Bird Farms, it is a public hunting area south west of Coralville. I hunted there the one year I lived in Coralville. To get there, go south on 380, then go west on Hwy #1. Take the right onto Black Diamond road SW (about 5 - 8 miles. Follow that for a few miles and you will see the public parking spot on your right. The Hawkey wildlife refuge is north of North Liberty and it's 13,000 acres so there is plenty of room if you get far enough away from the roads and parking spots. My advice is get out there now and do some preliminary scouting to narrow down possible hunting areas, there is a lot of ground there.

 

[Steve-O]

Marriage actually helped me because I now had 2 incomes so that meant I could take more time off work and away from the house to do more hunting. Now my wife is getting interested

 

[JNRBRONC]

[ QUOTE ]
Marriage actually helped me because I now had 2 incomes so that meant I could take more time off work and away from the house to do more hunting. Now my wife is getting interested

[/ QUOTE ]

Kids should fix that, bwhntr!

But only for awhile.

As to the hunting question, there was an article in the Daily Iowan featuring Wilson's Apple Orchard off of Highway 1 north of IC. He made the bold statement that he will not turn down ANY deer hunter!