Photo by Mark Werner.

Here are quick facts about deer hunting in Iowa this fall and winter:

• The total population of deer is down slightly.
• Hunters will voluntarily take fewer bucks, but the quality of the bucks they take will be appreciably higher.
• First-season shotgun hunters will have the best success rate, around 55 percent. Lowest success rates, somewhere less than 30 percent, will be tallied by bowhunters. But those notoriously selective hunters will score a higher proportion of potentially world-class trophy bucks.
• Ultimately, when the 2007-2008 Iowa deer hunting seasons end in January, hunters will have killed more than 150,000 deer and left a standing herd of around 250,000 deer.

BY THE NUMBERS
Willie Suchy is the Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist who supervised the DNR's deer management policies for more than 20 years before his recent promotion to State Wildlife Research Supervisor. He says that after this year's hunting seasons, the standing population of 250,000 deer will be slightly lower than in past years.

"By the numbers, our deer herd is down from what it was three years ago when it peaked at around 300,000 deer in the state," said Suchy.

"There are places where we may have over-hunted deer, and there are places where we still have too many. Statewide, 250,000 is about where we want to be on deer numbers.

"Our departmental goal is to provide deer numbers so that in most parts of the state, deer hunting isn't the easiest thing in the world," he continued. "If half our hunters get a deer, that means it's not too easy, but it's not too hard. Our overall success rate last year, across all the deer hunting seasons, was 52 percent. So we're comfortable that we're on the right track with our deer population."

Despite the lower total deer population, an interesting aspect of improved hunting is the increase in the number of trophy-caliber bucks seen in Iowa. A subtle, yet significant change in hunting philosophies is the reason behind the surge in big bucks.

"Guys used to compare how many bucks their group took during shotgun season," said Terry Hainfield, a district wildlife management biologist in far northeast Iowa.

"Now they brag about how many small bucks they passed up and how many does they got. The change in attitude is really showing up in the quality of bucks up here. I expect to see hunters kill some really nice bucks this fall. And if a few hunters are in the right places at the right times, there are at least a couple of tremendous bucks in Allamakee County that will really draw some attention if somebody gets them."

2006 DEER HARVEST
Counties in far northeast and far southeast Iowa lead our county-by-county summary of total deer harvested during the 2006-07 hunting seasons. Hunters in Clayton County, in the northeastern corner of the state, killed 7,389 deer to earn first place.

Van Buren County, in far southeast Iowa, claimed second place, with 4,742 deer killed.

Allamakee County, in northeast Iowa, tallied 4,570 deer to take third place. Jackson County, in far eastern Iowa, earned fourth place with 3,624 deer harvested.

And fifth place went to Dubuque County, in northeast Iowa, with 3,222 deer tagged by hunters.

"Northeast and southeast Iowa just have the habitat to produce a lot of deer," said Suchy. "Clayton and Van Buren counties are probably always going to be two of our top 10 deer producers."

Bringing up the rear of Iowa's deer-harvest totals are intensely farmed counties in northwest and north-central Iowa. A dearth of deer-friendly habitat is reflected in their low deer-harvest statistics. Dickinson County, in northwest Iowa, was 95th out of 99 counties in deer taken, with a total of 294 during all seasons.

Emmett County, also in northwest Iowa, contributed 292 deer to earn 96th place in the statewide tally. Hunters in Ida County added 210 deer to the harvest totals for 97th place.

Grundy County, arguably Iowa's most heavily farmed county, earned the 98th spot with 181 deer. During all of the 2006-07 hunting seasons, north-central Iowa's Calhoun County tallied the least deer of any county, with only 159 deer killed.

"The thing to remember is that even in those counties where there isn't much deer habitat, wherever there is deer habitat, there's probably an appropriate number of deer," said Suchy. "The density of deer per acre of suitable habitat is probably the same in Calhoun County as it is in Clayton County. There just aren't as many acres of suitable habitat for deer in Calhoun County."