Iowa wild spring season turkey hunting

Of Interest

Administrative

Motivation

Iowa spring wild turkey season is a singular filter of the most dedicated hunter. That dedication has two motivational drives.

The first motivation is the hunter seeking to add Iowa to his list of successful spring hunts. The second is the hunter motivated by the sheer challenge of harvesting this sometimes far too hard to harvest bird. The limited nature that these motivations must overcome is a short season, limited tag access, few birds and less than desired habitat.

Draw Tag

In the case of the first motivator, the season itself, may seem a difficult task requiring a draw tag application well in advance of the season limiting the hunt to only those with long range planning freedom. This legislative type limiter continues with a short range of season dates. Both of which conspire to keep to a minimum of those seeking an Iowa spring turkey hunting trip.

This draw tag limiter has had a contrary effect as there have been years when the tags have not been exhausted through the draw and were made available for later over the counter purchase. Such occurrences far better illustrate this Iowa's limitation far more than any other. Especially when compared to the longer Missouri season, more hunter friendly regulations and at just a short drive to the south.

A great setup when a picture can be taken with birds this close. No manmade blind, just sitting on the ground next to a tree with some brush.

Two beards for this youth!

Good picture of mid spring season turkey habitat. Review greater details about spring turkey habitat?

Challenges

In the case of the turkey hunter motivated by adding another state to his list of successful hunts he is well advised to have a good bit of pre season scouting accomplished before the hunt.

With the short Iowa spring season those that do not have a roost or two scouted before any hunt may find themselves scouting the entire season. Even having done the pre season work the hunter must be skilled as the habitat is far less than what many have experience with and the bird movement options far greater leaving many a hunter in sight and out of range of toms all day long. In such cases anything less than the most effective calling will leave the toms with the hen at hand rather than seek out a phantom. The next affect in this regard is the cooler spring seasonal temperatures that seem to keep the peak breeding cycle later into the available season dates. And, in comparison to Kansas far more so.

Contrasts

Turkey hunting has a lot of obstacles for the Iowa hunter to over come. In 99% of the cases for the Association hunter when choosing where to hunt the many options available to him drives him to Kansas and Missouri with Iowa as an afterthought. Such is the advantage to MAHA's approach to paid hunts in that the hunter may chose his own hunt. In the case of spring turkey the options in Kansas and Missouri are far greater than Iowa.

In the case of the trophy tom hunter the points for consideration include:

1	A longer, colder winter with greater snowfall and accompany flock stress even in southern part of the state where we lease land compared to Missouri or Kansas. And, the southern part of the state has far less snowfall and less stress than the rest of the state.
2	Southern Iowa has the ideal combination of the Grand River watershed breaking up the larger grain crop fields making for many roost and undisturbed feeding area without direct observation from road or farm yard.
3	Fewer hunters mean fewer harvests and the likelihood for older toms.
4	Missouri has far great bird numbers and accompany habitat making for the opportunity to be more selective at what to harvest.

Options

For the do it yourself hunter that seeks the thrill of harvesting or attempting to hunt yet another tom above that of any other tag he may have for any other state then our Iowa spring turkey season does fill that challenge very well.

A limited number of birds, limited habitat and limited season days all require increasingly greater turkey hunting skill levels for each hurdle. This leaves our Iowa hunts to only the most skilled hunters that have the time to scout and flexibility in their life to hunt all the days of this short season. For those that do not have this freedom the larger bird populations of Missouri or the longer season in Kansas would be a more rewarding experience.

Continue with a detailed Iowa spring season hunts, turkey hunter feedback and spring success pictures along with hunter letters and additional details