(Radio Iowa) – Deer hunting is underway in Iowa with the first two seasons requiring hunters to use a couple of the older methods of hunting. D-N-R state deer biologist Jace Elliott says the bow and early muzzleloader seasons have started slowly. “So far, we’ve had pretty average, perhaps a bit below average harvest in the early part of this year, but that’s easy to attribute to the warm weather,” Elliott says. Elliott says unseasonably warm weather limits deer movement.

“Cold weather, especially cold fronts, get deer up on their feet in the daylight hours better. They are going to be traveling more during daylight hours in the early season when weather is a little colder. We just haven’t had much of that yet,” he says. He says hunters understand the impact of weather on deer movement, and that impacts their decision on when to sit in their stands. “It’s also hunters that are choosing to maybe wait until it gets a little bit colder,” Elliott says, “as you know, handling venison and things like that can be an improved experience once that that weather gets colder as well.”

(Iowa DNR photo)

The bow hunting season is the longest one, so there is plenty of time for those hunters to get a deer. “So far we have several thousand deer that have been registered across the state, which shows that you know, we’re off to a good start. But for an average year, we have another hundred thousand deer harvests to go,” he says. The early muzzleloader season runs through this coming weekend. There have been around five-thousand deer taken already. The most deer are taken during the regular gun seasons that don’t start until December.