Zone 4 Iowa Spring Season Turkey Hunting
Season Obstacles
Iowa has a split spring season. A limited number of nonresident competitive draw tags. The tag costs are higher. All together makes a hunt require a bit more planning. For those that do the payoff on a good hunt is highly likely.
The Payoff
For Association self guided hunters they will find next to no pressure. Much private land leases in spring zone 4. This all means that each hunter will have more than one flock to hunt. If patterning that first flock results in a tag that hunter may hunt one or both of the Association's other states. If that first flock goes bad there is no reason to keep pressuring it. That hunter may pick up and hunt another.
Spring Tag - The Fifth Tag
Association hunters have a total of five spring tags available from the three state region. Iowa is often identified as the fifth tag. Meaning four others from the Association other states are easier to come by, have a longer season and are cheaper. That keeps the pressure off of Iowa's spring season. Those traveling to Iowa do so to get the most return from their annual spring trip. Each spring there are up towards 20 or more hunters that fill all five tags on one trip.
All may trust the Association partner's recommendations of where to hunt. That confidence comes from the fact we are a business. That comes with a customer service attitude. All of it together strives for return hunter membership renewals. When it come to such recommendations will be based on our personal boots on the ground experience with that lease. And, all is on wild birds without any manmade enhancements of feeders or spread grain.
2013 Iowa Turkey Hunting Land
Nearby towns are Bedford, Leon, Little River, Corydon. Generally the east-west high speed access is Highway 2.
Cover and Food Habitat
Hunts are on largely open fields. Mostly in row crops of large grains. Very little in wheat, alfalfa or other hay.
These fields will have grass, brush, wooded and combination cover drainage's cutting through them. Interspersed will be wood patches of various sizes. All of which is repeated many times over giving much choice in setups.
Finding a wood patch isolated from the road and farm yard is key. Add to that a pond, on a crop field, with a weed patch will give all the elements required to sustain a wild flock. When one or more of these is missing the survival quality degrades. No surprises in this concept. Just an illustrations that the reader knows the Association partners are turkey hunters themselves and know the best ground. They will get the hunter to that ground.
All pictures on this web site come from Association hunters extending to and supporting their Association. Or, are those takes by one of the Association partners. The strutting tom above is one taken by one of the Association partners. What is unique about it is the tom was on his personal farm. With the Association partners each being landowners themselves they have that perspective for what to lease for the Association hunter. While the quality of the picture above is not great. When put into the perspective it was taken with a pocket point and shoot camera that now tells much just how close that tom was.
What we want to get across in this picture is just how open the land is. Plenty of eyes-on to see just how skilled the hunter may be at camouflage, decoying, calling.