(Area) Youth season starts April 8th and the first adult season begins April 11th for spring turkey hunters in Iowa.
April 8th, 9th, and 10th are the dates for the youth season. “The best turkey hunting is when you have a lot of two year old birds out there. These are the ones that are most likely to do a lot of gobbling.” Bryan Hayes with the Iowa DNR says, “They are the most likely to move when you call.” He adds, “Regardless of what is out there it is an exciting hunt and one I’d recommend to anybody.”
Turkey hunters will harvest an estimated 11,500 birds with a success rate of roughly one in five. “So for every tag out there you can expect anywhere from 20-22% of those tags to get filled every year. There’s not a lot of hunting we do where your success rate is that low, but that gives you an ide of just how challenging that turkey hunting is. We have turkey hunters out there that fill their turkey tag every year. They beat the odds and beet the odds by a long ways. Those tend to be the ones that spend a lot of time in the woods.”
Season One is April 11th-14th, Season Two April 15th-19th, Season Three April 20th-26th, and Season Four April 27th-May 15th. There is also a resident archery only season April 11th-May 15th.
