Iowa’s Deer Hunting Shifts to Late Season Mode in Four Northeast Iowa Counties
The final deer seasons, the Population Management January Antlerless Season and the Excess Tag January Antlerless Season opened on Sunday (01.11), with hunting available in four northeast Iowa counties among select others.
The Iowa DNR says the Population Management January Antlerless Season is available only in Allamakee, Appanoose, Decatur, Lucas, Monroe, Wayne and Winneshiek counties, since each of the seven counties had more than 100 antlerless tags available as of December 22nd. Hunters participating in the population management January antlerless season may use bows, muzzleloaders, handguns, shotguns, crossbows, or rifles .223 caliber and larger, as a method of take.
The Excess Tag January Antlerless-deer-only season will be available in all counties with unsold county antlerless tags at midnight on January 11th. As of Friday (01.09), there were 23 counties in Iowa with unsold antlerless tags, including Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette, and Winneshiek. Hunters participating in the excess tag January antlerless season may only use rifles from .223 caliber to .500 caliber as a method of take.
Both antlerless hunting seasons are open through January 25th. Thus, due to the compressed timeline, these licenses will not be available online.
Hunters are reminded that their 2025 licenses expired January 10th. Hunters will need a valid 2026 license and habitat fee to hunt beginning January 11. Licenses will be available until quotas are filled.
County specific license quota information is available in real time online and can be found here: (select 5 – Resident Antlerless Deer By County) https://gooutdoorsiowa.com/RealTimeQuotas.aspx?_gl=1*t0k6x8*_gcl_au*ODkwNTQ1MjUxLjE3MzQzNzEzMjA.
**If a county meets the qualifying criteria for a January Antlerless-only season, then Landowner / Tenant (LOT) tags will also be available for registered landowners / tenants for use on qualifying property within those counties. When / if the county antlerless quota runs out in any of these counties, LOT January tags will still remain available. LOT January Season tags will be available for purchase only from vendors in open January Season counties.
