For hunters that enjoy a little more challenge when looking to harvest deer, archery and muzzleloader seasons are a great chance to use tools of the past.

Guthrie County Conservation Director Brad Halterman says that the archery and muzzleloader seasons are split into early and late seasons in Iowa, and provides a range of conditions for hunters to try and harvest an animal in. Halterman mentions that hunters that are into archery and muzzleloader usually don’t hunt in the shotgun season.

“Seems to be not a whole lot of crossover. Folks that are interested in the muzzleloader hunting, just really like that muzzleloader hunting end of things. And then you’ve got the shotgun deer hunters, who that’s their thing. Also, the archery is, again, maybe a little more of a specialized type of season. So whether you’re archery, or muzzleloader or shotgun, if you’re out there, whatever that season is, and whatever you’re pursuing those deer with, people seem to be really passionate about those individual ones.”

Halterman tells Raccoon Valley Radio the seasons may be over for now, but next fall the early seasons will open up once again.