The shotgun deer hunting season begins this weekend in Iowa, and there’s some things hunters should remember before they try to harvest an animal.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation Officer Jeremy King reminds hunters that if they have a landowner/tenant tag that hasn’t been filled yet, they can still use it until all deer seasons are over or until it is filled, they just have to make sure they use the correct firearm for that season. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that there is also a safety regulation that hunters should remember.

“It’s going to be required and this is the DNR’s equivalent to, like, a seatbelt law, because it’s super important for safety, is that you have to have at minimum a solid blaze orange vest on. And some folks will maybe get a blaze orange vest that has a brown pack in the back for putting in pheasants or something. But they need to remember that the front and back of that vest has to be solid blaze orange, no camo bark or tree branches going through it.”

King mentions that it’s a common misconception that deer can see the blaze orange color, when in fact their eyesight is a grayscale, meaning they see shades of gray. The blaze orange is meant to catch the attention of other hunters who may be in the area, especially on public land, to mitigate hunting accidents.