Iowa

Photo by Paul Tessier.

Iowa instituted an effort to reintroduce turkeys in 1966. Since then, birds have expanded across the state. About 140,000 to 180,000 turkeys roam here now, according to the latest estimate.

Hunting Iowa can be expensive for nonresidents, who must lottery draw a tag to turkey hunt in Iowa — for one bird. For example, if you're unsuccessful in the drawing, you'll be assigned one preference point, which has a fee. An additional preference point will be assigned each year you apply but are denied a license. Leftover limited quota licenses are sometimes available for respective seasons. Residents can purchase two turkey tags.

Iowa has roughly 350,000 acres of state land available for public hunting, but it ranks near the bottom overall in available public property. Permission from a farmer on a chunk of agricultural land is what you want. If an out-of-stater is willing to knock on a few doors, establish relationships and give it some effort, some Iowa landowners are still willing to grant spring hunting permission — and at no cost.

Despite high nonresident license fees and lack of public ground, Iowa still has some of the best turkey hunting in the nation. Hunters there shot 16,088 turkeys during Spring 2024.

Editor’s Note: Articles about public hunting are always popular with Realtree.com readers, but we’re public-land hunters, too, and we recognize that technology has made it more difficult than ever to keep a great hunting spot secret. With that in mind, we have made some edits to this piece to trim out specific mentions of some public tracts. The information is still out there and easy to find for anyone who wants to do the research, but we’ve decided that with a platform of our size, it’s best not to share all the secrets. — Team Realtree