Getting Ready for the Hunt

Junior Madisen Sandhorst stands with her buck after an early morning of hunting.

Junior Madisen Sandhorst stands with her buck after an early morning of hunting.

by Rayne Carey

As deer hunting season opens, many Atlantic High School students are getting ready for the hunt.

According to iowadnr.gov, deer hunting season for archery early split runs Oct. 1 through Dec. 5. Archery late split starts Dec. 22 and continues through Jan. 10, 2015. Late Muzzleloader begins Dec. 22 and ends Jan. 10, 2015. Shotgun season 1 begins Dec. 6 through the 10, and shotgun season 2 starts Dec. 13 and goes till the 21. Nonresident Holiday season begins Dec. 24 through Jan. 2, 2015. License sale began on Aug. 15 and last till the end of the season.

In 2014, there have been ten personal injuries and one case of property damage, which is a total of eleven incidents. There are many precautions to take while hunting. According to iowadnr.gov, you need to watch out for lead in venison, which is the meat of an animal killed during hunt. “To minimize the risk of lead poisoning, you need to have your meat processor or yourself to trim a distance away from the wound and discard any meat that is bruised, discolored, or contains hair, bone, or dirt fragments.”

Junior Madisen Sandhorst gets up early in the morning around 6 or 7 am. She puts her layers on, cleans her guns, gets her bullets ready, puts gun in cases, and off she goes to someone’s farm. Sandhorst said, “You need to dress warm, get your gun case and your shotgun shells, deer tags, license, and protective vest on. You always need to wear an orange vest and have your tags and license with you.” Tags are an important thing to always have when you go hunting. Sandhorst said, “They’re important to have because you have to show that you paid for that tag.”

Senior Calley Klindt goes to bed around 8 pm and then wakes up around 3:50 am to get her dogs ready. She then gets them loaded in her truck and takes off. Klindt said all the necessities that are needed for a deer hunting trip are “a gun, warm clothes, a knife, a gun case, a fur harvesting license, and food.” Klindt said, “You need to bring a first aid kit and towels, and make sure you have a working phone. Don’t ever hunt alone. You need to make sure you have paid your dues and prove that it is yours.” She says the regulations for hunting are “no trespassing unless you are allowed to.” You have to be 200 yards away from a driveway to house, and there is no hunting in any parks or towns. Klindt has been hunting plenty of times this year, and has been hunting and trapping coons and hunting deer with her uncle. She will be doing a lot more hunting when the first shotgun season opens.

According to iowadnr.gov, you must show a license to an officer if you’re asked to show your license. You are not able to use a two-way mobile radio transmitter to communicate a location or direction of an animal, and are also not allowed to ship, carry, or transport any one day animal. You may have animals that have been lawfully taken out of the state and have been brought to another state, but have to prove it was legally killed and legally transported into the state. You cannot abandon an injured animal without making a reasonable effort to retrieve it from the field.

There are many different rules and regulations for this year’s 2014-15 hunting season.