HOUSE FILE 2142

BY  ARNOLD

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to bag limits during regular gun and late muzzleloader deer hunting seasons.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 483A.8, subsection 2, Code Supplement 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   2.
  a.  The
 
A deer hunting license shall be accompanied by a tag designed to be used only once. When a deer is taken, the deer shall be tagged and the tag shall be dated. The tag shall be attached to the carcass of a deer taken within fifteen minutes of the time the deer carcass is located after being taken, or before the carcass is moved to be transported by any means from the place where the deer was taken, whichever occurs first. For each antlered deer taken, the tag shall be affixed to the deer’s antlers.
   b.  During regular gun seasons and the late muzzleloader season, the bag limit for a hunting party is one deer for each hunter in the party who has a valid transportation tag. The possession limit is one deer per license. For purposes of this paragraph, “hunting party” means two or more persons who each have a deer hunting license and tag, and who are hunting together. For purposes of this paragraph, “possession” means that the deer is in the possession of the person whose license number matches the number of the transportation tag on the carcass of the deer.
EXPLANATION
   This bill provides that during regular gun and the late muzzleloader deer hunting seasons, the daily bag limit for a hunting party is one deer for each hunter in the party who has a valid transportation tag. The possession limit is one deer per deer hunting license and the deer must be in the possession of the person whose license number matches the number of the transportation tag on the carcass of the deer.
   Currently, the natural resource commission’s administrative rules only allow such bag limits for hunting parties during regular gun deer hunting seasons. During all other seasons, the deer must be shot and tagged only by the person in whose name the license and tag was issued. For purposes of the bill, a “hunting party” is two or more persons who each have a deer hunting license and tag, and who are hunting together.