You are responsible for the following: 

• Purchasing your appropriate tags and licenses
• Obeying the rules and regulations of Iowa’s Dept. of Natural Resources
• Your own personal hunting equipment e.g. firearms, bows, clothing, coolers, safety belts and harnesses, boot dryers, etc.
• Any special dietary requirements that you may have
• Meat processing fees and trophy mounting fees plus any shipping fees involved.
  • There is a local meat locker that we use and we also have a taxidermist that we recommend if you choose.

All meals are provided. Breakfast usually consists of toast, bagels, cereal, donuts, etc. A sack lunch is provided while you are in the field. A full multi-course, home-cooked meal is provided in the evening. We provide several snacks as well, but if you have any “favorites” you should bring those as well.

We have several different types of stands. For archery, we use lock-on stands with 20′ climbing sticks and for firearm seasons we use 20’ ladder stands as well as enclosed shooting houses. Hunters may bring climbing stands of their own if they would like.

We built a new lodge in 2017 with 12 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms where we will provide all bed linens, pillows, towels, and meals. Bring your own snacks and personal items. Please call us if you have any specific dietary requirements as we try to be as accommodating as we can.

There may be a little bit of wiggle room, let us know what would work for you and we can see what we can do.

Depending on the room we have this can usually be done. Non-hunting guests will be charged a rate of $175 per day covering lodging and meals.

Windy Ridge Outfitting guides will field dress your animal and cape the deer if you would like. There is room for you to do some of your own meat processing if you like or there is a local meat locker that we recommend.

Yes, our guides will be working hard to provide you with anything and everything to make your hunt a success and to ensure you are as comfortable as possible during your stay.  Guides are appreciative of gratuity.

No. your hunt is paid in full and we have no trophy fees. There is, however, a $500.00 fine if a hunter shoots a deer scoring less than our minimum in which state hunt takes place.

We will make a strong effort to find your animal. We often succeed in the recovery of marginally hit animals with a “when in doubt we back out” strategy. No hunting will resume until Windy Ridge Outfitting staff has determined the animal to be un-recoverable. Once this happens, the hunter will be allowed to hunt again, but a miss or second wounded animal will result in the end of the hunt.

Our minimum in Iowa is 140” or 4.5 years old. There is a fine of $500.00 for any deer shot scoring under the minimum imposed by Windy Ridge Outfitting.

We can give you a “crash course” once you arrive by showing photos and explaining what to look for. Please let us know in advance if you are unsure of how to judge whitetails efficiently and we can give you some photos to look at.

Yes. Windy Ridge Outfitting has possibly the best array of food plots you will find anywhere in the Midwest — weather permitting of course! There are over 100 acres of corn and soybeans, as well as brassica’s, clover, wheat, chicory, and oats.  As well as a year-round rigorous Wild Eighty Mineral supplement program.

Yes, we do. We do our very best to harvest the right amount of does and let our smaller bucks go un-harvested until they are mature. This along with our food and mineral program and the great genetics found in this area provides you with some of the best whitetail hunting in the world.

Most of the bucks harvested here range from 140” – 165”. Every year a few of our hunters are blessed with deer much larger, some even going over 200” but this would not be the “norm.”

We feel that we have exceptional success/opportunity rates here. By keeping the hunting pressure to a minimum and maximizing our herd’s potential we have averaged nearly a 200% opportunity rate. This does not mean that everyone has had the opportunity at two deer above our minimum, but if there were ten guys in camp for a week, there were 20 encounters with deer considered “shooters.” When it comes to actually harvest deer, our gun hunter’s average success rate is 85% on bucks. A bowhunter’s success is around 65% on bucks.