Party hunting pheasants in Iowa?

westksbowhunter said:
I never considered a group of 8, 10, 12 or more hunting. That is just killing. Might as well release a couple dozen Rhode island reds out and go to shooting. I see 20 plus hunting fields in kansas. Just ridiculous. One time I counted 22 trucks hunting a large walk in area. Had to be close to 75 hunters in that group. I don't even know where to start on how ignorant it looks. It always involves alcohol and always an illegal hunter
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Chestle said:
That possession limit thing. I was told by an SD friend that if you have more birds in the truck than you have licensed hunters in the cab you can be ticketed for that too.

Example: Four guys hunt a field and get 7 birds. The birds all go into the back of your pickup. You drive all the hunters back to the start point and two get out of your truck and go to their own truck. Now you have two licensed hunters and 7 birds in your truck. You are in violation of the possession law and can be ticketed.

Same potential risk for the guy with the good dog. You hunt with guys that have no dog and your dog brings all the birds to you. You stick them all in your gamebag until you finish hunting that field. Once you have more than 3 in your game bag, you are over the possession limit. I know I've come out of fields with 6 in the game bag and only one or two of those being mine.

Not sure they actually would ticket you for this but supposedly it is a violation.
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I have had that scenario in Sd more than once, especially when you have the only two retrieving dogs in a group of 3 or 4.
 
I saw a total of 3 birds hunting in Kansas today, so no chance of putting very many in the vest. It is terrible here, headed to Iowa next Saturday. I will be "Party" hunting with my 2 dogs.
 
WCBH, if you are in NW IA on the last week of the year, reach-out, I have that week off. We can get on some awesome habitat and likely a quick limit. A quick tour of our pheasant factory!
 
I don't mind hunting with a good friend or two, or a couple family members. Any more than that and it seems too regimented. I much prefer to follow my dogs, not tell my dogs where we are going.

As for party hunting and possession limits, only once this year would I have had the chance to shoot more than 3 birds when I wasn't hunting by myself. We were only a couple hundred yards from the pickup, and the opportunity did not present itself. I split time hunting between IA and NE, and always label the birds that get vacuum sealed, in case I ever did have an LEO in my freezer. Fortunately/unfortunately, I have shot so poorly this year that I doubt I'll achieve a possession limit in either state!
 
First of all, good luck hunting late season pressured public land birds by yourself. It doesn't work that well. Second, I've been hunting public land in Iowa with fairly good sized groups of 8-10 guys since 1997 and have been checked by wardens more than likely 50 or more times. They are always super nice, ask for license's, check for steel shot where required, ask how we're doing and usually offer up advice on where they're seeing or have heard of some good bird numbers. Not once have we been asked who has shot what or how many each guy has. Generally they don't even ask to look at the birds. I think the 75 hunters is probably quite a bit exaggerated, unless maybe it was some sort of get together fundraiser type thing maybe. Third it doesn't bother me one bit that I train 2 very good dogs year around and other people shoot birds off of them. Actually, it is quite rewarding when people in your group comment on how well they do. Also, in our group we usually have at least 8 dogs hunting. But, for the guy who works too much, kids make him too busy etc to have time for a bird dog, but really enjoys pheasant hunting. It's pretty cool for him to come out with his buddies and get some shooting. I honestly think this is kind of a ticky tacky gripe and I'm sure there are plenty of guys on both sides of the fence on this. But, I think if it was a huge issue they would probably do something about it.
 
I hunt public ground til the end of the season, just myself and the dog and we seem to get birds without much trouble. Do we get our limit no, but I don't judge the success of my hunt by the number of birds shot. Keep it quiet and get into the cover that most people avoid and you'll do alright on public ground.

As for being checked by the DNR I've been checked twice in over 50 years of hunting, you being checked 50 times could be the result of the size of you group.
 
CDUBS said:
First of all, good luck hunting late season pressured public land birds by yourself. It doesn't work that well. Second, I've been hunting public land in Iowa with fairly good sized groups of 8-10 guys since 1997 and have been checked by wardens more than likely 50 or more times. They are always super nice, ask for license's, check for steel shot where required, ask how we're doing and usually offer up advice on where they're seeing or have heard of some good bird numbers. Not once have we been asked who has shot what or how many each guy has. Generally they don't even ask to look at the birds. I think the 75 hunters is probably quite a bit exaggerated, unless maybe it was some sort of get together fundraiser type thing maybe. Third it doesn't bother me one bit that I train 2 very good dogs year around and other people shoot birds off of them. Actually, it is quite rewarding when people in your group comment on how well they do. Also, in our group we usually have at least 8 dogs hunting. But, for the guy who works too much, kids make him too busy etc to have time for a bird dog, but really enjoys pheasant hunting. It's pretty cool for him to come out with his buddies and get some shooting. I honestly think this is kind of a ticky tacky gripe and I'm sure there are plenty of guys on both sides of the fence on this. But, I think if it was a huge issue they would probably do something about it.
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Nothing at all against your style on public ground. I've hunted with large groups, however I generally save my good private land for those days. It seems like I am exponentially more effective hunting public land by myself. It's just too hard (in my opinion) to keep that many guys/vehicles/dogs quiet and avoid spooking birds. I'll often park a couple hundred yards away along a gravel road and walk the ditch to where I am hunting, and not make a peep the entire time (other than hopefully some shooting). I've rarely had great success hunting with others on public (other than one of my good buddies) because inherently there's more noise, talking, yelling, etc.
 
CDUBS said:
First of all, good luck hunting late season pressured public land birds by yourself. It doesn't work that well. Second, I've been hunting public land in Iowa with fairly good sized groups of 8-10 guys since 1997 and have been checked by wardens more than likely 50 or more times. They are always super nice, ask for license's, check for steel shot where required, ask how we're doing and usually offer up advice on where they're seeing or have heard of some good bird numbers. Not once have we been asked who has shot what or how many each guy has. Generally they don't even ask to look at the birds. I think the 75 hunters is probably quite a bit exaggerated, unless maybe it was some sort of get together fundraiser type thing maybe. Third it doesn't bother me one bit that I train 2 very good dogs year around and other people shoot birds off of them. Actually, it is quite rewarding when people in your group comment on how well they do. Also, in our group we usually have at least 8 dogs hunting. But, for the guy who works too much, kids make him too busy etc to have time for a bird dog, but really enjoys pheasant hunting. It's pretty cool for him to come out with his buddies and get some shooting. I honestly think this is kind of a ticky tacky gripe and I'm sure there are plenty of guys on both sides of the fence on this. But, I think if it was a huge issue they would probably do something about it.
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I have been shooting pheasants on public land late season since the 70's. Quite frankly, it is the absolute best time to hunt public ground. Especially, if you have dogs the quality of mine and know what you are doing. The pressure decreases in January and the birds return to the heavy crp when winter starts to set in. Nope 75 is not exaggerated at all. Here, where a a crp field will cover 1 square mile, large hunting groups of people will have blockers on the east west and north and will line up hunters across the entire section walking from the south. They try and leave no escape route. Its an opening weekend tradition. As far as working, I am a teacher. I have spent most of my career serving as a head high school boys basketball and high school track coach. I also raised 3 kids and was involved in all of their sports activities but still found time to have the best retrievers around and kill 75 rooster individually each year. All hunting by myself or with my son. Your post, honestly, is "ticky tacky" and "non informative".
 
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Birdman2 said:
I don't care for the large groups going into a field and surrounding the birds. No fair chase. Not good for bird populations. Considering some states don't allow it, there must negative effects.
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Please name the states where it is illegal to hunt with a large group.
 
Like I said, everyone has their opinions. Not trying to argue. I question Birdman2's take that it's not good for bird populations though considering all the other guys here are saying they are more productive alone. Meaning that if all 8 of my group goes out solo we should shoot more birds right? Getting checked by the wardens frequently may be because of the group, but I think it's more due to the fact that I haven't missed an Iowa opener in years and they are around the area I hunt every single year that weekend. I've never heard of anywhere that you aren't allowed to hunt in a group. I will tell you that I most certainly could be more successful opening weekend hunting alone, but it's a blast hunting with a bunch of friends. It's what it's all about to me, having a good day in the field and then shooting the breeze about it afterwards with the guys.
 
I am also interested in the group size limits. I don’t like to group hunt but do occasionally. I hunt both ND and MN and know in ND you have to shoot your own birds and in MN you can party hunt.
 
Not that it really matters, but I did try to find out some information on MN, SD and ND. I couldn't find any group size restrictions for any of them. I've seen it on TV in North Dakota and South Dakota groups riding out on buses. I did find an article with the heading of something similar to South Dakota doing away with the group size restrictions of 20. This article looked like it was from 2014, but I didn't want to subscribe so I couldn't read it. MN and SD you can party hunt meaning that you can individually shoot as many birds as you want as long as you are under the groups legal limit. Like Hunt1GSP said, North Dakota you have to shoot your own. Again, not arguing but it's good for people to know the regulations. I have not issues with how anyone hunts as long as it's by legal means.
 
If I'm not mistaken here in Indiana, the definition is basically, you cannot fill someone else's bag limit or tags, as CDUBS describes above. The first time I realized what it meant was when my brother went on a paid out of state goose hunt years ago, he said that he only shot one that he knew was actually his. They just kept shooting until they had all the hunters' bags were filled. I don't think i would like it!
 
I've seen the loaded buses going to walk in ground in Kansas. Outfitters taking them there. Years ago a lot of people said that won't have an effect on bird counts on public ground. Look at bird count on public ground now. Yes there have been droughts which definitely affects them but....I am not a biologist but I think it has a negative effect on bird counts. I have seen the piles of remains after a party hunt on public.
 
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