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Nice hunt! I’m in Central Iowa and we’re supposed to get a couple of inches of snow tomorrow so I’m planning to head out. You must be in the NW part of the State since you’re not expecting any snow. I got out this afternoon on some public and got 1 “surprise” bird. My dog and I were walking a...

Here's a short video of the hunt showing the 1st 2 birds we got. This was my first attempt at this so be nice :) I used my old Contour Roam camera which doesn't have image stabilization. I just got a new GoPro 11 and will be using that for future hunts. I may use the Contour as a barrel cam...

Early 2000s as well. There was nothing like the sweet sound of the 56K dial-up modem!

I was talking to my sister in law at Christmas and she mentioned that she grew up on a farm in Carroll county Iowa and her dad owned a ton of farm ground, so my natural instinct kicked in and I asked if they had any pheasant ground. She said they did, then my brother in law called her dad and...

My lab was 105# 2 years ago when I got him neutered. Right now he’s probably around 90# since it’s hunting season. He’s bigger than I really wanted and pheasant hunting takes a toll on him compared to my springer, but he’s a good bird dog and loves to go. I’ve learned to give him a couple of...

For the most part I’ve named my dogs after something we saw on the way to pick them up from the breeder. Springers: Red (already named), Casey (convenience store), Codey (Buffalo Bill Cody road), Mina (Lake Mina) Labs: Tagger (let 1 of my kids pick the name), and Blue (had a blue collar at the...

The public birds are definitely jumpy. We’ve been putting up a lot of birds but most have been well out of range. I went out this afternoon hoping the wind would mask the noise and ended up getting one in the cattails that flushed about 5’ in front of me. I about decapitated the poor fella.

I’m 58 and haven’t fallen much over the years , but I fell twice in heavy cattails last weekend. The humbling part was trying to get back up without something solid to grab onto..lol I got 1 bird between falls so that helped ease the embarrassment.

For the sake of my dogs, I rarely hunt ditches. Now, if I saw a good ditch on a Level B / minimum maintenance/ mud road, with good cover I might consider it. I rarely see road hunters in the areas I hunt, and I drive quite a bit on gravel roads. When I do, I don't think twice about it...

They amaze me every year. Shot one a couple of weeks ago that folded, and we went to the drop site to find him, he had run to the other side of the draw and flew away. The dogs trailed him to the spot where he flew off. I shot a couple of birds last year that had large pockets of damaged...

I agree that the habitat is usually exceptional on IHAP properties. I hunted one last year for the first time and it was incredible. I saw more roost spots with droppings than any other place I've hunted, but we only put up one hen during the 2+ hours it took to cover it. My best guess is that...

I’m curious to get anyone else’s opinion on IHAP properties. I try to hunt 3-4 new IHAP spots each season. I hunt mostly N. Central Iowa and my luck has been sporadic at best. I’ve never hunted any of them early in the season so wondering if maybe they get pounded early on. I’ve never shot...

I went yesterday and today. Yesterday was on private with no deer hunters, and today was on public. I stayed in big grassy areas with no timber around. That said, I heard a ton of shooting from a distance so imagine a lot of deer were getting shot at.

Should be birds shot and recovered per day. I would bet you lose more birds than anyone else in here and could care less about it. If I lost that many birds in a whole season I’d be taking a hard look at my shooting and my dog’s ability and training.

That truck should have a personalized plate saying "Dmpn Mud"

I hunted mostly cattails last Sunday since it was 5 degrees out, and put up a lot of birds, but all of them were out of range. The problem with cattails is that they are very noisy to walk through. I walked 4 different sloughs on the same public area and never got closer than 75 yards to a...

Frozen solid

I had a friend in town from STL and took him on his first pheasant hunt ever on Saturday. We hit some private ground in central Iowa first thing in the AM and he connected on his first bird. It was the only one that held tight, the rest flushed pretty wild. We headed to Chichaqua afterwards...

It really depends on the weather conditions (temp, snow etc.), and the dog's conditioning. With my dogs I can tell when it's time to quit by their body language and drive.

I try to be as quiet as possible and push towards edges when hunting alone. If you have other people just set up blockers. The birds usually run quite a bit before flushing so someone will usually get a shot. Otherwise wait for a good snow storm to hunt those birds.