2023 Iowa bird hunt pics and/or stories

An addition to my prior post. I went out to clean the "old boys", and I just could tear into the one with the long tail feathers....I ended-up taking him to the taxidermist. He wasn't perfect, but the dog never got him and I didn't even shove him into my game bag of my coat, I carried him out as he was the 3rd bird of the morning. I guess in the back of my mind the thought to save him was creeping in the moment I noticed the length of the tail feathers. I already have 3 roosters at that taxidermist and a larger base I made that should hold all 4 roosters. Oh, I did make 8 pounds of breakfast sausage...would have done more, but I ran out of pork butt to mix with the pheasants. Here are a couple pics of today's birds.
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remy3424 said:
An addition to my prior post. I went out to clean the "old boys", and I just could tear into the one with the long tail feathers....I ended-up taking him to the taxidermist. He wasn't perfect, but the dog never got him and I didn't even shove him into my game bag of my coat, I carried him out as he was the 3rd bird of the morning. I guess in the back of my mind the thought to save him was creeping in the moment I noticed the length of the tail feathers. I already have 3 roosters at that taxidermist and a larger base I made that should hold all 4 roosters. Oh, I did make 8 pounds of breakfast sausage...would have done more, but I ran out of pork butt to mix with the pheasants. Here are a couple pics of today's birds.
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That is an awesome bird. Not to be “that guy”, but mine was bigger.. from last weekend! I may not have measured him quite right however.. If he had been off of our property he would have been mounted, but unfortunately he was not!

Good luck as the season winds down! In eastern Iowa the 9th and 10th of January are looking like they may be the best two days of hunting weather all Fall - hoping I can get off work for one of them at least.
 

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I will concede, his feathers are staying put....unless the dog gets to him afterwards....assuming I do get it back someday. It was on our property. I am pressed for time these days so I just hit the CRP. I can tell the rooster ratio has changed from the beginning of the season.
 
4shot said:
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Some of the nicest 16* weather I’ve ever hunted. Dog hasn’t been out in four weeks after knocking on deaths door. Felt good to be out again. Hunting in Iowa was better than the bowl game!!🥴
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Tell me about your Setter, he sure is a good looking dog. Always been a shorthair guy but I've been thinking about getting a Setter this Spring. Thanks, Bryan
 
KansasGsp said:
Tell me about your Setter, he sure is a good looking dog. Always been a shorthair guy but I've been thinking about getting a Setter this Spring. Thanks, Bryan
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Upper 40lb male. All business in the field, your best friend at home. Retrieves birds, has a hard time getting them in his mouth. Won’t retrieve birds when around dominate dogs but when I’m hunting alone retrieves all birds to me. Made a water retrieve this year outta the James River, that was pretty
cool. Would hunt as big as you would let him, I hunt with a lot of labs so I reign him in around 30yrds. I bought him from John Prince outta Kansas but he got him from Bruce Murfy outta Iowa, Rising Sun Kennels. Not a brush buster like a lab but still finds a ton of birds for me. Most people I hunt with enjoy watching him the most of all the other dogs
 
Thanks for the info. I bought a shorthair from Prince a while back. I will check out Rising Sun Kennels. Figure life's short, might as well try something different other than a Shorthair. It's think I've narrowed it down between a Britt and a Setter.
 
Hunted up in IA while up at the inlaws on NYE, in an area i'd say is less favorable compared to other parts of the state based off what i read in the forums and the info i see on Iowa DNR's site. Hunted a couple really nice patches of IHAP and didnt see a single other bird hunter. Excellent cover (almost too thick if that's even a thing), excellent feed both adjacent and on the actual ihap in one instance. TONS of hens, prolly moved 15-20 on the first patch? If it wasn't for some awful shooting, should've been done after the first patch. Final patch of the day, had walked the entire patch of ihap, was maybe 200 yards from the truck, flushed the only bird i saw in that field, dropped him. I TRY to hunt my home state of KS once a weekend (+/-), so I see a bunch of country and WIHA. Our habitat is no where near the same quality of what i've seen driving around IA on my two hunts up there this year.

Good luck on your last remaining days of the season.
 

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Had a nice hunt yesterday, some great points and holds. Saw a pile of birds after I had my 3, trying to get my buddy some. I did miss 2, both straight away shots that I fully expected the birds to fall, but that happens. 2 were older birds, one with long spurs and a 23" tail. I may have wrapped-up my season, as I pulled something near my groin yesterday walking some thick cover and my heel is tender...getting old (older) sucks. Lame pics again. Looking at these poor pics wants me to give it a go again today.
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remy3424 said:
Had a nice hunt yesterday, some great points and holds. Saw a pile of birds after I had my 3, trying to get my buddy some. I did miss 2, both straight away shots that I fully expected the birds to fall, but that happens. 2 were older birds, one with long spurs and a 23" tail. I may have wrapped-up my season, as I pulled something near my groin yesterday walking some thick cover and my heel is tender...getting old (older) sucks. Lame pics again. Looking at these poor pics wants me to give it a go again today.
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Thats an old timer for sure!
 
I hit a reliable public area today and ended up with 1 bird. There were a couple other hunters out, but was never within a few hundred yards of them. We were in stealth mode and I think that's why we got close to that rooster. When we were in the cattails it was hard to be quiet and roosters flushed wild.
Yesterday I hunted a spot that required waders and it was probably the toughest hunt I've ever had. Most of the area is marshy and the ice wasn't thick enough to support me. I took my lab due to the need to swim in cold water to get to our spots. I've seen and heard a lot of roosters while duck hunting this area so knew they were in there. I shot a rooster in short order, but he landed on the ice, popped up, and ran into the thickest cattail he could find. My lab couldn't find him, so we continued on. Long story short, we put up a lot of hens, but only heard 1 other rooster. I would hunt this spot again in future if it's either much drier, or the ice is frozen enough to walk on. We put in 9 miles but just about every step we were breaking ice.
I'll took Wednesday morning off and will hit some private ground to finish up the season.
 
I closed out my season riding the struggle bus today. Just when I think I have this all figured-out, I have the toughest day of shooting I can remember in recent years. By myself again today, went out about 11:00, temp in the upper teens, little wind and the sun was out. I was down to my last 10 shells (I reload and have just been short of time recently since I realized they might not last to the end of the season), but the way I have been shooting lately, those would be enough for at least 2 days....wrong. Long story short, I had no birds in the bag and decided I was just going to head for the truck, pride shattered, soaking wet, legs about gone and full of humble pie, I had 2 shells left in my gun, pockets empty. Heading back the dog got birdy, put a rooster within range, he fell and the dog was on him. When this bird flushed, I could see a long piece of switchgrass or blue stem draped over his wing, (that seemed unusual, I remember thinking) and when I recovered him, he had no tail feathers and most of the feathers on his back were missing, I guess the the dog had a bit of trouble corralling him. Now I was feeling a bit better, not getting skunked. Still back on a path for the truck the dog is on point again and another rooster and I dropped him with my final shell, just like I had been shooting the for the past couple weeks. At my shot, I have birds flushing everywhere around me, similar to a week ago. The dog is just overwhelmed and I find the bird dead about where I had him marked. The last bird was a big boy! Long spurs, but not exceptional, decent tail feathers, likely close to 23", but a heavy bodied bird. This was the first time I can remember walking out with not a shell in my gun or pockets. That is a wrap on my '23-'24 season. Lookin at the temps forecasted for next weekend, season closed just in time. Hoping for little snow and a big bird carry-over again for next season.
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If you would have had a vest full you probably wouldn’t have had an opportunity to shoot your way out of the slump. Knowing you were short probably helped you out. Weird how that happens. Sounds like a good ending
 
We always refer to the final weekend of the year as “rooster reduction” weekend. My dad and a couple of my good buddies. We ended up with 10 roosters on Saturday, and had to work for them. On Sunday, we hunted our farm and I was very happy with the 7 roosters bagged there. After a few years we are finally starting to get some pretty solid numbers at our property, and hope to continue seeing that grow. I think we shot 24 roosters on our property this season, and continue to make incremental improvements to the property. I am optimistic we can get that number closer to the 40 mark in a few years or so. Had to get a picture with our new rock we just got back!

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Awesome rock Cy, love that! It is so satisfying to harvest roosters and see all the birds from something you have created. We have dubbed ours "The Rooster Ranch" and have an annual rooster round-up, to give those hens a better chance of making through the winter.
 
Hit some private ground for the last hunt of the season. Birds were few and far between except for 2 roosters that were together, so got my 1st double of the season. We hunted 3 different waterways, both sides each, and it was a brutal walking with all of the drifts and crusty snow. We made it to the home stretch and got about 30 yards from the end and Mina flushed a rooster out of a small brush pile, and I finished out my limit.
Over all we saw 5 roosters (2 flushed out of range) and 2 hens.
The good news is that the heavy winds yesterday blew a lot of the snow off the fields so they shouldn't have trouble finding food. The bad news is that the snow blew into all of the cover, so there's not much exposed grass remaining.

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One last hunt today with a good friend. We got our 6, and saw plenty more. Lots of hens as expected. I am concerned about the birds over the coming weeks with this nasty cold front coming through. Even the thickest tall prairie was full of snow, very little quality cover remaining for the birds! IMG_3741.jpeg
 
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