Good to hear! I hope you have good luck this year too. As far as the limit in the two states; from everything I've read it would be illegal to take a limit in both states on the same day. So I'd say don't do it until you've done some research to be on the safe side.
Dang, wish I could be there to hear the conversation with IA or MN game warden when you pull out 5 fresh shot birds.
There would be no violation in hunting two states in the same day. The problem would be if you got checked at the truck , you had a limit shot in MN that morning in there. You also had birds in your possession (in your game bag) or if the MN limit you had was the same number as IA limit. Birds were fresh shot , that day anyhow , you will be subjected to further investigation. I assure you , a IA officer is only concerned with what he finds in IA. The efforts to mark your birds as stated would help your case. A good officer will be able to tell at least the difference in how long the birds have been dead. Having both state licenses is certainly a must but to say the '' can't say or do anything '' is incorrect. Loved hunting Iowa in the early 2000's , shot my first wild pheasant there!!
Im certainly envious of you guys that live in pheasant country. I wish I had the problem of what to do with all my pheasants I had killed in my home state and a bordering state. We hunted in KS last year and drove on a state line rd that was the NE border , this same conversation came up in the truck. Most Wardens are looking for good solid intentional violations. Most all will make an effort to see the hunters side of things if they can. Id LOVE to hunt IA again one of these days!!
If I could hunt only one bird for the rest of my hunting career ,it would be huns! NC Kansas has been really tough for pheasants the last few years but the quail numbers have improved over the last couple. Nebraska is on my list of places to go , just haven't yet. We had a warden show us on a map where he had seen birds the past week or so once , we shot limits there.
Yea , I have only shot at huns in Wyoming. Saw a covey in North Dakota. Tasty little birds for sure though. Id love to hit NE soon. I usually go to Ks late December / early January. I certainly respect and understand your slogan '' be a man and hunt public land'' . Im a public land die hard myself.
We did shoot Sage Grouse , Sharptails , Huns , and Blue grouse all on the same trip to Wyoming and all on public land. The 2nd time we went we just Sage and Blue hunted and were successful on both. Lots of work and tough country but it was worth the effort. WY has an insane amount of public land. When you get ready to go I will swap you some WY advice for some of your NE knowledge.
We got into Blues just north of Ranchester / Dayton WY in the big horns. Don't just hunt aspens , hunt the sage around the aspen stands like you would for Sage. Late evening seemed to be best.