Iowa Quail?

D

dead pheasants forever

Member
I'm from Denver and will likely be heading out to Iowa around Christmas because my girlfriend's family is out there. We'll be in Lucas County, south central Iowa. I've never hunted Iowa, but I hunt quite a bit in Colorado, North Dakota, and western Nebraska and Kansas every now and then. I've got a young GSP pup who will be almost 7 months around Christmas that I really want to put on some wild birds. I investigated some on the DNR website and saw that south central Iowa might have some quail, but not many pheasants. The quail were a surprise because I've never heard of quail hunting in Iowa. It'd be great if the pup could chase some quail while I'm there because quail are sometimes easier for the young dogs than running late season roosters (though roosters are great too!). I'm not looking for anyone's spots, but is there enough of a quail population and public land opportunities in south central Iowa to make it worth a hunt? Please PM me if you want to keep your response away from the internet lurkers. I appreciate any advice that anyone may have!
 
There are a lot of public ground around Rathbun Lake. I hunted quail from Clarinda across to the the Rathbun area many years past, The quail were plentiful but then roosters were too! There are still birds but not like they were then. Beats spending the afternoon with the inlaws though.
 
Iowa's quail population has been decimated over the last 5-6 years . . . during that stretch of really rough winters. You've better chance of locating roosters than quail in my opinion.
 
Madison County was kind enough to invite me out to one of his secret public spots. We hunted for a morning and, after putting up 30-40 hens, finally put up a rooster who made an emergency landing. The rooster in the photo is my first Iowa rooster. Thanks again to Madison County for the hospitality and for showing me some great habitat. I can see that Iowa has everything that pheasants need when the weather cooperates.
 
You might starve!

Hello,

I agree with some of the other posters. Our quail populations in general are non-huntable in Iowa due to numbers. I am sure you could locate a covey here in there but the chances of that are quite slim as of now.
 
First Iowa pheasant

dead pheasants forever said:
Madison County was kind enough to invite me out to one of his secret public spots. We hunted for a morning and, after putting up 30-40 hens, finally put up a rooster who made an emergency landing. The rooster in the photo is my first Iowa rooster. Thanks again to Madison County for the hospitality and for showing me some great habitat. I can see that Iowa has everything that pheasants need when the weather cooperates.
Click to expand...

dead pheasants forever, it was great hunting with you and your 2 dogs. I am glad that you got your first Iowa rooster while we were out. :thumbsup: Take care!
 
just drop down in the nw part of missouri there are lots of public spots for quail and quite a few quail on them i busted a huge covey on bilby, but beleive me they are very smart that was the last i saw of them but there are lots of coveys of birds there
 
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