Opener

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eharlow49

New member
Anyone going out Opening Day on Saturday? I'll be out in central Iowa on some family land with my 9 month old Small Munsterlander. I don't expect to be shooting much as we've gone after prairie grouse in Nebraska and northern Minnesota as well as pheasants in Minnesota and so far my pup loves to just follow his nose right into the birds and I'm not shooting anything he doesn't point. Having said that, earlier this week we were walking an area we're probably going to hunt this weekend and he started tracking like he usually does before slamming into a beautiful point that up until then has only resulted in me finding the remains of an animal or a turtle (I lost count of the number of turtles he pointed in the Sandhills). As I got within 5 yards of him saying, "What have you found this time ding dong?", a young rooster flushed that had been holding no more than a couple feet in front of his nose.

It feels like I've seen way more birds this year than in previous years so regardless of my pups current pointing ability, I can't wait for Saturday!
 
Looks a little warm. Good luck to you. Even if its not very good, it will only get better as the season progresses.
 
I am in NW Iowa now. I am going duck hunting shortly.

It is extremely dry here. Water levels appear to be 3 to 4 ft below normal.

Every cover you walk through crunches.
 
A bird hunting buddy of mine who has never been to Iowa ever killed a limit before noon on public this morning.( I talked him out of going to Kansas this year- I don’t think he’ll want to go back!🤣)
 
I went out for just an hour Sunday on a heavily-hunted WMA. Just wanted to get the dog out and shake off the rust. She flushed a rooster too far to hit and and a hen. Talked to a guy there who said he'd seen birds both days and gotten one. A little moisture would sure help the dogs work but the birds are there.
 
went out for opener this weekend, had a group of 5 on one piece of public and another group of 2 across the road on a different piece. All told, 7 man limit by 9:30 with numerous misses by a couple of guys. A friend of mine and myself walked an edge with cut beans next to it. I should have been done by 8:10, was putting my first rooster in my vest and had 2 more fly 10yds in front of me spaced 5 yds apart and just couldn't get mounted fast enough to get a shot off. Either way we saw well over 75 probably closer to 100 birds just on our edge and had a 25-30 rooster flush after I shot my last bird of the morning. Sunday we should of had a 4 man limit by 9:30 but some poor shooting by a couple guys and lost birds kept us from getting limits. Both pieces of public were in totally different parts of the state and we saw tons of birds. Shaping up to be a good season if this trend continues.
 
Hunted the past four days for varying lengths of time. Saturday: saw a bunch of birds but any roosters that held, my dog busted so I didn't shoot. Sunday: saw a few less birds but while my dog was tracking one rooster that eventually got up out of range, a second one flushed in between us. Dropped it and my pup had a nice retrieve to within about 5 yards of me before he decided he wanted a better taste of what it was he was carrying in his mouth. Yesterday: Decided to head south to check out some IHAP land. The first spot was surrounded my standing corn and given that my pup had hunted hard the last two days and it was going to be extremely warm later that day, we passed. The second IHAP piece was in the process of being hayed and there was a large party already at the third piece we went to. We ended up stopping at some WMA's but by that time the temperature was getting close to 70 so we just kept it to short hunts and ended the day with 0 bird contacts. Went out this morning back towards the center of the state and shot one that went down hard but after an hour of searching, we came up empty handed.
 
I missed our opener, so no report from me. The only thing I am sure of is that on the opening day (or any other during season) my old GSP would not of loaded-up in the truck at 9:30 very easily! My cousin fill his 3 birds in 15 minutes he said, I need to ask if he let his dogs keep hunting or if he tried to get them back in the truck...they wouldn't even be breathing hard in 15 minutes. Guessing he finished walking the piece he was in.
 
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