Party hunting pheasants in Iowa?

Iowa springerguy said:
So yes in a perfect setting 90 to 95% can be harvested but how often do we see that perfect setting?
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I agree. I'd rather error on the side of caution than over harvest combined with other variables. I do agree that harvesting roosters generally does not affect the population as others have stated, but bag limits and dated seasons should still be set, enforced, and followed. Deer and turkeys are the same way. But often times with deer, we actually do need to thin the herd in some areas, which is why they are very liberal with anterless bonus tags in some places.
 
gimruis said:
I agree. I'd rather error on the side of caution than over harvest combined with other variables. I do agree that harvesting roosters generally does not affect the population as others have stated, but bag limits and dated seasons should still be set, enforced, and followed. Deer and turkeys are the same way. But often times with deer, we actually do need to thin the herd in some areas, which is why they are very liberal with anterless bonus tags in some places.
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I agree about error on the side of caution when it comes to harvesting roosters. I'm always more concerned about the number of hens that I see more than the roosters.

Having hunted pheasants since the 60's I've seen how fragile the population is and how quickly it can be decimated and how long it takes to recover. Never would i say that the problem was solely hunting pressure but a combination of what i stated earlier and a loss of habitat. So it really is an individual decision as to the numbers that they feel comfortable harvesting. We're only a hard winter or poor nesting season away from low bird numbers again.
 
I don’t have any data to back this up, but you could probably argue that hunting pressure alone in harsh conditions (even if no roosters are harvested) Probablt is more detrimental than killing roosters. Hens get pushed into marginal cover where they are more prone to weather and predation.

Also, while hens are illegal to shoot, I can’t help but imagine there’s a fair number of hens killed each year by hunters, particularly like n public land.
 
cyclonenation10 said:
Also, while hens are illegal to shoot, I can’t help but imagine there’s a fair number of hens killed each year by hunters, particularly like n public land.
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Early in the season, young roosters often lack color. Heck, I've seen roosters with NO color but since they cackled, I shot them. I will also admit that my dog has caught several live hens over the years. Not a whole lot I can do about that. Its probably occurred 5 times in 20 years.

If you can't tell the difference between a hen and a rooster when it flushes, the solution is simple: you don't shoot (that should not be an issue beyond October). I've encountered this problem early in the duck season too because the bag limit is 2 hen mallards and sometimes the males don't have much plumage yet.
 
Truthfully, I want a large population of roosters, the more we have, the easier it is to harvest a few. Last year late in season I had 5 guys (normally just 2 of us) for a morning hunt to harvest a few roosters before the weather turned and season closed, we took 14, it wasn't much of a dent, but 14 less to compete for the food and the best roosting cover. Had a tough winter and I did a no-no and fed corn, the food plots were really poor. This year the food plots are better, but we have a 55 gallon barrel full of corn, sitting out in the quarter, just in-case. Had a big carry-over of birds...always satisfying to see the long spurred birds! I need to get the boys back for a hunt...should call it our annual rooster round-up.
 

This thread has taken a turn in the direction of something I found on the Pheasants Forever site. It addresses pheasant populations and considers length of seasons, limits, cripples...their take is that the legal rooster only seasons have little affect on the next year's population.

Maybe don't pound those roosters down to 5% if you want a growing population of birds. If they out-grow/over-populate the parcel, they will start pushing out to surrounding areas.

No amount of rooster hunting will decimate a local pheasant population like a burtual winter snow storm or 2 in a row. Some landowner loathe them, but eastern red cedars will provide some of the best chances of survival for pheasants in those weather events. Might have to work at keeping them where you want them.
 
If the spores are in the soil already, you have a fight on your hands. If you bring them in, it will be decades before they are an issue.

Back to the original idea behind the thread, it was an interesting morning. I got my 3 and then tried to get my buddy his birds (he knocked one down in some thick stuff, he almost had it once, it got away ulimately), he had opportunities, but just didn't happen today. Didn't even carry my gun at the second place we hunted, a different story than what we did before last weekend. The wind made mid-teens feel dang cold!
 
remy3424 said:

This thread has taken a turn in the direction of something I found on the Pheasants Forever site. It addresses pheasant populations and considers length of seasons, limits, cripples...their take is that the legal rooster only seasons have little affect on the next year's population.

Maybe don't pound those roosters down to 5% if you want a growing population of birds. If they out-grow/over-populate the parcel, they will start pushing out to surrounding areas.

No amount of rooster hunting will decimate a local pheasant population like a burtual winter snow storm or 2 in a row. Some landowner loathe them, but eastern red cedars will provide some of the best chances of survival for pheasants in those weather events. Might have to work at keeping them where you want them.
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So this data/article supports the fact that party hunting will inevitably not impact populations, Pheasant populations are sustained by hens, it is more than likely impossible to reach the 95% harvest amount of roosters and it also supports the statement someone else made, which was that limits are basically put into place to spread the wealth to more hunters. The way that I read this article is that if no matter if hunters harvested 50%, 75% or 95%, it almost solely relies on winter survival and nesting success. If we have a bad enough winter that is going to take out the remaining percentage of the roosters, it's going to take out a pile of hens at the same time making it a low bird count the following year or more. Again, I'm not saying you should go out and get a limit everyday but at the same time when I'm out hunting I'm not passing up any roosters either. I'm out there to hunt and let the dogs have fun along with me and shooting pheasants is the common denominator of pheasant hunting in my opinion. I mean, I generally don't walk cattails and swamp grass on a nature walk with the wife and kids.
 
goldenboy said:
This is always a tough question right? Who shot which bird? Sometimes it is easy, sometimes two people shoot at a bird and it falls, who shot it? What about the bird I shoot and my buddy has to shoot it again because it is still flying? I think the spirit of the law is that one person does not detroy the day for everyone else by shootinig all the birds, but in the filed some days I get more shooting, some days I get less. Dogs are also a factor. The guys with dogs always shoot more birds. I don't understand the rule and have never seen it enforced.
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I have never had a game warden ask, " who shot what? Not once.
 
jonnyB said:
This is one of those laws that makes little sense and probably can't be enforced too well.

If one is hunting with one other person, I suppose it's possible to sort out who's bird is who's. Five-six hunters surround a field and shoot several birds that end up in a central pile...who shot what?

If I'm carrying three birds in my bag, in the field, and continue hunting/shooting, the law probably could be enforced. Our group (
SD) has an agreement - if you have shot your limit, allow the other hunters to do so, until 3:00. Then resume hunting with/for the group.
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Yeah, that makes sense. I like that.
 
westksbowhunter said:
I never considered a group of 8, 10, 12 or more hunting. That is just killing. Might as well release a couple dozen Rhode island reds out and go to shooting. I see 20 plus hunting fields in kansas. Just ridiculous. One time I counted 22 trucks hunting a large walk in area. Had to be close to 75 hunters in that group. I don't even know where to start on how ignorant it looks. It always involves alcohol and always an illegal hunter or 2.
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Yeah, that's crazy.A pheasant doesn't have a chance.Thumbs down!!
 
I don't care for the party hunting. If there are enough people in the party, they can almost wipe out all the birds in a field, etc. Again, I am not a biologist. That being said I have hunted for 60 years now and I have heard lots of theories on birds over those years from biologists. Some turned out to be true, others not so much. My "common sense barometer" says it does affect Rooster populations when party hunting happens, therefore the carry over of Roosters will be less the next year in the area where the large party hunting took place. So my barometer says party hunting affects the birds now and in the future. I don't think there is anything wrong with say 4 guys hunting together, after that ....
I know a lot of guys like it because of the social aspect of it. I understand. But when you have a large group of guys that do it you will have a lot of guys that can't shoot. So some in the party will shoot their birds for them.. To sum it up, I like a fair chase...
 
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To some extent, I equate it to what I've learned in trout fishing in Wyoming, South Dakota and New Mexico--at first I wasn't used to "catch and release" but if you do much fishing on the quality streams out there, you soon learn that it is very often the rule. My Father in Law used to always tease me when I came back from a western trip--"When's the fish fry" was one of his favorite comments....but over time I began to understand--if everyone kept every trout he/she caught, very soon there would be few to no trout. The nice thing about being an adult is that you can have feelings--ie, catch every trout, shoot every rooster....but you don't always have to act on those feelings. Too bad we can't "catch and release" the roosters...at least some of the time.
 
Wolfchief said:
My Father in Law used to always tease me when I came back from a western trip--"When's the fish fry" was one of his favorite comments....but over time I began to understand--if everyone kept every trout he/she caught, very soon there would be few to no trout.
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My old man and his friends still don't fully understand the concept of catch and release, or even selective harvest. In my opinion its a generational thing. Most of my similar-aged fishing friends go fishing because they enjoy it; whereas the older generation goes to harvest.
 
gimruis said:
My old man and his friends still don't fully understand the concept of catch and release, or even selective harvest. In my opinion its a generational thing. Most of my similar-aged fishing friends go fishing because they enjoy it; whereas the older generation goes to harvest.
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You may be partially correct about that. Most guys of my generation were taught by guys who grew up through or soon after the depression, people were hungry back then. that mind set started to fade some in the 60s and 70s. In the 80's when I decided to switch to an O/U Some of my friends could not understand why I would give up three shots. Other guys have some kind of a competition mind set, and other who don't hunt much just want to shoot a lot.
 
Roosters and Hens. Both legal to bag if they're quail but not if they're pheasant. Why is that?

Years ago I read a bit in Nebraskaland magazine I believe where one of the state biologists said it wouldn't make any difference in the bird population if hens were legal. He used the quail as an example.

I suspect he's right IF the habitat is very good and the weather is as well. Neither of those conditions seem to prevail lately anyhow.
 
I have to assume that it is due to hen & rooster quail are pretty hard to differentiate between in hunting situations, where pheasants are quiite easy for MOST to recognize. The PH article used rooster only harvest saying the population would stay the same after the next year's nesting. What I can't wrap my head around is in states where they release birds and they are shot about as fast as they are released...they allow hens to be harvested...why do they allow that? Are they not interested in getting a population established? I would think some of those hens would survive and reproduce...if not shot right off the trucks.
 
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