I hunted Iowa quite a bit in the 90's. I used to hunt in the Grinnell and Brooklyn area. I now do all my pheasant hunting in ND because I over the years hunting land became harder to find and CPR programs running out. I am just curious, has it gotten any better of the years? My best luck I remember was always in middle of December when it was easier to get onto private land and the pheasant really "bunched up" nice in the snow.
Status report in Iowa
- Thread starter LABS HUNT
- Start date
pheasantaddict
New member
the public areas get pounded during the week and the weekends through the whole season. The end of Dec last year I watched 7 diffent groups hunt the same place throughout the day, there might have been more groups as that was just while I was there. Opening weekend there was 20 vehicles from out of state in a 4 sq mile area. There are less places to hunt in Iowa so more and more people are hitting public ground. Hope PF and Iowa keep adding public ground so people still have a place to hunt in Iowa. There is a lot of room for improvement on many of the public areas that are mainly just brome grass. Reseeding would lead to many more pheasants in thes areas.
Ranger Rick
Member
I'm back to work today after 3 days in Iowa. It was my third trip there.
Growing up in SE Wisconsin, we had a good morning if we shot a couple roosters. Some days we went home empty handed. Moved away to college and have never been back to hunt. Years go by and I had my first opportunity to hunt in South Dakota. An unbelievable experience and have been back several times. First trip phenomenal bird numbers, they flew out by the hundreds. Next year was a drought and we shot 10 in 4 days for 3 of us, really hard work. The other trips I've seen a lot of birds.
In Iowa I've been hunting the farms owned and leased by my buddy's inlaws. If there's good habitat, you'll find birds in Iowa. This past weekend was similar to the other times I've been there. Last year was better than this by a bit, the first trip was just OK.
Having the contact for good private ground is key, for sure. Also, we get talking to some of the neighbors and have been given more access. No way we could hunt it all in two days. Yesterday I was on my own and being curious as to what else was out there, I struck out for public access lands for a couple hours before making the drive home.
After not seeing another hunter for two days, Monday I ran into 2 pairs of hunters. The rolling prairie grasses and surrounding potholes swamps looked promising. I was looking for ground to hunt adjacent to corn just removed, but most corn in that area was still standing. The couple areas that fit the bill had those other hunters in them, guys undoubtedly thinking along the same lines as myself. I hunted a couple areas next to cut bean fields and flushed one rooster out of gun range. The areas looked to have been visited a lot since the opener. Face it guys, there's limited public lands to hunt and it's getting hit hard.
I see way too much "clean" farming, with little cover for birds, but in the areas I was, if there was good cover, there were birds. It's not all gloom and doom.
Growing up in SE Wisconsin, we had a good morning if we shot a couple roosters. Some days we went home empty handed. Moved away to college and have never been back to hunt. Years go by and I had my first opportunity to hunt in South Dakota. An unbelievable experience and have been back several times. First trip phenomenal bird numbers, they flew out by the hundreds. Next year was a drought and we shot 10 in 4 days for 3 of us, really hard work. The other trips I've seen a lot of birds.
In Iowa I've been hunting the farms owned and leased by my buddy's inlaws. If there's good habitat, you'll find birds in Iowa. This past weekend was similar to the other times I've been there. Last year was better than this by a bit, the first trip was just OK.
Having the contact for good private ground is key, for sure. Also, we get talking to some of the neighbors and have been given more access. No way we could hunt it all in two days. Yesterday I was on my own and being curious as to what else was out there, I struck out for public access lands for a couple hours before making the drive home.
After not seeing another hunter for two days, Monday I ran into 2 pairs of hunters. The rolling prairie grasses and surrounding potholes swamps looked promising. I was looking for ground to hunt adjacent to corn just removed, but most corn in that area was still standing. The couple areas that fit the bill had those other hunters in them, guys undoubtedly thinking along the same lines as myself. I hunted a couple areas next to cut bean fields and flushed one rooster out of gun range. The areas looked to have been visited a lot since the opener. Face it guys, there's limited public lands to hunt and it's getting hit hard.
I see way too much "clean" farming, with little cover for birds, but in the areas I was, if there was good cover, there were birds. It's not all gloom and doom.