Where the reports?

nstric

nstric

New member
My buddy and I made quick work of a two man limit this morning. Done by 9:20 AM, seeing 30+ roosters and 40+ hens in one field. The heat had them moving and jumping wild, but those that held paid the ultimate price. We didn't see any other hunters prior to going afield, but ran into two parties on our way out, and counted a few more on the 1 hour and 45 minute drive home.

How about you all? How'd you do? How were the bird numbers? See many hunters?
 
NE Iowa

I hunted today with just my dog. I shot 2 roosters, saw about 15 hens, a group of maybe 10 partridge, 5 does and a nice buck. The farm I hunted had lots of standing crops still and so do the neighbors.

One rooster I shot was black (weird). I have a picture but not sure how to post it.
 
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Nate - Good to hear you had a good day and Pat, sounds like an ok day for you too. You weren't by my place were you? You sure that black one wasn't a crow?? :) Just giving you grief.

I did not go out this morning , it was just too warm for me and I like to wait a week or so to let the early birds finish up for the season. But, I did wonder down to the piece of public by methat is usually PACKED on opening morning. There were fewer than half the number of hunters that are usually there. All of them were gone by 9:30 and very few shots fired.

I am surprised as I know there are birds down there. Not sure what to think really. We will see how it looks tomorrow. Pat, if you run over here by me, give me a call before you do. Good luck to all on a great season.

Now, lets all watch the World Series!
 
Hot

I had to finish up a little project first thing this am, got in the field a little before 9 and was done by 10:15. I saw far more hens than roosters. I drove by a piece of public that is usually a circus and stopped and talked to a group. They said they didn't see much.
I am looking forward to cooler temps tomorrow my Lab doesn't handle hunting real well when its this hot
 
Kraig I wasn't by your house today, I was up at my grandpas farm in Butler county. I did walk by your place last weekend but it was pretty warm out and Gunner was getting hot.

I will definitely give you a call when I'm coming over your way again. And NO it wasn't a crow:D. I knew someone would say that. I will email someone here a picture so they can post it for me.

I only saw one truck at the gas station here at 4:30 and they had Nebraska license plates. I remember when there used to be orange everywhere here on opening weekend.
 
Shot limits both mornings. We found lots of birds. The warm temps yesterday were tough but the bird numbers made them less of a bother. Today was great.

Opening morning there were more vehicles and hunters at my opening day spot than I have ever seen, but most were gone by 9:30 or so with the heat I guess. Today I saw two other groups. We had a big area to ourselves.

All in all a great opening weekend. I have next Thursday and Friday off so I can get back at it. I can't wait.
 
We drove up Friday night to the usual spot and saw more birds and more hunters than last year. Took three fields at a slow pace in the ridiculous heat to finish limit. We only hunted places with water to keep the dogs cool. Talked to lots of other parties and success ranged from .5-3 birds per hunter. Birds were ridiculously jumpy and ran like the dickens on us. One old timer I saw run at a right angle to me and the dog whwn I walked in on the point and the dog got back on him then he did another 90 circled down wind and ran 40 yds to flush behind us. Love hunting these birds. Birds were up considerably in my opinion and 30% of the crops were still up.
 
Went out in NC area, saw a ton of birds and should have had our 4 man limit by 11 but ended up taking us till 2pm and 3 fields total but we did manage our 12. Saw a ton of birds on our first spot which we knew held a lot of birds and saw a lot of hunters around. With the corn still up it's looking like it could be a great late season!
 
Bird numbers are definitely up some in NC Iowa. Went out on the family farm and kicked up 30 birds on Saturday. It was about a 50-50 mix of hens and roosters. On Sunday we hunted till noon and saw 8 roosters and 1 hen. Birds were really spooky and flushed way ahead for an opening weekend.
 
Had some nice success in the Des Moines area yesterday morning on public grounds. My lab is going on 12 so fun to be out with him.
 
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Saturday was real bad for me,,,way to many hunters out in my area, I was sitting and waiting for 8am to roll around so I could hunt my spot,,,then 2 trucks roll in one with a dog trailer and another truck load of people following, they park about 100 yards in front of me and basicly shoved me out. nice:10sign: so I hunted another spot that had standing corn about 1/2 hr. into my crappy hot hunt I heard a lot of gun shots and saw at leat 10-15 birds fly out in front and into the safety of the standing corn. so I decided to call it quits and rolled down by where the people who cut me off were hunting.... I asked them how they did,one said boy they just were flushing wild,,,i counted 6 dogs and 9 people:10sign:. not one had a bird in the pouch. that was my opener:cheers:. sunday I went up by ogden at took 2 in one hour, I had to quit early due to a family shin dig. it wasn't THAT BAD.
 
NC Iowa

Hunted about an hour north of Des Moines both days this weekend with a group of 8 hunters today each day. We managed to get 18 Saturday before the heat forced us out and 20 on Sunday before getting hungry.

We saw 100+ birds each day of hunting, like others have said many were flushing or jumping wild though. Looking forward to some cold and snowy weather to help push them into thicker cover and hold them a little longer.

All in all we can't complain it was a great weekend and seeing plenty of birds!
 
Hunted NW. On Sat 7 of us got 7 birds. Ate them all that night with steak. OMG were they good!
On Sunday we turned it up a notch and limited but it took most of the day to accomplish. A few birds on private but most on public hunting grounds and ditches. Overall the ditches are looking very sweet this year.
Bird numbers=so similar to last year I cant make a call yet. It aint thick with them. That's for sure.
 
Hunted near Eagle Grove this weekend, all private land. We worked hard from 8 until 4:30. 9 roosters Saturday, 7 Sunday. One good dog, one boot licker, 4 guys. Every spot we hunted had corn standing next to it. A couple spots where we always put up a lot of birds produced nothing. We limited both days in the same spots last year and this year was a big dropoff in the numbers of birds flushed.

Our biggest flurry of activity occured on a walk of 1-1/2 mile of prairie grasses. In the middle was a 1/2 mile long patch of corn still standing, wide enough for the 4 of us to spread out on one half going out, shift over and bring it back to the grass. We shot 1 rooster going out, which Max pointed in the standing corn. Coming back into the grass 10-15 birds went out all at once and downed 1 rooster.

We also put up a covey of about a dozen Huns pointed by Max. Those little buggers will run, too. My buddies took a lot of time getting up to the dog and we watched them fly out 60 yards ahead. It was cool to see and hear a covey that size taking flight.

It was pretty warm, but every spot we're hunting is along water, do the dogs had plenty to drink and able to cool down.

Definitely should have postponed the hunt a week to allow the rest of the corn to come out, but one guy had work issues and wasn't flexible.

Yesterday I worked in the morning, then headed to field alone before making the drive home. My new truck is getting 19 mpg. Going south early morning I got maybe 17. Heading north to Minneapolis 24.5 mpg thanks to the tail wind. When I got out of the truck to hunt the wind knocked my cap off. We raised 4 hens, all ran way out and flushed 100 yards out. Skittish as hell in that wind. We lucked out not having that the entire weekend.
 
three of us year old pup and my dog saw several birds, not twice as many as last year, but 1/2 half again as many for sure. some of us didn't shoot so good, but managed 3 on Saturday and 5 on sunday, and we all agreed we should of had 9 on Saturday..lol hunted all private ground, and all of the spots had corn on three sides, and it still does today yet. I hope they get that out soon. this was in nc iowa
 
Snuck out for about 2-3 hours on Monday for the first time (in Central Iowa). I went to the same spot we started at last season (also the 1st Mon of the season). Last season I left this spot with my limit of birds after an hour or so. This year we found just 1 hen and covered much more of this large piece... whoa... a little bit of a wake up call for my expectations, especially running both pooches together. The second field I walked had good numbers every time out last season, had just a hand full of hens and zero roosters this first day. So after a little over 8 miles registered on my watch and seeing my younger pup showing signs of the heat, I decided to pack it up and head home. Conditions were far from ideal... not a ton of standing corn around but certainly some, it was middle of the day, warm, AND WINDY. Hopefully it'll only get better. ;) Perhaps bird numbers could really be down a bit as the reports stated... I didn't believe them but now I'm wondering. Needless to say, the GoPro wasn't turned on much. I'll be back in the field tomorrow so hopefully we'll run across a few more birds. :thumbsup:
Good luck and be safe out there! :)
 
The word of the day Monday was definitely "WIND"! Ouch! Was it ever blowing. Our experiences over the weekend were similar to yours. We saw fewer birds, but attributed it to standing corn next to every place we hunt. We even passed up one of our best river bottom spots, a narrow piece and not very large. It always produces birds but had large cornfields on either side. Am sure glad the wind didn't blow over the weekend like it did Monday, our we might have gone home really disappointed.
 
as much as I admire this beautiful weather we are having I would also love some real pheasant hunting weather. after about and hour today my dogs were telling me its to hot to hunt when they go back to the truck on their own and suck down the bowl of water I always set out at my truck. most of the time I have to drag them to the truck.
 
Went out on Friday with a buddy, beautiful morning in the mid 30's light north wind. Hunted a public spot we hit on opener, we had our limit by 10am and should have been done by 9:15. Was a great morning, saw a bunch of birds! And the shooting was pretty decent by both of us!
 
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