3 January 2008
Iowa Pheasant Hunting
Posted by Darrell under: Hunting Stories .
I’d never been pheasant hunting before my recent trip to Iowa. It was my first time. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect or how much I’d like it. To be really honest, I’ve never done any hunting I didn’t like, but I figured there always could be a first. Dana, my hunting partner, warned me that we would be walking through heavy cover all day long and that it would be some hard, intense hunting.
Our first day of pheasant hunting started miserably. You can’t shoot pheasants until 8am and must stop hunting by 4:30pm per Iowa law. By the time we got started hunting, the wind was blowing about 20 mph, it was about 20 degrees, and snowing so hard that you could barely see. By 11 am we were trudging through close to 4 inches of snow. By lunchtime we all looked like the abdominal snowman.
Dana has a young English Pointer named Maggie. He had her trained by the same lady that trained my lab. Maggie is only 2 years old and she is good, and I mean really, really good. She worked hard and would find birds and hold point. She would not break point no matter how long it took us to bust our way through the snow and weeds to get to her. She is one awesome dog.
Dana has a special collar for her. It beeps ever 10 seconds so that you can keep track of where she is. In the tall grass and weedy ditches we were hunting you could not see her. When she goes on point it starts beeping close together and you start quickly working your way to her. So, it sounds something like this beep, 10 second pause, beep, 10 second pause, beep, etc. Then she goes on point and it sounds like beep, beep, beep, beep and you know you need to get to her fast.
Dana told me that taking a late season rooster is like shooting an 8 point buck. It isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work, perseverance, some skill, and some luck. We must have had a little of all. We got lucky 9 times by taking 5 pheasants and 4 quail. We were thrilled.
During the course of the day we saw over 60 pheasants. Maggie probably went on point at least 40 times. A lot of those times were on hens which you can’t shoot. How do you know the difference between a male and female pheasant? The males cackle when they get up, have longer feathers, and beautiful coloring. The females are brown. The males, just like in many other species, are much more beautiful than the females. This is one other thing that helps differentiate animals (pheasants) from us humans, because I haven’t seen too many beautiful male hunters.
Even though the conditions were extreme I had an absolute blast hunting birds. The pain from walking was easily displaced by the sheer joy of the hunt. I think pheasant hunting is one of the most enjoyable hunts I have ever been on. If you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend it. If you are an experienced pheasant hunter, I recommend turning off your computer, getting off your butt and getting out after some late season birds before season closes!
7 Comments so far...
Arthur Says:
3 January 2008 at 5:03 pm.
Pheasant hunting is a blast. The problem I have is that here in Michigan it falls right in the middle of deer season. I did it quite often when I was younger (we had some sweet Brittany spaniels then) and it was a riot.
Your story makes me want to go again!
Kristine Shreve Says:
4 January 2008 at 8:32 am.
Pheasant hunting is one of the types of hunting I would like to try. I love to eat pheasant and I think hunting the birds sounds like fun.
Phillip Says:
4 January 2008 at 11:35 am.
Sounds like big fun… snow, wind, and all!
I get a kick out of hunting behind a good bird dog. My lab is so-so, which isn’t bad considering she was never trained for upland birds. Most of my pheasants here are planted birds on a club anyway… mostly a chance to get out and work the dog a bit rather than a real hunt.
We do have a few wild birds in CA, though, and they are a blast to hunt.
deerPhD Says:
6 January 2008 at 6:35 pm.
Absolutely nothing else like hunting behind a good bird dog! Glad you had a good time…
Michele Says:
7 January 2008 at 2:48 pm.
Well, never hunted before so I’m not sure if I’d like it but definitely like eatin’ it! The feathers would be awesome for my fly tying for flies, that’s for sure! I’m happy you had such a great experience!
~Michele~
Matt Says:
8 January 2008 at 11:21 am.
Good post. A friend of mine went pheasant hunting for the first time recently. He enjoyed it as much as you did!
Othmar Vohringer Says:
10 January 2008 at 8:06 pm.
I love pheasant hunting. Like you at first I didn’t know what to make of it but once I went I got addicted. Never hunted with a dog but thinking about to buy a pupy and train it for upland and waterfowl hunting.
-ov-
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