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Pheasant season is here!

Used to get my limit before noon on opening day but haven’t gone in 10 years. Just too busy on the weekends etc.

Seen a lot of roosters over the summer and fall compared to 5-6 years ago. The milder winters have helped.
 
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Really miss it. Grew up hunting behind my black lab. After she died, I’ve probably only gone out a handful of times each year for the last 10 years. Time to get a dog
Really takes the enjoyment out of it without a dog. My female had just had a litter at the beginning of last season, so had to go the first few weeks without her. Kept a pup outta that litter so hopefully don’t haveta deal with that again!
 
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I have only ever went a handful of times. I got used as the dog when I was a kid.
So many great pheasant hunting stories.

Can remember when I was a kid we were walking down a slough. Went over a hill and ended up in this open area that was basically surround by brambles. No where to go. We were going to have to walk back about 3/4 of mile to get to open ground. My dad turned to me and said, "I want you to lay down on those bushes so we can walk on your back. You know, like those WWII movies where the guy dies in the barb wire and the other guys walk over him."

The old boys used to sit in a hotel room and drink corbel brandy on opening weekend. The year I turned 21, they tried to get me to load up on it but I refused. The three of them polished off a bottle. They looked so sick the next day. I've never seen them so hung over.
 
Today's the day, and of course, I've been up since 330a with a sick kid. Never fails. Hopefully that'll keep me in the good graces of the boss and I'll be walking in loaded at 8a!

Good luck everyone.
 
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Will be thinking about all you guys out there today. Shoulders to bad to do it anymore.
Have a great hunt and be safe.
 
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I've got a 4 month old German wirehair. She won't be joining us yet, maybe late dec into Jan. Only 1 dog for our group of 7 today.
 
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Good Luck! I have a ton of stories from the hey days of Iowa pheasant hunting when the state wide count was over a million birds. Losing my 2 dogs and the ground I had permission to hunt effectively ended my hunting days.
 
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Definitely not the same if it’s not your own dog. My favorite memory was hunting a grove of evergreens with a bunch of snow. We were walking along and she just froze looking sideways and up in the tree. Pointed it out of the tree. Good luck today everyone!
 
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Good luck today everyone! Will be busting out my new CZ o/u 20 in Le Mars in December. Don't have the land over here in Eastern Iowa to hunt but it's awesome over there.
 
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I didn't go out today due to the wind. I only saw 1 group of guys at the public land down the road from my place. I might hit it tmrw, I see birds fly in and out of there all the time.
 
It was a rough day for my group. The only birds we got close to were hens. The wind was a bitch. Besides those, I had a great time being out today. Dang, I'm not as young as I used to be.
 
We got 2. Should have been 3 but a guy couldn't figure out where the safety was. Wind didn't help things. Up in north central Iowa. Going to try some family land tomorrow where we hear them a lot during spring turkey
 
It was a rough day for my group. The only birds we got close to were hens. The wind was a bitch. Besides those, I had a great time being out today. Dang, I'm not as young as I used to be.
Yes I'm finding I'm not young anymore either. Walking through 7' tall grass kicked my ass. A real nice buck damn near ran me over in that stuff
 
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Plucked 6, lost 2 other runners. Thought it would have been better but it was super dry this morning, not much scent to get, and the wind was miserable.
We'll see what tomorrow holds
 
I didn't go out today due to the wind. I only saw 1 group of guys at the public land down the road from my place. I might hit it tmrw, I see birds fly in and out of there all the time.
unbelievable amount of out of staters/towners in our area today. Every gravel road you drove down there was a truck or 2. Stupid dnr roadside #’s had our area’s numbers way up from last year and obviously it attracted a few people. Haven’t seen it like this for probably 15+yrs. It’s pretty annoying really. An I still think the dnr screwed their #’s up too, didn’t see many birds at all throughout summer on the roads.
As far as our hunting went, we did well. And didn’t hit any of our good spots, so even better!
 
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