This is the 2025 Pheasant Hunting week 4 recap. This week we made our first trip to Iowa. The cover was thick and heavy. We also saw a lot of birds. In general, the birds were pretty jumpy either due to hunting pressure or the wind.
November 4th - Iowa
The last couple of years we have been expanding where we hunt. We have been checking out different fields on the way to and from our usual hunting spots.
Field 1
The first field was an Iowa Habitat Access Program (IHAP) property, which is similar to the Minnesota Walk In Access (WIA) program. We have hunted this field before and had some success in previous years.
Within 20 yards of the truck, Stella got birdy. We followed her a couple hundred yards towards the center of the field. I could tell there were birds by her movement and rapidly waging tail. Then she started to really move which is an indication that there are multiple birds. Sure enough, birds started flushing. The first flushed about 70 yards ahead of us and I think it was a rooster. Then a couple hens got up right near us followed by another flushing farther away. That seemed like a pretty good start.
We starting heading back to the road where we had started and Stella got birdy right away. We followed her for 300 yards, back towards the road. As we got closer to the corner of the field, birds started flushing. Multiple hens, a couple that I thought may have been immature roosters and finally a mature rooster. It was near the edge of my comfortable shooting range so I took a couple shots and missed cleanly.
From there we walked a field edge to the south without seeing any other birds. From corner, we decided to walk diagonally across the field. Stella did get birdy several times and we did flush a hen that she was tracking. While we were walking, Kevin had a rooster wild flush in front of him that he missed.
By this time, Stella was getting too warm so we headed back to the truck. Once back at the truck, we ate lunch and then started driving south. On the way to the next field, we did some scouting and found several fields that looked like good possibilities.
Field 2
We tried a new WMA near where we usually hunt. This was a nice field with a combination of prairie and cattails. Cover was good but not exceptionally tough to walk.
Stella started tracking within a couple hundred yards of the truck. We followed her for quite a ways. While following her I stepped into a hole and fell. Not an unusual occurrence. It wasn’t a big deal and I was back up and following pretty quickly. We never found that bird but it led us to some cattails. Stella worked into the cattails and went on point. Kevin followed her in. Once I got close, Kevin started to move closer to Stella and a hen flushed.
After the hen flushed we were trying to decide where to go next while Stella was snooping around the cattails. She ended up flushing a rooster. We weren’t expecting it and by the time we reacted it was out of range.
We moved through the cattails and ended up tracking another hen, which wild flushed quite a ways ahead of us. From there we noticed a corn food plot. We walked through that and flushed a hen and a rooster. Kevin missed one shot at the rooster.
From there we headed in the direction that the rooster had flown. Stella got birdy a couple times and eventually went on a solid point. I got within about 2 feet of her, at her nose. I was about to reach down and move the grass when a hen exploded within a couple inches of her nose. See the video.
We made our way out of that field with a couple wild flushes far ahead of us.
November 5th - Iowa
The next day was cool and windy. Windy as in 13-16 mph. We were hunting a field that I really like to hunt. The cover was in excellent condition. Almost too heavy to walk in spots. We saw birds flying into the field as we drove up and as we waited for opening time.
Loop 1
Once we got started we spent four hours following Stella as she tracked bird after bird. The problem was they were all flushing way far away from us, either due to pressure or the wind. On the way back to the truck we finally had one get up within range of Kevin. He dropped it and Stella retrieved it. Of course the GoPro SD card filled up before she retrieved it.
Loop 2
We took a lunch break and then went out for a second loop in a different part of the field. Stella was birdy multiple times and we had multiple roosters flush just out of range. Finally, a rooster flushed in front of Kevin that he hit in the butt on his second shot. The bird flew about 50 yards then went down. He went over to the area where he thought it went down while I brought Stella. She was really birdy so I was following her and guiding her to where Kevin was. When we got close, Kevin heard flapping. I brought Stella over and she quickly found the bird, except it took off. Kevin aimed but didn’t fire. He missed taking off his safety. By the time he got it off the bird was out of range. I had no shot as I was behind and to the side of Kevin. We agreed that it most likely was the bird that Kevin had shot. Its legs were gone but the wings we good enough.
About 40 yards later, Kevin had a rooster flush in front of him that he dropped cleanly. That was the end of the day.
Video
I continue to have issues with the GoPro voice commands in windy conditions. The camera misses a lot of commands to start or stop. If I am focused on Stella, I miss the beeps that tell me the commands are being processed. I ended up missing a group flush and my only shots of the trip because the camera did not turn on.
On the second day I filled up a 64 Gb SD card when I normally would only record 25 Gb for an entire day. I only record when Stella is tracking so you can tell that we tracked a lot of birds. Of course, the card filled up right after Kevin dropped his bird, so I missed the retrieve. Between the two days and multiple card I probably had 90 Gb of video. But with voice command problem, birds flushing wild and cards filling up there wasn’t a lot of good footage for a video.
Lessons Learned
GoPro: I have tried to start and stop recording to save space and make editing easier. I think I need to start recording early and not worry about shutting it off. I am getting better about checking and replacing batteries, so maybe I need to swap memory cards at the same time as I swap batteries.
Wind: Windy conditions are tough. Birds get jumpy and there isn’t much you can do about it. Maybe we need to try moving one person up ahead of the dog.
Cover: It wasn’t especially cold. We were walking the tall prairie grass at first but were seeing more birds out in the shorter grass. Whether that is because we pushed them out of the tall grass or that they were already hanging out there I don’t know. I think it would be worth focusing on the shorter grass.
Summary
The week 6 recap covers our trip to Iowa. We saw lots of birds but shooting opportunities were limited, at least for me. 🙂
