Iowa’s pheasant season opens Saturday

Tens of thousands of hunters in blaze orange will take to the fields when Iowa's pheasant season opens Saturday, Oct. 31. And with pheasant populations on par with the best counts in the past decade, including six of the nine survey regions averaging more than 20 pheasants per route - the most since 2007, hunters can afford to be optimistic.

'Given how things are lining up for the opener, the weather is the only thing that could throw a wrench in it,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Success during last year's opener was impacted by a delayed harvest where about 90 percent of the corn and 40 percent of the soybeans were still in the field. This year is the exact opposite with an estimated 65 percent of the corn and 90 percent of the soybeans have already been picked.

The advanced harvest and uptick in the bird numbers is creating interest from pheasant hunters beyond the state's border. Bogenschutz along with other Iowa DNR wildlife staff have been getting a number of calls from nonresident hunters interested in hunting Iowa after the good news from the August pheasant survey.

'It definitely has people asking about our counts, investigating where the better areas are,” he said.

Iowa's annual August roadside survey found a statewide average of 20 birds per 30-mile route, an increase over 2019's 17 birds per route. Hunting will be at least as good as last year when 52,000 pheasant hunters harvested an estimated 284,000 roosters.

'If hunter numbers continue their upward trend, we could see the harvest be closer to 2008's when we had about 86,000 pheasant hunters harvest 400,000 roosters,” he said. 'In 2008, we had 17 birds per route, so we're three birds higher average this year. If we could put the hunters in the field, we could see a bump in the harvest. The population is there to support that.”

One piece of advice he said, is that hunters in west central, central and parts of southwest Iowa impacted by the drought should scout the CRP fields they plan to hunt because the habitat could be gone. An emergency declaration from the U.S. Department of Agriculture opened CRP fields in the drought-stricken area to haying 100 percent of fields.

Iowa Pheasant Season

Iowa's pheasant season is Oct. 31-Jan. 10, 2021, shooting hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The daily bag limit is three rooster pheasants with a possession limit of 12. Hunters must have a valid hunting license and habitat fee.

Hunters are required to wear at least one article of external clothing with at least 50 percent of its surface area solid blaze orange: hat, cap, vest, coat, jacket, sweatshirt, shirt or coveralls. The same blaze orange rule applies while hunting quail, gray partridge and ruffed grouse.