Iowa’s current 70-plus day long pheasant season, opening on the last Saturday in October through January 10 each year, is a long way from how it began. In the early years, from 1926-41, the season varied in length from 2-7 days, and pre-1933, it was only opened in counties where 150 landowners signed a petition to hold a season.
Shooting hours bounced around, too, from opening at noon until WW2 to avoid conflicts with morning farm work, to opening at 9 a.m., and then back to noon, then sunrise to sunset (for one year) before settling on 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., in 1966.
“It was surprising how ultra-conservative the seasons were early on, at a time when staff were fielding complaints that pheasants were damaging crops,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife research biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “But wildlife biology and management were a new science; the impacts of hunting and habitat on populations were not well understood.”
As the field of wildlife biology expanded, new research allowed staff to lengthen the season because the data showed harvesting only roosters had little impact on the population as a whole. Research also found that the pheasant population can be impacted by hunting late into winter, because hens are flushed along with roosters and exposed to risks from weather and predators.
Quail, Iowa’s other popular resident game bird, is often compared to pheasants, except quail are legal to hunt through the end of January. Research has also shown that late winter hunting does not impact Iowa’s quail population largely because quail can offset this loss through reproduction; quail can hatch four nests in a year whereas pheasants only produce one nest per year.
“That’s a common question we get since South Dakota extended its season through the end of January in 2020 to encourage nonresident hunters to come. But we know that in states where the average snowfall exceeds 30 inches, hunting pheasants into late January can impact next year’s population,” Bogenschutz said.
“Weather in late January and February is almost always more severe than in November and December, and quality habitat becomes more limited due to the impact of deep snow on grassland habitats. Now with this past mild winter, it probably would have been fine, but in a severe winter it would really hammer the pheasants.”
Winter is an important time for hen survival, he said, which has the largest influence on future populations. “On the flipside, we’ve had requests to open the season earlier in October, but this comes with its own set of issues,” Bogenschutz said.
“It’s a curve – this past fall we had a lot of young roosters that hadn’t fully colored up due to later nesting because of the floods in June,” he said. “An earlier opener would also mean warmer temperatures which can impact both hunters and dogs, and likely lead to more standing crops on opening day. It can also conflict with duck and goose openers.
“We know that hunters like consistency of the current season structure. It’s a reasonable time when most roosters are recognizable, most of the crops are harvested, and it protects pheasants for future generations.”
Did You Know: Iowa moved its opening day of pheasant season back one day in 1959, to avoid a conflict with the Iowa-Minnesota football game (won by the Hawks 33-0).
A century of pheasant hunting
The Iowa DNR and Pheasants Forever are celebrating 100 years of pheasant hunting in the Hawkeye State. The first season was held Oct. 20-22, 1925, when 13 counties in north central Iowa were opened to pheasant hunting. Hunters were allowed a three-rooster limit, for a half-day of hunting. An estimated 75,000 hunters participated.
Hunters can commemorate the 100th anniversary by purchasing a hard card featuring Iowa Pheasants Forever Print of the Year when they purchase their 2025 hunting and fishing licenses.
Information on places to hunt, the August roadside survey results and more is available online by clicking the 100 Years of Pheasant Hunting graphic at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey.