Iowa Pheasant Hunting page 3

Cost and Benefit

The annual membership dues paid by any one of our members does not cover the cost of much acreage compared to that which each hunter will hunt in a day's time and on any single trip.

Each hunter will cover about 400 to 600 acres of pheasant ground in a day. He may not actually hunt that much land, but will cover a good portion of it pheasant hunting along with his dogs.

To have 400 acres of huntable Iowa pheasant habitat may require 1,500 acres or more gross Iowa acreage. If we were just to pay a $1.00 per acre that would be a cost of a fifteen hundred dollars per day per hunter. If that pheasant hunter hunts a typical week of vacation time from Sunday to the following Saturday, 7 days having used the earlier Saturday and latter Sunday for travel, that Iowa pheasant hunter would access $10,500 worth of land. Compare that cost to our annual membership fees and the entire year's membership costs does not pay for one day's worth of pheasant hunting land at $1.00 per acre.

Add to the MAHA advantage that the pheasant hunter can be pheasant hunting a different field each time stepping from the truck of every day of every pheasant hunting trip. And, he can do so in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. That little bit of added adventure of being on new ground beats walking the same field every weekend as often occurs for the traveling pheasant hunter back in their home state.

With our hunting lease land approach not limiting us to the driving distance around a fixed lodge we can lease land in the region of the state that gives us the best return for our money, meaning better upland bird hunting for quail and pheasant. Having several such regions across Iowa, Kansas and Missouri further allows us to have regions of better hunts when managing the details of variable weather conditions affecting hatch success. Those that seek just one social hunt a season will find none of this of value. Those that train, hunt and live with there bird dogs year round will quickly agree that such flexibility is required to sustain years of hunts.

 

Wild Pheasant Hunting A pheasant and habitat picture sent in by one of our deer hunters, Brennan K. Three roosters on three bales plus a hen and another rooster on the ground. What better evidence of pheasant hunting habitat? This was taken in a pheasant holding tall prairie grass, 320 acre CRP field that has the drains planted in Brome, or a short cool seasons grass. The tall prairie grass is a warm season grass. The tall grass is well occupied pheasant cover and not a good food source. This CRP contract allows the landowner to harvest the brome and he must leave the tall grass to nature. Pheasant as well as most ground nesting birds distinguish between cool and warm season grasses with pheasant preferring the warm season variety that includes the tall prairie grasses of Big Bluestem, Indian and Switch. That distinction is singularly based on the tall grass provides aerial predation protection from the number one pheasant predator, hawks with the Coopers leading the way on the great plains. Pheasant also prefer the warm season grasses due to their thinner ground level growth into above soil surface root crowns that make clumps of the plant rather than a lawn carpet like effect the way cool season grasses grow spreading out by root. The more open ground surface gives the chick pheasant ease of movement while remaining concealed allowing them to remain with the hen that will travel at her rate of speed regardless of the chick's ability to make it through the ground cover. To know pheasant hunting is to know the bird. This is just one snapshot into the life of a pheasant. Pheasant Hunter Feedback Another aspect of our self guided hunter organization is our collection of feedback from our member/hunters. The information below is some Iowa opener weekend feedback specifically about our Iowa upland bird hunting. This year's opening week reports mirror previous seasons with a range from bad to good with all recognizing the cover habitat is good and the standing crops a problem.   We recognize that first year members after having paid for a hunting service expect immediate and quality results from first trials regardless of effort and we offer to have a hunt or two before drawing conclusions. For the most part those members with years of hunting with MAHA had the positive reports in bird numbers and dog action recognizing the better weather and cover conditions are yet to be had.   A representation from some of the positive upland bird hunter email feedback is this selection from a well experienced bird dog hunter not given to exaggeration or ego [the kind of hunter we would all like to hunt with]:   "Had a good hunt in [location deleted] Iowa on Saturday. Had the pleasure of meeting [fellow pheasant hunter/member, name deleted]. About 1/2 the corn is still out, but they were getting after it pretty good, none of the beans are out of [location deleted], there were about 20 mallards, bunch of teal and 2 hooded mergansers on the pond behind the barn.   Moved 1 covey, 2 roosters, 3 hens, out of [location deleted], moved one covey, 3 roosters and 1 hen out of [location deleted]. Finished the day with a pheasant limit and 3 bobs, pretty much left the singles alone. Had some pretty decent dog work, but then opening day birds are a lot different than January birds. [Pedro]"   A sample of the negative Iowa pheasant hunter feedback is a paraphrased telephone conversation where the member/hunter said: "... not a bird found or pointed...".   Again, we are not wanting to disparage anyone, we ask only for a season of hunts until a conclusion is reached. For most first year members, as has been our history, by the end of the season the pheasant hunting quality in Iowa and Kansas earns a membership renewal.   We believe we have always offered our pheasant hunting for what it is and there will be as many "bad" hunting days as good, if there is such a thing as a bad day when out pheasant hunting. For most do it yourself hunters there is no such thing as a bad hunting day, just some are better than others.