Iowa

Iowa's most widespread upland season covers ring-necked pheasant, northern bobwhite quail, and gray (Hungarian) partridge together, all running from the end of October through the end of January (partridge opens a few weeks earlier, in mid-October). The three split the state along an inverse north-south line: pheasant and gray partridge are strongest across the northern two-thirds of the state's open agricultural landscape, with partridge historically rooted in the far-northwest counties where it was first established after 1905, while pheasant's own best ground runs from the northwest across the northern tier into west-central, central, and southeast Iowa, and its two weakest regions, southwest and south-central Iowa, are instead where bobwhite quail does best. Quail's own range runs the length of the southern three tiers of counties along Highways 2 and 34, increasing toward the Missouri border, and the species is essentially absent from the northern third of the state.

Ruffed grouse is the outlier: hunting is closed everywhere in Iowa except a formally defined zone in the state's northeast corner, bounded by U.S. Highways 63, 20, and 151 and Iowa Highways 13 and 64, coinciding with the driftless-area forest habitat the species needs. Its season runs from early October through the end of January.

Iowa is a pheasant state first — DNR ties the population's swings to an explicit weather formula (mild winters and dry springs drive numbers up, snowy winters and wet springs drive them down), which makes it one of the most predictable states. That same weather pattern also lifts bobwhite quail and gray partridge in good years, though pheasant is the only one with a confirmed 2026 read so far. The bigger story sitting underneath any single season: Iowa has lost nearly 3,000 square miles of pheasant habitat since 1995 as CRP acreage converts to row crops, with almost half of what's left set to expire by 2027 — DNR itself warns Iowa could stop being a major pheasant destination if that trend continues. See the species breakdown below for this year's specific numbers.