Iowa’s most popular hunting season apparently got started without many problems this weekend. Kevin Baskins of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says some 130-thousand hunters were expected out on the opening weekend of pheasant season. He says the only report they heard was a hunter named Robert Snow from Boone was hit by pellets while hunting in Pocahontas County, but Baskins says the wounds were not very serious. Snow, who is 22, was hit in the lip, hand and leg with pellets.

Baskins says one reported injury is very good as they’ve seen more accidents in previous years as hunters get out and get too anxious to shoot. Snow was hit by a fellow hunter while Snow was working the hunt in a way that Baskins says has become common. Baskins says with corn still in the fields, hunters often place someone at the end of a cornfield to block the birds from running out. Baskins says when this technique is used, it’s important for hunters to know where everyone is, and where they’re shooting.

Baskins says the weather was good for the opening weekend, but the results were mixed. Baskins says he heard scattered reports of success, as he says hunters were hampered in areas where the crops are not all out. But, Baskins says he heard reports of some hunters having great success. Baskins says the hunting should be good throughout the season. The season runs through January 10th.