2024 pheasant season

Saw 2 roosters and 2 hens by St Stephen taking the kid to firearms safety. My son saw 2 roosters where they were going to hunt but they ran across the road and fell before they could hunt

Saw a lot of birds this morning. The roosters were running and flushing at a distance so didnt bag anything yet. Grass is so tall here in SE MN i was not prepared with a proper strategy for the spot we hunted. I don’t use GPS or loud beepers with my pointers and regretted it with the visibility today. Was happy with the performance of the 2 newer pups in our group. I hear what your saying Cpt. about hunting flusher and pointers but I’d say it depends on the dogs and circumstances. I’ve successfully hunted flusher/pointers depending on the pairing (Setter/Boxer being the best ) but a flusher that ranges too far or follows other dogs instead of sticking with their master will absolutely ruin it. I also think a big pointing dog like a setter vs short pointing dog like a GSP or Brittany changes the variables considerably. I don’t disagree, but I wouldn’t say it’s the rule not to hunt them together. Also need to be carful hunting new pointers with flusher. That’s how you create a ‘creeper’.

Yeah I owned a flusher and pointer at same time. If it’s different owners then it’s a different story. When I had them the pointer would actually stop pointing and just flush the bird with us bad considering how far they range compared to a flusher.

We hunted one public place this morning. We got three could have got more but I missed. The last half of our hunt was cut short by a group of hunters that cut in front of us from the other side of the piece. But that is what happens when you hunt public land.

All my experiences mixing retrievers and pointers were a disaster. The exact same scenario played out every time, just as captainmusky indicated. I’m not doing it again.

I’ve also hunted over some absolutely atrocious hunting dogs owned by individuals who I invited with. They essentially ruined the hunt each time. I’m not doing that again either.

The worst is when someone in the group brings a female in heat smdh

No birds for son and his buddies. Dog is pooped so that’s good but he’s 10 now time for a pup I guess. Should’ve done that 5 years ago. Not sure I’m up to training a pup I’ll talk mini me for that.

CaptainMusky wrote:

The worst is when someone in the group brings a female in heat smdh

Lol or an unneudered male that tries to hump everything in sight

FinickyFish wrote:

I don’t use GPS or loud beepers with my pointers

I couldn’t live without Garmin Alpha now that I’ve had it. It’s way too hard for me to keep track of two dogs. My record for hearing the beep when they point and actually getting the bird is 178 yards, had no idea he was way over there

We did OK today, found some birds this morning and then did a lot of walking after that to see only lonely hen get up. They were spooky and getting up way out in front of the dogs. Still surprised I can hit a moving target with a shotgun.

SR

I’m with Finicky in that we hunt pointers and flushers together all the time and it works great. However, the big prerequisite is having well trained dogs (both the pointer and flusher). You need to teach the flushers how to honor and have some sort of command that you train that you can use in the field for when the pointer locks on a bird.

Hunting flushers and pointers together actually works really well to keep birds from running, I’ve seen it happen many times where you end up with birdless points because the bird ran after the dog locked up. If you do it right, you can use the flushers to pin the bird between the pointer and the flusher. It works out really well for us.

I generally dislike hunting behind long ranging pointers because they’ll push birds out of range. A wild pheasant doesn’t care if your dog is a flusher or pointer. If the bird gets nervous, it will run and/or flush. If the pointer is working 200 yards away and you’re working highly pressured public birds, they don’t always hold tight and end up flushing out of range or will run out the end of the field. At least when that happens with a flusher, its within gun range. But I will say there are few things cooler than walking up to a dog on point and getting the bird in the air.

Got ‘er done this morning. A pheasant for the each of us. Had to call it early due to my partners geriatric dog (not pictured). Super windy but it kept the sound down and they held tighter. Had to keep my Setter closer than he’d like but need to adjust to conditions and other dogs in the group. My SM pup seems to hunt real close like a flusher naturally so that will be an adjustment to my hunt style. Glad to get him on his first wild pheasants.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
The worst is when someone in the group brings a female in heat smdh

Lol or an unneudered male that tries to hump everything in sight

None of my dogs have ever done that except for the one time some dipstick brought a female in heat. What an idiot. I ended up hunting by myself and limited out while the rest of the group of 12 got nothing.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

I generally dislike hunting behind long ranging pointers because they’ll push birds out of range. A wild pheasant doesn’t care if your dog is a flusher or pointer. If the bird gets nervous, it will run and/or flush. If the pointer is working 200 yards away and you’re working highly pressured public birds, they don’t always hold tight and end up flushing out of range or will run out the end of the field. At least when that happens with a flusher, its within gun range. But I will say there are few things cooler than walking up to a dog on point and getting the bird in the air.

200 yards? Seriously!? That’s poor training and handling they should never range that far. Yeah you see it on tv for those competitions but those are dumb birds in the wild that is idiotic. Mine range 50 to 75 yards at most. I hunted with a guy who said you’re dog is too far out. I said he points so just walk up to him. Rarely had wild flushes.

We got a pheasant this morning at our metro public land spot. Also saw a hen, a rooster, and a 3rd bird we couldn’t tell.

Nice work on the metro pheasant. I’ve yet to bring one down, but not for lack of trying (poor shooting). This year I’m focusing on putting the pup on numbers so am driving at least an hour out of the cities for every hunt to (almost) guarantee birds every hunt.

What is considered a “metro” pheasant? I guess I didn’t realize that discharging a firearm within city limits was even legal.

I guess it’s whatever you want it to be and no I’m not blasting birds in Hopkins. I don’t want to derail this thread to a “what do you consider the metro boundaries” debate. I say if you live in the metro and drove to the first pieces of public land you can hunt or within about 45 min of downtown, that’s the metro. It’ll be different for everyone. Bet some of the spots I hunt an hour away people could consider the metro depending on where you live.

I see. So when I drive an hour to private land, that’s not considered “metro.”

Semantics I guess, no matter. Carry on

It’s also anywhere you hunt while wearing a monocle and top hat (blaze orange of course)

Gim, I just call this my “metro” spot because it’s about 30 minutes from a giant suburb. It is public hunting land and not surrounded by buildings or anything.

So my dog was having issues Saturday. Son got home with him and he wouldn’t get out of the kennel and was growling and barking at him. Which is totally unlike him he never barks and the growling concerns me. To get him out of the kennel he tipped it to force him out and when my son grabbed the kennel he bit him. I think he must have hurt himself and I checked him that night and he seemed to be favoring his right front foot. I’ve checked him multiple times since and he seems fine. He is 10 so I told my son don’t make him jump into the truck bed. I better get a pup in the spring.

Went out yesterday for the first time with the new pup (8 months) kicked up 1 rooster and missed. Today we went out again and kicked up 4 roosters but was only able to get 1. Drake found it all by himself and I think is hooked now lol. We will try again tomorrow.

New guy here on the forum. Looking to head to SD mid Nov for a few days from CO. Any advice on where to start coming in from the West? Possibly western side of the state? Is Buffalo Gap Grasslands a worth it or head east more?

There’s more variety of upland birds in the western half of the state if that’s your thing. East river is pretty much exclusively pheasants.

Murdo Vivian and presho have good reputations so research there. I have never hunted them before.

Got her done this morning. Should have had a limit but missed a gimme. Was out duck hunting right before and heard cackling everywhere around me. Watched 2 roosters leave the public I was hunting 8 min before shooting hours. Gave the new pup a solo hunt to work without distraction but he seems to hunt well with or without my other dog around. Keeps within 40 yards, quarters well, and retrieves. There’s some polishing to work on with his retrieving but nothing that needs to be quashed this season. Feel like i can just let him work and get experience this year.

You guys are afraid of walking too fast for fear of making a spark and setting the fields on fire and I just had the second Sat in a row in nw sconny rainy and miserable most of the day.

Ain’t that the truth Zuki. Went out again this morning and had to detour to a waterway just to get the dogs wet and more water. They rarely drink while hunting but they were camels today. Managed 1 rooster but saw plenty. Had both dogs this time and love the combo. Setter to wind them and find a general direction then use the SM to zero in on them and retrieve.

Would love one big shot of rain before the winter hits.

We had a great time western MN yesterday. Did not see many birds, but each dog got one for me. Still a few crops up. Took today off to watch football. Not gonna hunt in the tropical weather.