2024 pheasant season

dog said it all!!

Mike Schulz wrote:

dog said it all!!

yep!!!!!!!!! pretty sure that evidence was planted!!!!!!!!

Finicky I understand 100%!!! I’ve had those days I can’t hit anything!!

Nice pics fellas. I just got home from my 2nd SD trip last night and man was it fun! Weatherwise we had a little bit of everything.. snow storm and 40 mph gusts on the way out… 0 degrees with no wind basically for our full first day. 2nd day was much nicer and hit low 30s. Third day was even nicer.

This trip did not disappoint. We ended up with 24 birds total for 3 guys and 3 days of hunting. Overall we shot really good. I hunted my old girl Finley for 1 field on the 2nd and 3rd days. She managed to retrieve 2 birds that might end up being her last retrieves. I got one on video so I’m really happy with that. Also had a really cool stretch where my younger dog was acting SUPER birdy when we were pushing a narrow winding slough, so I decided to peel off from the group and follow her thru some grass. All of a sudden she puts up a rooster and I knock it down with 1 shot. She retrieves it, goes right back to being birdy and ends up putting up another rooster less than 30 seconds later and I drop it with another single shot. She retrieves it, goes back to following her push and she puts up a 3rd rooster which I knocked down with 1 shot. 3 flushes, 3 shots, 3 kills, 3 retrieves all in less than 3-4 minutes total. It was an experience I will never forget. 2 more roosters ended up flushing right after I got my 3rd but they were out of range for me but one of my hunting partners knocked one down. Pretty incredible stuff. Great reason why sometimes you just have to follow and trust your dog.

Hell of a season for me for both grouse and pheasant. I was cleaning the gear in the garage last night and couldn’t bring myself to put away the vest. I am going to try for grouse one more time this year

Now that’s a trip to envy. Nice work!

FinickyFish wrote:

Now that’s a trip to envy. Nice work!

2nd that!!! darn good pup!!!

Nice pictures. I hope I can make it back out there.

Gitchi that sounds like an awesome trip! I had a day just like that with my pup back in the day. He was only 5 months old at the time. Seemed he was the only one finding birds and I went 3 for 3 and no one else shot anything.

I went this afternoon for a few hours. It was a balmy 3 degrees out. Bright sun, no wind. Unfortunately my hot streak came to an end and I missed a couple roosters. One was a real lay up too.

I did get one but should have came home with three. I’ll spare everyone a photo of the single rooster.

The most productive areas seem to be near food now. Either standing corn or picked corn.

Started walking at 9am this morning in a combination of public and private in WC MN. Got our 6 birds in two spots. We left plenty of smart roosters too which was nice to see. We did not see many hens until the end of spot two when a huge group of them popcorned at the end of the cattails. Luckily there was one rooster with all those hens – it was pretty chaotic for a minute or two.

On the drive there this morning we saw a bunch of single roosters out and about feeding so were pretty confident going into the day.

Even in the snow and freezing rain the birds were moving. Had great dog work and shot pretty well too. Great morning.

Im hunting the only two arctic blast days this week. Yea….

Next weekend could be pretty good if we get some fresh snow on Thursday. An inch or two would be ideal. Not 8 or 10 inches lol

Nice pictures guys. I hunted most the day Sunday and for a couple hours on Monday in SW Minnesota. Really windy both days. We struggled to really put anything up on Sunday and never fired our guns, saw maybe 4 birds that all got up wild out of range. Monday we hunted a different area and probably put up about 20 birds, lots of hens, in the the couple hours we hunted and should have bagged 2 roosters, but at least got one of them. Most of the birds got up out of cattails.

Yeah it’s definitely cattail season. That’s where I kicked up all my birds last Saturday (all hens). I’ll be hunting central MN Friday and Saturday. If we get a good dusting Thursday, it’ll be a fun arctic blast hunt. Should be able to see fresh prints and the sudden cool air should keep them holding tight.

I do love to see fresh tracks in the snow! The bummer is we will only have one dog since both of mine are out of service.

I hunted saturday with buddies and we covered a large loop in southern MN. First spot all hens. 2nd spot a flock of 2 cocks 2 hens flushed out of range on fenceline. I did have a dog flush one in cattails later, it was a split second decision and I didn’t shoot. Bird was out there a bit and I was worried about recovery in the swamp. Last spot of the day a large WPA. Flushed one flock of about 17 birds out of range. Very end of day we found a loaner rooster bedded down and my buddy got him on the 2nd shell.

Sunday I went with another buddy. He’s got a beeper collar on a pointer and I’m not a fan of those things. Anytime the dog stops it sounds like a school bus is backing up in the middle of the wilderness. I took him to a spot open to public hunting but is off the radar and not posted on any map. Suddenly a handful of birds flushed from a thicket. Then we made it another 30 yards and the next thicket erupted, 20+ birds popcorn flushed from the woody cover. It started and they just kept coming! With that many eyeballs this might have happened either way, but I wonder if that collar put them on edge.

We tried a private spot in the afternoon. My buddy downed one, but never could find it. His dog just couldn’t pick up much of a scent where he dropped in the crp grass. We saw some roosting beds in the bluestem at the opposite corner of the property but no birds. After hunting some more and taking a quick break, we headed to where the beds were at the end of the day. I ended up getting one I almost stepped on and my buddy, who is a good shot, missed a bird that held tight under a point. That one really miffed him! The highs and lows of wild bird hunting.

I’ve never felt like the birds notice a beeper, but I use beepers to page and they are very quiet, not like a true pointers collar with a constant beep. Probably not the best comparison.

I had a true pointers collar for a week and was honestly worried about hearing damage for my dog it was so loud. I’ve learned to live with if I can’t see my dog and I can’t hear his beep, we’ll he’s probably on point at least 40 yards away from me somewheres. Time to go look for him. Luckily he doesn’t creep and I’ve lost him a good 10 min or more and find him (and sometimes the bird) still standing there on point.

Had a tremendous hunt today. I took one of my Father’s friends with. He’s been asking me for a while to come with. We hunted 2.5 spots. The second spot held 26 pheasants and I dumped 4 roosters there.

Nice. How long is a while? I’ll start asking now so you take me along in a few years!

Pointing dog owners should consider the Garmin GPS. Game changer finding dogs on point in higher cover (bluestem, cattails, etc…). I have used one now for 10+ seasons. Would not hunt without a GPS collar on my dogs.

My bells are all shelf items. No sounds except a buzz or a beep/buzz when the GPS detects the dog is on point.

The garmin alpha is insane. I bought the gen 3 for this season for my setter – it’s her second season. It has too many features really but the point alerts and gps tracking features are awesome.

I highly recommend if you’ve considered one.

I saw South Dakota Game Fish and Parks announced they’re increasing non-resident small game licenses by $21 next year, bringing the price of the license up to $175. I think this might be the final push I need to tell SD to kick rocks and switch up to hunting ND.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

I saw South Dakota Game Fish and Parks announced they’re increasing non-resident small game licenses by $21 next year, bringing the price of the license up to $175. I think this might be the final push I need to tell SD to kick rocks and switch up to hunting ND.

Honestly the price doesn’t bother me that much. Its the 5 or 10 day limit thing that’s garbage. If you buy a NR license, you should be able to hunt the WHOLE season. Not some specific short time periods.

If you buy a license in Iowa or Minnesota, you can hunt the entire season. Any day you wish when its open.

Thankfully a resident small game license in MN is about 30 bucks so there’s no reason not to take full advantage of that.

Totally agree. What really irks me about south dakota is I can’t start hunting until 10 AM. Its not as huge of a deal in Oct and Nov, but it really stings in December when the days are shorter. I love doing an early Dec trip every year. The sun sets around 430ish on those trips. If I can’t start hunting until 10 AM, and I have to drive between spots once or twice during the day, that usually is at least an hour of windshield time between spots, sometimes closer to 2 hours depending on where I’m hunting. Throw in a tailgate sandwich lunch break and we are lucky if we get 4 hours of boots on the ground hunting on the December trips. That is a tough pill to swallow and it gets harder and harder to justify when they increase the prices. North Dakota lets you hunt at sunrise and their bird population is doing just fine.

I’d propose a compromise and let hunters start hunting at sunrise after thanksgiving or some sort of line in the sand that would open up a couple more hours of hunting for the late season hunters. The late season hunting pressure is extremely minimal as is.

I’ve never hunted SD but the 10 AM thing does seem a little odd. I could see it for the first month or so, lots of people out and ‘protect’ the birds as they move around early in the day, get people into cafes (and out later in the bars ).
SD public land must be pretty decent for the number of people that seem to go there. I’m in ND and I know if I hunted exclusively public this time of year it’d be a very tough go to get birds. Also, I saw a meeting in which the game and fish said our license costs will be going up as well, so we’ll be similar to SD.

I’ve never spent any time in SD but will comment on the 5 or day 10 limit thing. Although I think it’s dumb, I do wish MN would adopt something like it. Our non resident rules and prices are way too open and cheap for both fishing and hunting compared to neighboring states and provinces.

I think the 10am thing is really to support local economies. Think how much those cafes make in October and November – those two months likely keep the lights on for the rest of the year.

Charlie W wrote:

Our non resident rules and prices are way too open and cheap for both fishing and hunting compared to neighboring states and provinces.

I agree. Its time for some return fire at these neighboring states. Wisconsin, in large part, is the same as MN when it comes to NR licensing. Its pretty open and cheap by comparison.

slough wrote:

SD public land must be pretty decent for the number of people that seem to go there. I’m in ND and I know if I hunted exclusively public this time of year it’d be a very tough go to get birds.

it’s very difficult to get within gun range of late season SD public birds, let alone shoot them. That is part of what makes it fun. If I wanted cupcakes, I’d hunt pen raised birds at a pay to play operation.

With crops out, they’re super concentrated and hyper aware. More birds in a spot makes it harder to sneak up on them and get in range. All it takes is one to hear or see you and they flush and then the chain reaction starts.

I totally agree on MN needing to significantly increase their non-resident licenses. The neighbor states bend us over while we welcome them with open arms. Minnesota’s non-resident fishing license is $51 and South Dakota’s non-res fishing license is $80. That is laughable.

Well aware of how the late season game works, just was musing that the public land opportunities in SD must be pretty decent with the number of people that seem to go.
As for licensing, I’d be curious how many NR upland/waterfowl hunters MN gets.
I believe SD is over 80,000 just for pheasants. Seems everyone goes to the Dakotas but I suppose enough people visit family in MN and buy a license too. As for fishing, ND’s NR license is $53 so basically the same as MN.