Pheasant Hunting

LOL

Just a quick trip this morning.

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My husband Billy and I went out this morning and we jumped 6 hens… not a single rooster! That’s not happened before. We usually jump at least 1 rooster or 2. It was a gorgeous morning for a hunt, perfect weather, and as always it’s just a blast watching the dogs do what they love to do.

Bummer. I love it when you flush a group of hens and know the rooster is going to flush last, then he does!

Yeah, the hens flushed in small groups, so we thought perhaps the rooster was just holding tight and would flush with more pressure. Nope. Nadda. We did jump a woodcock, but we missed it.

Although she’s showing vast improvement, it’s not looking good for the pup again this year. We were in Aberdeen SD last weekend and I walked her around some sloughs in town. She pointed and flushed 4 birds and started limping again. Not going to push it, she’s still young, can’t risk it. We’ll try again next year- – jerr

Season has been open nearly 2 weeks and no updates. Anyone hear encouraging reports or any feed back at all? I’m referring to MN birds.

I’ve only been out for some short 45min-1hr trips after work, got a couple so far.

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Cool. I’m hitting the game farm tonight for a tune-up hunt. Hunting Iowa opener next weekend. I think most of my pheasant hunting will be Nov-Dec this year depending on snowfall.

suzuki wrote:

Cool. I’m hitting the game farm tonight for a tune-up hunt. Hunting Iowa opener next weekend. I think most of my pheasant hunting will be Nov-Dec this year depending on snowfall.

It will be an interesting fall weather depending. Been borderline too warm to hunt lately (at least for my lab) – glad to see some cooler weather in the forecast. I’m headed to South Dakota in 2 weeks to chase some of those birds around.

Are you still hunting at that Forest Ridge place in Glennwood City?

I’ve been getting out a few nights a week after work for the final 45-60 minutes of the day. Not in a great pheasant area by any means, but I am at least seeing something each time and having fun. Every hunt (4 or 5 them so far this year) has been no more than 1 hour long and on public land, and on each one I’ve at the very least had the dog flush a hen, or had the chance to shoot a rooster. I’ve bagged one, and missed an easy shot on one.

Pete Bauer wrote:

Are you still hunting at that Forest Ridge place in Glennwood City?

Yes. That’s where I am going tonight. Then nothing but wild birds after this. One tune up should do it.

I haven’t hit the fields yet this year. Too many other obligations and the weather has been just too dang warm when I did have some free time.
I will take the boat out for one last outing, then winterize it and will have some time to chase birds. Im hoping there will not be so many hunters and crops by the time I am ready to get out.
I did see a rooster right by my house last week. I rarely see birds in my area so that is a sign of something.

Got my first limit of the year last night, in an interesting way. For the last week I have been noticing both roosters and hens not wanting to fly, either holding extremely tight until they have to flush or just running a long ways. Yesterday was no different. About 5 minutes in to our hunt, my lab got extremely birdy and I could tell a bird was about to come up at any second. Well up goes the rooster with my lab hot on its tails, and down goes the rooster as my lab jumped up and snatched it out of the air. This is the first time he’s caught a rooster, he’s gotten a mouthful of tail feathers a couple times, and caught 2 hens on a late season hunt in SD when he was a pup a few years ago. Last week was a bad week shooting wise for me with lots of misses, so I think my dog thought, “if I want to taste feathers, I’ve got to take it into my own hands because I can’t trust my shooter!”

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No lead in that bird. Good eating!

Got out sunday to go hunting out west around montivedio and saw lots of birds. Extremely wary with most jumping up out of range and in big groups. Did find a couple of roosters holding tight that made for my 2 birds but they made we work for them as I covered a lot of ground.

Anyone live or hunt in the Faribault area? I’ll be over by Kenyon this weekend, and just curious if most the corn is down and if anyone has been seeing any birds?

I have been hearing a ton of birds in the morning from the duck blind in west central MN.
DT

Made my first real outing of the year Saturday. Took my oldest (14) and the pup (1 year 4 months) and we set out to see what we could find.
Low expectations and I was more than pleasantly surprised!
My young pup, who, by the end of last year had made great strides and now in his second season I was hoping there wouldn’t be a “sophomore slump”. He is so enthusiastic, but I just haven’t had him on enough birds to get a good idea of whether or not he “gets it”. Well, the answer came on Saturday and it was one that I was surprised with at this early stage for a pup.
He pointed 3 roosters and 5 hens. All of which were well within gun range. I was so dang ecstatic at how well he held point. He locked up solid and then I or my son would walk in alongside him and he wouldn’t budge.
Very very impressed at this young age. Granted its still early in the season and the birds get much cagier the further along we go, but it certainly worked out for us on Saturday.
I hesitated on the first rooster because it got up in some thick trees and ended up not firing a shot. The other two roosters I dusted. Both dropped in the middle of the cattails and not having rubber boots I got soaked looking for them. The first bird I spent 30 minutes looking for, but couldn’t find. I was major bummed. I hate losing birds! The water was up to my knees in spots and the dog really couldn’t smell with all that water.
The second bird I dropped way out into the cattails. I told my son to mark it so he could guide to the area. I was already soaked from the waist down so I was going to make a real effort to find this bird too. This area was even thicker with cattails over my head and I am 6’3″! Ugh, I thought this was going to be another lost bird. My son said just a little further out, so I took 5 more steps and parted cattails along the way and sure as heck, there it lay! I wouldn’t have found that bird without my son. He learned a valuable lesson on marking the birds.
We flushed one other hen wild, but only hunted for a couple hours on public land so I was more than pleased with the results.
Still bummed about losing the bird, but a ‘Yote or Fox will find it and hopefully leave a live bird alone for a while.

Billy and I had a chance to get out on Sunday with our friends Kevin and Ryan (@RalphWiggum here on IDO). It was a beautiful day to be out hunting! The right amount of breeze, sunny, and it was warm enough to hunt in tshirts by the afternoon. We jumped a few “lucky” birds that got away, a couple of hens, and we ended up with two roosters. It was Kevin’s first time pheasant hunting and before we even left he was asking when we’ll be able to go again. I love getting newbies excited about hunting!

We jumped two deer as well and that’s always fun to see. I had the pleasure of flushing one of the roosters myself. I was walking in tall grasses and then BAM! there’s a rooster taking flight right in front of me! Yeah, I screamed pretty good and the guys got a good laugh about that. I yelp pretty loudly when I’m startled. Although a flushing rooster doesn’t seem to make as much noise as a turkey taking flight. They’re loud!

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Yes, we had fun. Our shooting left something to be desired, but we flushed a decent amount of birds, and the weather was great. I will vouch for the fact that Sharon screams when she flushes a bird–I attribute my miss on that bird to the fact that I was laughing.

Birds were holding tight. I nearly stepped on one, too. My experience hunting over dogs is very limited, so it was a lot of fun to watch Fritz and Dash work.

Thanks again, Sharon. I can’t wait to do it again!

Sounds like a blast. I just LOL’d thinking of someone screaming on the flush! That’s funny.

When you guys drop a bird and can’t find it, do you count it towards your limit? I usually did. Not judging! Just curious.

saddletramp wrote:

When you guys drop a bird and can’t find it, do you count it towards your limit? I usually did. Not judging! Just curious.

I can see this both ways and entirely a personal decision. I can also see it causing some massive arguments online. It would be nice if this question had its own post so it doesnt jeopardize this fine one.

suzuki wrote:

I can see this both ways and entirely a personal decision. I can also see it causing some massive arguments online. It would be nice if this question had its own post so it doesnt jeopardize this fine one.

x2

saddletramp wrote:

When you guys drop a bird and can’t find it, do you count it towards your limit? I usually did. Not judging! Just curious.

I always have, but it hasn’t happened often over the years. I think a more seasoned dog would have found the bird I couldnt find. Once I shot the second bird I wasn’t going to shoot again even if I flushed another rooster. I had my son with and he could have taken a shot, but that didn’t present itself.

I have been hearing about these mythical dogs that can find any downed bird for years. Havent seen one yet.

suzuki wrote:

I have been hearing about these mythical dogs that can find any downed bird for years. Havent seen one yet.

True, there are always cases where no matter how good the dog is, how great the shot was, how well you marked it, that somehow, you cannot find it.
Funny story from MANY years ago I was hunting with my old man and he drops a rooster. My dad’s shorthair runs to where it dropped and immediately sets off way off to the side and up a hill. My dad is yelling at him the whole time saying “find the bird” and “get back here etc”. After a lengthy search and the dog kept wanting to go back the direction he was headed, we never found that bird. Fast forward one week later. Hunting same area, my dad’s dog catches a rooster that couldn’t fly. When cleaning that bird it had obvious dried blood that appeared to be there about a week.
That bird was huddled up in an area right where the dog kept wanting to go. We figured it had to be the one we couldn’t find.
Lesson here was, TRUST THE DOG! LOL But, yes, unfortunately no matter what you do, some are just not found. I haven’t lost many over the decades I have hunted, but I get irritated with each one the same.

Heading out to South Dakota for a few days later this week! Can’t wait for the trip. Hunting public land with a few of my dad’s friends, nobody wanted to pay for any days on private land this year. I’m okay with that, I have no problem going in tough places where others wont go to get a few birds, but I’m worried that everybody else may get disappointed with a lack of public land birds and having to actually work for them.

My big annual SD trip with a bunch of my old college buddies on one of their ranches is still over a month away, that trip is the highlight of the entire year, every year!

I have been taking my young dog to a few WMA’s around SE MN (not great pheasant number areas) the past few weeks but we have only seen 1 bird and he was on the other side of a creek that kicked out before the dog even saw him. My 19-month old chocolate lab is full of energy and a little hard on warm/live birds so I am doing a tune up at a game farm this weekend to see how he does. He loves running and bounding through the tall grass but has not found a bird in 5 trips so it’s time to buy a few and teach him what it’s all about.

Good luck everyone!
Dave