Pheasant season

Anyone have any South Dakota reports from this past weekend? I’m super excited to head out there this weekend.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

Anyone have any South Dakota reports from this past weekend? I’m super excited to head out there this weekend.

I heard from a colleague who was out there amongst the orange army for 3 days. Tons of hunters, kinda warm out, and still lots of ticks.

That being said, hunting was pretty good once they could find a spot to hunt. Quite a bit of crops still need to be harvested I guess. Their best areas were locations directly adjacent to recently-harvested corn – imagine that. This was in the Redfield area. Looks like temps are gonna take a big tumble soon. Doesn’t look like much crop harvesting this week though, I am seeing rain in the forecast.

Corn is really coming out around my house the last few days. Not much left. I havent ventured too far from my home so not sure if its just he farmers around me that are pounding away of if others are getting it done too.

I was in SW Minnesota last Thursday to Saturday. The further west you drive the more the crops seem to be out. My guess was it was close to 50% at that time. We tried to only hunt spots that were adjacent to cut fields. It was pretty hot out so we hunted till about noon most days and then again the last few hours of daylight. The birds seemed to be already well educated with many flushing wild out of gun range. We managed to bag 3 total and definitely whiffed on a couple. We hunted the same area 2 years ago around the same weekend and I recall seeing more birds in that time frame. Lot of hunters out and we got beat to a couple spots first thing in the morning even getting there 30 min before shooting time. My pup had a great crippled running bird retrieve that he found about 80 yards from where we shot it and it was still alive. Always trust the dog!

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Good reports mr. pricco. Love the picture, great looking dogs. I was out the same timeframe in the south/southwest part of the state. I was really happy with the hunting, I had some great opportunities. Thursday I got two, Friday 1, Saturday was really really busy and I got two birds, as well as missed two. Sunday I missed two and harvested 1 bird. The crops were coming out like crazy, combines running hard the entire time I was out hunting. Saturday AM was definitely the busiest time. My shooting has gotten better but I hope to improve some more. Having a seasoned dog really helps with those birds that get peppered and take off running/hiding when they hit the ground.

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Talk about some cool photos crawdaddy! Are you wearing a gopro to get that picture of the bird mid air?

Yeah that is a cool photo. At first I thought it was one of those gun mounted cameras, but you can clearly see the barrel so it must be a gopro or something mounted to his hat.

great pics crawdaddy. what kind of dog is that?

That is Skye, she is a field bred golden retriever, gonna be 8 in January. Her younger sister Roxy is gonna be 2 here in a few days, same breed of dog. I would highly recommend a golden retriever for anyone who loves upland hunting, they are great dogs all the way around. Excellent noses and drive for sure. Look into “field bred goldens” they are from hunting stock, not show dogs. Yeah, the pictures while hunting are screen grabs from a gopro on my hat. This one here, I had dropped a bird the older dog flushed and hustling up to the scene when the young dog doubled back and flushed a second bird right at me! I missed just in front, great memory though.

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awesome pics crawdaddy, especially the action shot. pretty incredible you can actually see your shot spread.

Great looking goldens too. I will always have a golden – I love everything about the breed. I won’t say they are the best because of how subjective that is but their noses and retrieving ability is fantastic and continues to impress me year after year.

I’m very familiar with field bred goldens. What kennel line are yours from if you don’t mind me asking?

I’m on my 3rd Golden. All field breed.

Skye is from thistlerock and Roxy is from buckshot retrievers up near tomahawk WI. I love these dogs. They’ve tracked down a few runners already this year and you know, great dog work just blows my mind everytime!

good deal. I’ve seen several goldens from thistlerock work at AKC hunt tests and they all have been really nice dogs. very much considering them for my next dog.

That’s making me really consider a go-pro just to see how I’m missing my shots.

crawdaddy – what choke are you shooting in that pic?

I don’t think you usually see the ejecta so clear as you can in that screenshot I took. It might have been lucky to get the right lighting conditions. It was a close shot. I was shooting either I.C. or skeet. I started with skeet in the bottom barrel and have since switched to I.C. Can’t remember if that was before or after this hunt.

I got a couple birds over the weekend. Hunted out by Marshall, all new areas. Hunting always gets a little tougher after the first two weeks, and the birds habitats change a little. Either way, I go every chance I get. Wind was a pain sometimes, but nice to have cooler weather for the bird dogs.

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Well I went to iowa hunting to avoid the mn deer open season. The first spots were poor, then I moved a few miles and found a honey hole. I got two birds and missed one. I moved spots and with only 15 minutes to hunt the dogs put one up for me about 20 yards from the truck. First time I got a limit in iowa. I’ve only been hunting about 5 years. Pheasant hunting is the best.

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This was a picture from the trip. I was walking out of a wma and something told me to walk the ditch for 5 minutes to see what happens. Well it took about 45 seconds with me in the ditch and the dogs on the road with the wind in their nose and they paused tentatively sniffing, and soon flushing this rooster. We got him. It’s one I’ll never forget.

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Nice Job! Im hunting every weekend of Iowa season so far. I have two more in front of me but may get burned out by Thanksgiving. The drive there and especially back gets old.

great report and awesome pics crawdad. your younger pup’s smile says it all. nice work