Sum Up Your Pheasant Season

So, overall, how was your pheasant season? Mine was definitely tough. Worst year I’ve had the past 4 years. I averaged about 1 day a week the entire season, all public land, with less than 20 birds between two hunters. Late corn harvest, wet conditions, and hard crunchy snow late are all on my excuse list. Some observations: hunting pressure, despite the reports of lower bird numbers overall, was intense in the areas I hunt – southwest and western MN. Late season when there was snow – I couldn’t believe the remote areas I slogged through and I would usually see multiple sets of human tracks. Wet conditions – I didn’t wear a regular pair of hunting boots all year long – mucks only. Poor “sportmanship” from other hunters – despite reading horror stories, I’ve had good luck with other hunters. The worst experience this year was when a hunter posted his butt at the end of my pinch point as I walked a slough. Birds got up around him – he could have at least knocked one down. Bad luck – Man, we were close to some really good things happening on some walks but there seemed to always be something that happened to mess things up.

Nine months to the opener – can’t wait.

Only got a out a limited number of times. First couple of trips we saw a lot of birds getting up 50 yards away. Finally had a day with a couple reasonable shots so we got a few birds.

A tough season for all the wrong kind of reasons.

S.R.

This year I was not able to get out as much as in the past few seasons. The times I did get out the weather was just miserable but did see birds. Seems I cannot shoot straight anymore. So I too had a tough season and lowest bird take in years.

I had an excellent season. Two points helped that though. Living in the Worthington area and being semi- retired.When you saw a cornfield come out the next day I would hunt any available cover and the birds were there. With the staggered crop harvest that made for pretty good hunting. The late season cattail hunting was good but the ice from the freezing rain made for tougher hunting because you couldn’t be quiet no matter how hard you tried. That crunchy ice was there for close to a month. Saw at least as many birds as last year and probably more.

Not as good as the last 2 seasons. Not because of the lack of birds though. It was because of the harder hunting conditions. I don’t hunt pheasants until after deer season anyways but the deep snow really made it tough walking. I hunt further north than most others which probably played a role too. I went 7 times between Thanksgiving and New Years and harvested 14 roosters. By comparison, last year I went 10 times and got 29 roosters. Standing corn was the key for me in December which helped me harvest at least a few birds. I only hunt private land but many of the spots I hunt were unhuntable by December because deep snow buried them. The last day I went on New Years, I raised about 40 getting up wild in the last spot so there’s plenty still around for next season.

We didnt get out near as much as we should have (maybe 10 times), but with that said its been better and its been worse. We usually dont bother going until all of the crops are picked so we had a late start. Then we had deeper snow and not enough ice in western, MN which made it tough hunting. We saw a bunch of birds out west on the roads but had a hard time getting on them in public land. One good thing about the tough hunting is that it forced us to try some new spots that I’m pretty optimistic about for future seasons.

I didn’t get out as much as I’d like due to a young family, plus I started a new job this year and subsequently lost a lot of vacation time (I hunt public land most of the time and prefer to do that mid-week, when possible).
I was actually surprised at the amount of birds this year.
I’ve only been hunting 5-7 years, but this year was probably my best despite the conditions being tough. Some of that is likely due to me finding better locations and my dog has a couple of seasons under his belt, too.
I didn’t harvest tons of birds, but I had a fun year and got enough birds to feel successful.

Got out plenty, but for shorter duration of trips and closer to home trips. 3 young kids, 1 of them being a new born this fall. Weekend and all day hunting was pretty much not possible. However, I did take work off one afternoon per week almost all season to hunt public land spots close to home, south central MN.

Early season, did great. Had high hopes for late season once the crops came out. However, I seemed to never really find them late season. October was a great month, November into December was pretty slow, late December was decent in cattails but I got pretty wet each time – not great ice conditions in them.

Saw lots of hunters in my area, more than previous years. I wouldn’t say bird numbers were up or down. Overall I believe I harvested 7 birds in MN this year and probably spent about 24 hours with boots on the ground (guessing at 3 hours a week x 8 weeks). Of course there were a few “gimmie” shot misses, which you can’t have in MN if you want to get birds.

South Dakota hunting was the tail of two trips. Water like crazy everywhere and did quite well on half public/ half private in mid November. Returned in mid December and couldn’t find a bird anywhere – most of the cover was knocked down from snow and the cattails were borderline to walk. Between those 2 trips I believe there were 24 birds shot (2 or 3 days hunting per trip, 1-4 guys per day, 1 day had 8 guys).

Overall, could have been better, could have been worse.