Productive Opener?

Loaded up the truck with everything for fishing and threw in the gun and dog just in case. Ended up hauling the boat down to Rochester and didn’t even use it!
Went to a farm north of town that use to have about 200 acres of CRP a couple years ago. Pulled into the driveway and all I can see is bean fields as far as the eye can see!
Talked to the farmer anyways and said that we would still give it a try. While driving to the spot to park a hen jumps out of the fenceline and flys in front of the truck! Oh man you want to know how excited 3 dogs get when they are in the back of the truck and see a bird that they did not flush! VERY PUMPED UP AND READY TO GO!!!

After walking every available fenceline and water way that still had grass we finally jumped a rooster about 100 yards from the truck.
Man does #4 steel shot cripple a bird! That bird dropped like I had a rope tied to its legs.
All in all the dogs got what they wanted and it could not have been a better day to be out walking fields. I’ll have to bring the boat pheasant hunting more often.

p.s. This is the first bird for 2 of the dogs and thats all it took to let them know why they were out there!

we had a fantastic opener this year we shot 7 nice fat roosters and even got one 2 curler mallard. all of our hunting was within 15 miles of hastings. we were hoping for that one last bird to fill out our limit but he gave us the slip. with the bird population as strong as it is this year it could shape up to be a banner year for pheasants. Its off to western minnesota this weekend to really give the birds HE11 I am going to go out on a limb and predict a 20 rooster weekend. I was out there 2weeks ago and there are birds everywhere. Guys if you like to bird hunt as much as I do this is the year, private land is loaded with birds and public is just as good. GOOD LUCK this season, be safe, but remember what pheasant hunting is all about, watching the dog work and having good times with good friends.
later C

we had a fantastic opener this year we shot 7 nice fat roosters and even got one 2 curler mallard. all of our hunting was within 15 miles of hastings. we were hoping for that one last bird to fill out our limit but he gave us the slip. with the bird population as strong as it is this year it could shape up to be a banner year for pheasants. Its off to western minnesota this weekend to really give the birds HE11 I am going to go out on a limb and predict a 20 rooster weekend. I was out there 2weeks ago and there are birds everywhere. Guys if you like to bird hunt as much as I do this is the year, private land is loaded with birds and public is just as good. GOOD LUCK this season, be safe, but remember what pheasant hunting is all about, watching the dog work and having good times with good friends.
later C

We also had a better than expected opener…….WAAAAAAYYYY better than last year

Hunted around Rochester…..Only had one farm for the weekend this year, so that made it go quick…….but we did see 13 birds Saturday and 11 Sunday……Shot at 4 roosters both days, getting 2 both days (lost a third in the corn on Sat ).

Pretty good considering we only were able to hunt 1 1/2hrs both days and almost all the corn is still standing.

We also had a better than expected opener…….WAAAAAAYYYY better than last year

Hunted around Rochester…..Only had one farm for the weekend this year, so that made it go quick…….but we did see 13 birds Saturday and 11 Sunday……Shot at 4 roosters both days, getting 2 both days (lost a third in the corn on Sat ).

Pretty good considering we only were able to hunt 1 1/2hrs both days and almost all the corn is still standing.

Great pic Jake!

Great pic Jake!

Jake,
That is on proud puppy.

dave

Jake,
That is on proud puppy.

dave

Its was a great opener we had 12 birds by 11:15, sat was a perfect day. Sunday was alittle tougher it took about 4.5 hrs to get our birds. It is going to be a great year.

Its was a great opener we had 12 birds by 11:15, sat was a perfect day. Sunday was alittle tougher it took about 4.5 hrs to get our birds. It is going to be a great year.

Opener 2003 was Great/Awesome, 2004 was OK, and this year was Good. We had a big group of 15. The mission on Saturday was to shoot some birds and get the 4 12 year olds on some birds. We ended up with 16 birds and all 4 kids shot a bird. I shot my two after about 2 hours of hunting. 10 roosters got up and I fired twice and that was it. Very poor shooting as a group. Sunday we split up into two groups. Our group of 7 shot 8 birds. The dogs picked up two young roosters that wouldn’t get up so we ended up with 10. I missed 3 roosters and ended up 0/4 on the day.

Opener 2003 was Great/Awesome, 2004 was OK, and this year was Good. We had a big group of 15. The mission on Saturday was to shoot some birds and get the 4 12 year olds on some birds. We ended up with 16 birds and all 4 kids shot a bird. I shot my two after about 2 hours of hunting. 10 roosters got up and I fired twice and that was it. Very poor shooting as a group. Sunday we split up into two groups. Our group of 7 shot 8 birds. The dogs picked up two young roosters that wouldn’t get up so we ended up with 10. I missed 3 roosters and ended up 0/4 on the day.

A bunch of OF’s can still hit birds. Although Sunday was a different story with the wind and possibly the party that started a little early on Sat.

A bunch of OF’s can still hit birds. Although Sunday was a different story with the wind and possibly the party that started a little early on Sat.