Great Pheasant Population

This has been another great year of bird hunting in MN. I make trips to S.D. and Iowa, but southern Dakota county has just been fabulous. I’ve been blessed to hunt the last 4 out of 5 days, and have been able to shoot my birds each time out in just 2 hours or less. I don’t know how long we will continue to see hunting at that caliber. I get torn between going over to P-4 or hunt. Well the Ranger is now parked for the winter so the decision becomes easier.I make my last trip to SD Dec. 14-19. I thank God for being blessed to hunt all private land in three states. Thanksgiving truly is a time to ponder all the blessings we do have. Even as bad as things are here in this country, we still are better off than the rest of the world. We can thank a Vet for that. May you all find good health this Holiday Season.

That is good. We were ut on some public stuff in So.Minesota Sat. and saw 3-40 birds.All couped up in th e Cattails. Only got off a couple shots as the stuff was thick! Can’t imagine the amount of birds we did’nt get up!The birds are there…….Just gotta let the dogs work!

Great to hear that the population is still good around home. We drove 3 hours to get our birds, but we still em pretty good. All of our birds were shot on public land and like Chappy said we let the dogs do the work and we just followed. The best part was walking a couple pieces that had just been hunted only to go deep into the thick stuff and pop a couple. My legs are tired, but there are birds in freezer, and it beats sittin on my all weekend or shopping in the masses.

Yes, that is the key, move slow and let the dogs do all the work. My two Brittanys seem to cover every square foot if you give them the time to do it and I don’t even have to get down in the thick stuff at all. Hunters at times seem to move too fast, if the cover is heavy, they will sit tight and hold.

What really sucks is a pointer in the cattails. I really have to keep tabs on where the last place is I heard him. Cooper is an awesome hunter,and he won’t “kick” it up unless your within 4-5 feet.I tried putting a beeper collar on him and it drives him nuts!!!!

Chappy, I know what your talking about with the pointing in the cattails. Last year my lab decided to start pointing birds. This year she points almost every bird she puts up. In the thick stuff I can usually hear her pause to listen for me. I give her a whistle or a hunt ’em up and she keeps going. Sometimes when she stops I say that and I start to hear a tick, tick, tick as her tail starts wagging in excitement. Shes on point. She usually keeps them pinned long enough for me to get over there and kick em up. I think I’m starting to enjoy this pointer thing.

I almost lost my pointer in a corn field this year. He was on point for about 8 mm before I bumped the bird looking for him. If I go in to the catails I kept him very close to me.

I generally only hunt cattails after they’re frozen. Most of my MN hunting has been along water ways/ drainage ditches with HEAVY grass cover and 20 yd strips of grain on either side of them. The cattails that I encounter out in SD are only 3/4 acre areas, they can be challenging with pointing dogs, but they are WOW trained and back one another. I just need to move toward them by any direction except from behind them. The birds will hold 99% of the time. Standing corn must be difficult to hunt with all the hybrid corn being so tall. How do you get a shot off in that stuff?

My 5’3 son got his first this year out of the standing corn in No.Dakota. I missed 2 really easy shots and he just waited for him to get to his row and dropped him dead! Hell of a shot!

That’s great you have a son that hunts. It scares me at times as we are out and generally don’t see any bird hunters under 40 years old. We made a point to take a couple of boys(17&18)out to SD two years ago. Heck in a couple years, I’ll need some young guys to take me along.