Who will be out there Saturday? We will be hunting near Swift Falls this weekend and then I’ll be out around Marshall during the week. It sounds like most of the crops are out, so even with lower bird numbers this should be a good opener.
I’m planning on being out in west central MN.
Good luck you guys. I was invited to a great spot but I am heading north this weekend with my wife. At least I will get to chase grouse a little. I cant wait to get after the ring necks. Iowa opener is my opening shot other than game farming.
I’ll be out in the Marshall area.
My father is out there working on my uncle’s farm. Crops almost 100% out in most of their area. Very dry weather could make it challenging because large sloughs are almost dry giving the pheasants lots of tangled now-dry cattail swamps to hide in. Unfortunately, much of this is still too wet for a human to walk. . .
Overall, numbers are still way down in this area. There will be birds, but I expect it to get very tough by Sunday.
Good luck and be careful out there.
Grouse
I’ll be heading down to the farm in Dunnell over MEA. I can’t wait as I always have the public land to myself and birds still hold tight.
Good luck boys!!
For a newbie, what is the reasoning behind the 9 am start time for pheasants?
I honestly don’t know if anyone knows. In SD, it’s noon for the first few weeks then changes to 10AM.
You’ll hear anything from, “it’s to keep the hunters in the bars later” to “it’s so the birds can get off the roost and eat before getting hunted”.
I would like to hear from an actual biologist what the reasoning is.
I’m not sure of the reasoning either. In ND it opens 1/2 hour before sunrise. Usually we duck hunt in the morning or sleep in, but a couple mornings we did some road hunting and it was really easy. In MN I do most of my scouting early in the morning and I’m confident I could harvest my 2 birds everyday before 9AM if it were legal.
I would rather hunt with my dog anyway.
It’s all about letting the birds get out of the roosting cover and getting going. Back in the 70’s it opened at ssunrise a few years and my dad said it was a shoot fest. the DNR went back to 9:00 to limit the harvest.
Yes, it’s about letting the birds get off the roost and into the cover. There are so many birds just walking down the road at sunrise, the road hunters would take too big of a toll.
I can’t wait to head out on Friday. I enjoy the drive out west, seeing the harvest activity, etc.
Grouse
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Yes, it’s about letting the birds get off the roost and into the cover. There are so many birds just walking down the road at sunrise, the road hunters would take too big of a toll.
Ditto on that. I used to wonder this myself, until I started driving around at first light, and seeing all of the birds along the roads, in field and ditches, until about 8:30am, and then they would disappear until the dogs would get them up
Good luck this weekend and stay safe
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