2011 Pheasant Hunting Season

[muc33]

This thread is fully and only for pheasant hunting reports. Any departure from those guidelines will be moved. Thanks and good luck. Lets hear how your hunt went!

[mnmofro]

Went out around Princeton area during the day today, saw a total of 5 pheasants, two roosters and three hens. Four of the birds we saw were on private land though and found one hen in public. No shooting but it was a nice day for a walk. Plan to get out next week a couple of times will report back again.

[Lund79]

Went pheasant hunting on Oct 18 in the Rochester area. Didn't hunt the prime time but went from 1:00 to 4:15. Didn't kick any birds up but made a rooster nervous as he was cackling but couldn't quite pin point his location to the wind. I was hunting alone without a dog (which I do most of the time) so anytime I see or hear anything it is a victory.

[herm]

Off work this week so I've been out 3 different days. Seen birds/had shots every trip. Between me and hunting partners, we've bagged 5 so far. Could have had a couple more if I was a better shot. Overall, it's not as bad as I was expecting after hearing the dire road counts. One weird thing, at least for me: Dog flushed a hen and five chicks, all of which barely got above the grass/could hardly fly. And it's mid-October.

[CaptainMusky]

Off work this week so I've been out 3 different days. Seen birds/had shots every trip. Between me and hunting partners, we've bagged 5 so far. Could have had a couple more if I was a better shot. Overall, it's not as bad as I was expecting after hearing the dire road counts. One weird thing, at least for me: Dog flushed a hen and five chicks, all of which barely got above the grass/could hardly fly. And it's mid-October.

Nice to hear about the young ones, but I am fearful they will not survive the winter. Lots of later hatches this year and by the sounds of the ones you saw a VERY late hatch.

[LandDr]

No school today so my 9 yr old wanted to duck hunt and pheasant hunt. He's been doing pretty good on ducks but hasn't been able to down his first rooster yet...several attempts.

We just started out and the dogs got hot...one dog went one way and the other one went the other way. We split up and my dog flushed a couple of hens and Treyton first flushed a hen and then another and then a rooster...one shot and it was down! Treyton got his first bird and I am not sure if he was more excited or me. I quick grabed my cell phone and got a couple of photos and some video for the archives.

Got back, cleaned up the birds and put a couple on the Ronco rotisserie with a little Famous Dave's Steak and Burger Rub...good stuff!!

[CaptainMusky]

Thats awesome! Good job by your boy and proud papa for sure!!

[muc33]

Great job Treyton and Kyle!!!! Great pic! Great memory!!

[pureinsanity]

I went out near the Marshall area. Corn was still being taken out. Very wet ground, but saw around 50 birds, 20 of which were roosters and 17 of those roosters got away! my hunting party and I ended up bringing home three. If we could shoot straight we would have limited out in the first hours of hunting.

[Arago]

That's great. Something you'll both always remember!

[Glock]

Great picture and congrats to both of you! I bet it wasn't too hard to get that big smile huh? He will remember that day for the rest of his life

glock

[loosegoose]

Finished up combining three corn fields the past couple of days and only jumped two hens. Not good.

[CaptainMusky]

Nope, no pheasants out there at all. Flushed 4 roosters and 11 hens.3 guys 1 dog first outing this year. Should have had 3 but bagged only 1 some bad shooting. I never fired a shot. Lol

Saw 6 roosters and 8 hens to and from hunting areas. The exact same area I hunted the second week of season last year and flushed only 4 birds total. I was satisfied with this. We weren't in the pheasant hotbed at all.

Saw 3 deer too, 2 nice bucks.

[R. Miller]

My boy Clyde with the first of two this morning. Saw about five roosters total. 40 degrees early, no wind, sunshine. Great day to be out.

[NELS-BELLS]

Was out Friday morning for 3 hours with my kids and the Lab on some public land. Saw 8 hens and 3 roosters, of which 2 of the roosters took a ride home with us. Great memories!

Nels

[grey ghost]

Got out for the first time this season and got my limit quickly in west central MN. My weimaraner started to get birdy. I let her work a bit and she went on point...2 roosters got up, 2 went down and I had my limit! Nice double to start the season.

[123fish]

I also had a quick limit Sunday morning but I was hunting the best of the best around my area. What really made it sweet was that a half section of corn that butts up against it came out this week. I was holding my second bird of a quick morning limit (9:40 a.m.) looked up and there was a double rainbow in the western sky. Very cool.

[311Hemi]

Hunted public and private land near Wilmar this past weekend with Lindy Rig. Flushed one rooster on a piece of public we walked, and two roosters on the private we walked (possibly the same bird). The private we walk has great cover, a nearby water source, and is surrounded by corn/beans which were all down. This land usually holds a ton of birds and we know the pieces well and have hunted them for a number of years. Over the whole weekend of hunting this private land we flushed 2-3 hens and two roosters one of which we dropped. We knew the numbers were down and expected to see less birds, but the numbers in that direct area appear to be way down based on what we saw....well below our expectations.

With the warm weather and low pheasant numbers we saw we decided to do some duck hunting Sat afternoon and Sunday morning and were pleasantly greeted by a bunch of pass shooting on wood ducks which we previously did not know used the route they were using. Also picked up one Widgeon and a mallard.

[pureinsanity]

I also had a quick limit Sunday morning but I was hunting the best of the best around my area. What really made it sweet was that a half section of corn that butts up against it came out this week. I was holding my second bird of a quick morning limit (9:40 a.m.) looked up and there was a double rainbow in the western sky. Very cool.

Sorry I had too

[herm]

Got out twice more since my 10/21 report. We bagged a few more roosters but definitely saw fewer birds. All hunting has been done on public lands - and only twice have we had to drive by a spot because other hunters were there.

Back at work this week so won't hunt again until next weekend.

[123fish]

Well thank you for that pureinsanity. I do believe I saw that video on Tosh.O and the young man received a web redemption for it. He was quite high when he filmed that double rainbow I do believe. As for myself I was just high on life man high on life.

[MinnetonkaMan]

One for one. First bird for my new one years old dog. Hopefully their are more birds than that becasue I need her nose to be on a ton this year!!!!

[mnmofro]

Went out on public land in Wright County from 4:30 to 6:00, had four points which resulted in 6 hens and 1 rooster and I even managed managed to hit it. Added bonus was that it was Cutlass' birthday today so it was nice to get him on birds. Lots of corn in the bird when I cleaned him out.

[Snag]

Got out on Wednesday and got up 9 hens and one rooster. Hunted a WPA that looked more like a WMA to me, lots of grass. My golden pointed the rooster in the grass about a 100 yards from the truck. His first point on a wild bird. Finally got one for dinner. The hens were running like crazy 200-300 yards before they would get up. All single flushes, no birds bunched up like other years.

[paintbrush]

Hunted the west-central part of our state yesterday on public land, and was pleasantly surprised by the number of birds and lack of pheasant hunters. Hunted on only one public piece,and filled my 2 bird limit in a couple of hours. Would have been done earlier, but my gun barrel must have been bent on my first missed bird, and there was probably something in my eye on that second missed one. My 2 labs put up 4 roosters and 1 hen, all single flushes.

Drove by several other public pieces, and there wasn't a hunter on any of them. Saw birds on 2 of those other parcels just by driving slowly along them. Corn was about 70% to 80% gone, with about half of the remaining fields be picked.