Looking for anyone hunting Aberdeen area next week.

[MuleShack]

Hi,

First time to SD hunting the roosters. I'll be hunting alone with my two dogs. Going to be out there Wednesday am thru Sunday 11/5. Just checking if anyone else is going to be out there hunting solo and if you wanted to hunt together for a day?

You can PM me or respond here. May be a more fun to hunt with someone else for a day.

Steve

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Hit up a few of the hotel parking lots or bars in the evenings and you should be able to find somebody that is solo or small group. Good luck! I'm headed up west of Aberdeen tomorrow morning for 3 days.

[rundrave]

MuleShack,

I will be in the Huron area hunting by myself and my 2 shorthairs that Saturday and Sunday. I usually head West from there and hunt all public land but could possibly meet up somewhere, we wont be that far away from each other.

I havent been up that way yet this year so I wish I had a report for you. I have a few places that I always do well on, and would do even better if I wasnt by myself.

Send me a PM and we can discuss further if would like to meet up.

[MuleShack]

pm sent rundrave

[Jarrod32]

I work just about all of those days except Wednesday, and may be free on Wednesday afternoon...not entirely sure yet, though...check back in a day or two...

[MuleShack]

Sounds good Jarrod, I'll keep an eye on the thread. If you can make it, I'll get you my cell #.

[reddog]

Sorry for the OT, but... Rundrave or carpshooter. If you hear of anyone finding a shotgun on Thursday afternoon in or on a walk in parking area south of Humboldt, I know someone that would like to recover it. His wife bought it for him. I think he said it was a Winchester. (No, its not me this time)

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Sorry for the OT, but... Rundrave or carpshooter. If you hear of anyone finding a shotgun on Thursday afternoon in or on a walk in parking area south of Humboldt, I know someone that would like to recover it. His wife bought it for him. I think he said it was a Winchester. (No, its not me this time)

Ouch...I would call some of the sioux falls, mitchell, or madison radio stations and ask if they would help; also call the sheriff's dept and GFP and maybe somebody will turn it in.

[Bryce]

If you like hot wings, be sure to check out Circus. Kind of off the beaten path downtown but well worth the time to find.

[reddog]

Hi,

First time to SD hunting the roosters. I'll be hunting alone with my two dogs. Going to be out there Wednesday am thru Sunday 11/5. Just checking if anyone else is going to be out there hunting solo and if you wanted to hunt together for a day?

You can PM me or respond here. May be a more fun to hunt with someone else for a day.

Steve

I just got back from 7 days in central SD.

If you are going for that long of a trip and going to hunt the dogs hard, I would suggest you add a first aid kit for the dog that consists of some gauze tape, waterproof patches, Hydrogen peroxide, Neosporine, and anything else you can think of that will help. I would add a leatherman pliers or the likes (with a wire cutter) to your hunting vest.

I can tell you that from experience. Two Sundays ago I brought my new GSP pup home (Iowa) on Sunday to get some stitches from a barbed wire fence. I left again Monday night. This weeks hunt consisted of her hitting another loose fence so hard it flipped her over and put a tight half hitch loop around her front right elbow that took a few minutes to extricate. The older dog got nailed my a porcupine on Saturday night on the last point of the day. That took almost 45 minutes to get that cleaned up. Then yesterday the younger dog got some kind of a 2 inch slit in her hide on her thigh. When you hunt hard, and long, the exposure to these types of injuries increase, so it is best to be prepared. If I had access to a surgical stapler, I would carry that also.

Enjoy your time out there. I had a hard time coming home last night, but the dogs need a week or two to heal up.

[MuleShack]

Wow Reddog, you make it sound like a war zone out there.

I purchased a pheasants forever first aid kit a few weeks ago and will make sure I have a cutters along. i guess you can never be too prepared.

I never ran into a porcupine before, are they very common out there?

[reddog]

Wow Reddog, you make it sound like a war zone out there.

I purchased a pheasants forever first aid kit a few weeks ago and will make sure I have a cutters along. i guess you can never be too prepared.

I never ran into a porcupine before, are they very common out there?

Not a war zone, I'm just sayin that if your gonna hunt em hard, you better go prepared.

First one Ive ever run into, but the third one this year for friends that I know.

Turn them counterclockwise when pulling them.

I didnt even tell you about the skunks and rattlesnakes.

Sent you a pm also.

[Jarrod32]

I'm not gonna be able to hunt tomorrow...I've got too much going on and have the opportunity to work for a few hours tomorrow (and I want all the overtime I can get as I need to get a new furnace).

[pureinsanity]

I have had really good luck road hunting the Aberdeen area a couple years ago. Hit a bunch of section roads out in the middle of no where with thickets and sloughs in the ditches. One small slough in a road ditch had so many birds flushing I couldn't even shoot at any....

[MuleShack]

I'm not gonna be able to hunt tomorrow...I've got too much going on and have the opportunity to work for a few hours tomorrow (and I want all the overtime I can get as I need to get a new furnace).

Cant blame you for that...thanks for the offer though.

[MuleShack]

I have had really good luck road hunting the Aberdeen area a couple years ago. Hit a bunch of section roads out in the middle of no where with thickets and sloughs in the ditches. One small slough in a road ditch had so many birds flushing I couldn't even shoot at any....

Due to "searching" for all these public spots, I put on plenty of miles this after noon but didn't see any along the roads yet. There is a lot of prime area along side these roads.

We ended up getting 2 birds today, had 4 other roosters get up out of range and also kicked up roughly 15 hens. Not a bad afternoon.

[pureinsanity]

Due to "searching" for all these public spots, I put on plenty of miles this after noon but didn't see any along the roads yet. There is a lot of prime area along side these roads.

We ended up getting 2 birds today, had 4 other roosters get up out of range and also kicked up roughly 15 hens. Not a bad afternoon.

Don't be afraid to hunt with out seeing any. And hit the small spots you think there wouldn't be one single bird there. On wed I saw one single bush in the ditch. Normally it gives us one bird every time we hit it. This year 15 birds got out of that bush were normally there is one bird.

What im trying to say is get out and walk some ditches, you might be surprised what you find even though you didn't "see" anything when driving.

[MuleShack]

I was merely commenting on not seeing anything because road hunting wasn't in my plans. I was looking at the public sections and hunting those.

Yesterday I could have limited by noon, but had two roosters get up and go deeper into a marsh and pulled up on them for fear of not finding them if shot. Ended up with 1 bird in the bag and also flushed 5 hens.

Today it was windy...the dogs and I were being lazy so we slept in and didn't get out till noon. We decided to hit the little strips along side the road (at Nick's suggestion) and ended up with a limit by 2:00. Spent the rest of the afternoon scouting for other areas to hunt next.

[reddog]

Good to hear Mule.

Did you bring the new pup along on the trip. Theres nothing better than getting a snoot full of bird scent into a young dogs nose, you know.

Sending you a PM..

[MuleShack]

No didn't bring the pup with, she doesn't have the legs for it yet.

Next year...

[pureinsanity]

Congrats! As much as I love finishing early on a hunt, at the same aspect id rather work all day and get the last bird at the last minute. This year we finished at noon one day and 1 the next and we didn't know what to do other then have a few cocktails and enjoy the hot tub.

Glad you had good luck running the small ditch strips! Some of my favorite ones are the ones with grass and dogwood!

Congrats and glad you did well!

Is it wet up there? Mitchell area had sloughs packed full of water on one side of the road and on the other bone dry....

I did notice there was a very late brood for the birds and most of the birds we saw and shot were only at 90% color change, with a little grey feathers on their chests yet. What was the case for the birds you ran into? Did aberdeen have a late brood too?

[MuleShack]

The first 3 days were spent North and East of Aberdeen and for all the water that is in that area (ponds, lakes etc) the outer perimeters of the marsh's that I walked in were mostly dry unless they were part of a larger lake or were in a real low lying bowl in the field. All of my birds came out of cat tails either on the edge, just in the grass outside or flushed from within.

Three of my birds looked to be of younger stock (size wise), small claws but didn't pay much attention to the coloring.

I can say that there seems to be a good number of hens around though. The first day chased up 15, second day it was 5, third day only out for 2 hours still bumped 4. Saturday headed south to meet rundrave south of Red field and in 3 fields we must have scattered maybe 15 hens. I stopped at a WPA on the way back north and jumped another 8 out of the cat tails along with a rooster.

It was nice to finish early Friday, cause it gave me 4 hours to scout out new areas for next week when I go back, so I don't have to waste precious hunting time looking for places to go.

It was a good experience and I'm glad I did it. My GSP (16 months) was learning more day by day. Every time he went on point in or by the cat tails, he broke it because the birds were running and with in a minute or two a bird would flush. (he loves to run the cat tails) I know I would like to see him point and hold, but no sense him standing there like a dummy when the bird is 30 yards down the line already. He did hold a couple where the bird didn't run so I was very happy with his performance. Both of the dogs were worn out by Saturday and the GSP was kind of lost when we were hunting with rundrave's 2 GSP's, but he did very well when hunting alone.

To me, SD is kind of like the Red lake of fishing, you love it but it sure does spoil a person.

[reddog]

Im glad you found the experience rewarding. It truly is an investment in your dogs education when you take them out there. What my little dog has learned out there this fall, wouldve taken me years to accomplish here.

Thats pretty cool you and Rundrave met up and hunted together.

[pureinsanity]

I agree with you on the spoiling. Kind of

I know the numbers the last couple years were the highest they have ever been. But I tell you 10 years ago or so, I seen more birds at the private land we hunt then I have collectively the last couple years.

I don't even care to hunt MN that much after my trip in SD is done. In fact I really don't even do much hunting for pheasant in mn until the snow if flying and the ponds are frozen.

I am glad your trip went well and you got your dogs out to do what they love to do. My dog is 12 and he was shot every day by about 2. Luckily we were done before that most of the days. The next day after a good night sleep he was ready to go again!

It's simply still too hot out for the dogs! We went though a couple gallons of water a day watering my dog. Normally id be out in SD right about now chasing birds. Even now is a little bit too warm as well!

Keep em watered, and let us know about your next weeks report!

Good luck bud!

[rundrave]

Muleshack, it was good to put a face with the name. Sorry I didn't help put more birds in your bag. Good luck when you come back for your 2nd 5 days. I wish I could have got us on some more birds but took a gamble on some wild card land and it didn't pay off.