2013 pheasant reports

[rundrave]

shot 2 more birds today, also lost one in some water and missed a few others.

great day to be out, just wish there would have been a little more wind to help the dogs. Birds were really bunched up today.

Lots of combines going again today, hopefully there wont be much for crops left after too long.

[Mr.Seaguar]

I drove across SE south Dakota today for a funeral. I was surprised at how much corn is still standing. You folks do have it pretty tough trying to bird hunt there. The funeral was for one of my favorite people. A farmer with a lot of land and an all around good man. Sad day. We saw 8 roosters on our drive.

[reddog]

Limit of roosters and walleyes today and almost a win for Kyle Larson in Natiowide. Life is good

[rundrave]

I haven't been posting all my reports but hunting has been good when I can get out.

Saturday for example I hunted a piece of public with 2 other guys that I hunted a week ago. Have flushed plenty of birds out of this same piece but was willing to roll the dice in the middle of east river deer opener to see what we could find.

Temp was only 15 degrees but absolutely zero wind at all. We walked this entire public area and didn't flush a bird. Walking along the road back to the truck I told the guys don't take a any shells out just in case. Sure enough dog gets birdy in the fence line in the ditch right next to the truck and goes on point. I readied my gun and walked to the bottom of the ditch. Did a little kicking but nothing, just as I was about to call the dog off and turn back a nice rooster flushed. Dropped him on my first shot and he fell into a harvested bean field on the public area. He went down in the wide open and tried to make a run for it. I love those downed running birds in the open and the dogs chase effortlessly and pummel the bird (nothing builds prey drive better than that). Meanwhile I get the retrieve back to hand while the other 2 guys are saying to themselves how awesome that was. Sure enough as I load the bird into my vest another roosters flushed from the same spot and I didn't have a gun in my hand and the other 2 weren't ready at all so that one lived to see another day.

We walked the minimum maintenance road that boarded this land for about 40 yards and had another rooster flush ahead of us a ways in the fence line that offered a long shot. Thought he got hit once and he flew and I lost sight of him but one of the guys said it went down in the ditch just ahead of us. This property was full mile wide and we brought the dogs to where he thought it went down. One dog put his nose down on a scent trail and I bet we tracked it 3/4 of a mile and even tracked where it crossed into the opposite side of the min maintenance road we were on. Sure enough just before the intersection and the end of the property one dog locks up and we flushed a rooster and again this bird dropped into the harvested bean field and took off running with a dog it hot pursuit. This bird had just enough speed to pull away and I laughed as my dog cried and wined as it chased the bird but once he got close enough and made some ground the bird decided to double back and he got pummeled. I couldn't have been more proud on that retrieve back. Times like those I wish I had video camera.

Here is the set of spurs on one of those birds:

Unfortunately the tail got busted up and the longest feather I could salvage out of it was only 19". Had it had a longer tail and some better color it might have made the wall.

I will be out in full force for 4 days in the Huron area starting Thursday. Anyone else still going after late season birds?

[reddog]

Left the wife behind on Thursday night and headed west. Stopped in Pukwana for a pizza at Jackies. If you get the chance,, try it.. I drive by a lot of pizza joints in the 260 miles it takes to get to the cabin, but wont stop till I get to Jackies.

Thursday morning found me in driving around Lyman county trying to get a handle on what kind of cover the birds were using and the status of the harvest.. What I found, was plenty of birds out in the winter wheat getting greens and moisture for the day. I started out the morning on a small corner of WIA, that has been good to me in the past. That produced one rooster out of a milo field edge. Moving on to the next WIA, found me in a 60 acre semi dry swamp. Not real heavy, or wet. just pockets of water. Let the pooches out, and right off the bat, birds start moving. Oh well, the sooner you figure out that you're not going to get every bird in the field, the better off you're going to be. I proceed around the perimeter, and about half way, Breez locks up solid on a point of marsh weeds. I walk up and a nice rooster breaks cover, heading to my left. I single shot from my 686 skeet bbl sends him crashing to the ground.. Breez makes a nice retrieve, and we proceed onward around the swamp.. We get to the far side, and have to make a decision to proceed on, or hunt with the wind back to the vehicle. I decide to go towards the vehicle, and Breez busts a rooster on a downwind cast. We load up and drive back around the swamp to hunt a line of cedars/trees. I don't really care for hunting these things alone, because its so hard to pin a bird down, but, it was fairly early in the day, and I figured if I moved the out of the treeline, I could hunt them in the grass.. Never made it to the grass. Ellie pinned a sleeping rooster along the fenceline, who was none to happy about having his morning nap interrupted, and was cackling all kinds of obscenities at her as she flew away..... right into a ounce load of #5s.. Breez runs out into the harvested milo and brings it back to hand.. As I'm heading back to the truck, another truck pulls up beside mine. I'm walking back to my truck, with my double broke over my shoulder. The guy comes out to talk to me and we have a nice chat.. He sees one set of tailfeathers hanging out of my vest, and asks if I wanted to hunt with him.. He had a gorgeous English Setter that I would've loved to seen work, but I told him that I was headed back to the cabin to get the boat, and try fishing in the afternoon, if the wind wasn't too bad. Gathered the pooches up, and the birds and posed them for a picture.. For some reason my dogs hate pictures, and always look sad or distracted.. I wonder if they know the picture means they're done for the day?

I drove the 30 miles to the boat ramp, and found the river to be way too angry for me on this day. So I spent the rest of the day scouting new areas..

Saturday found me hooking onto the boat, first thing in the morning. I was going to save me a 50 mile round trip to go get it. I dropped it off at the ramp about 9ish, and headed back to the WIA that I only got started on the day before. (never hunted it before) This day was a series of discoveries, one of which I would've thought Id have known already.. Trust your dog (s). I had both dogs on the ground first thing.. Almost exactly in the same area of the treeline, (only on the opposite side because of the wind) Breez and Ellie come together on a cast, and both instantly lock up with noses almost touching.. I get just enough time so dig my phone and snap this picture, when a rooster jumps up and flies to my right. I drop the phone, snap the safety off, and when the gun hits my shoulder it goes off and this rooster comes tumbling to the ground. Breez runs down to make the retrieve, when two more roosters flush. I could've easily shot (at) one of them, but one other thing I've learned is that I don't shoot other birds till the initial one is delivered.. I've got plenty of doubles under my belt, but I also have plenty of lost second birds, and wont do it now.. I know, its not for everybody, but its a rule I come to enforce for myself.. Plus, I don't want to be done right away.. We continue down the treeline, and when I get to where I can see the end, I see birds moving out... over the hill.. We continue down the treeline and Breez sticks a point.. Hen.. Over the hill, there's another swamp, only this one is dry.. We enter one end, and the birds file out the other..but not all of them.. Were working our way around, and Breez heads for high ground, nose and tail up in a beeline to nowhere.. or so I thought.. she stops on top of the hill, I hit the road, not convinced what I'm going to find.. Ellie stops on the edge of the swamp, looking at Breez.. I cant tell if she backing, or just wondering WTH is she up to now.. I get to 20 yards from her, and a rooster erupts out of thin air.. He meets a load of 5s to the back of the head and comes tumbling to the ground with his wings and feet flapping, but not going anywhere. Breez has a tough time getting ahold of this guy, because he's jumping, tumbling.. well, you know.. By the time she delivers him to me, he's a ball of soft feathers in my hand, from expiring.. We work our way to another treeline, and work it back to the truck. With no further contact.. We load up, and head to another area I want to hunt about 10 miles away.. Its big, and I only need one bird.. Maybe I'm getting lazy in my old age, but, I have a hard time getting excited about jumping into a half section for one bird... but, away we go.. I leave Ellie in the crate on this trip, because she's old, tired, and I don't want to keep track of two dogs in the medium height cover. We start out heading for the thickest stuff I can find on this piece.. We work it for half an hour, with no contact, or even any semblance that a pheasant has ever lived there, according to Breezs nose.. We find ourselves at the edge of the heavy cover, and have a area of old wheat stubble to cross before we can get to the grassland surrounding the heavy cover. About half way across, Breezs nose and tail rise up, and she goes into a prance/walk into the wind.. She locks up about 90 yards away from me. I get my phone//camera out, while picking up the pace to her. I snap a series of pictures as I'm moving around to flank her.. Here's the first picture, zoomed in max on my phone.

here's the last picture I took before putting the phone back in the vest.

I walk up a 5 rooster and 3 prairie chicken jailbreak occurs.. I pull on the nearest rooster, and send a load of shot his way, and he tumbles to the ground, and Breez is on him.. I whistle her in, and place this young rooster in my vest..

I stand there looking around, wondering what the heck just happened.. While I'm daydreaming, Breez is gone off to my southeast 100 yards and has her nose and tail up again, stalking.. I stand there and watch.. Just as she's about to freeze up, two chickens bust out. I have a hard time calling her out of the field,( I think she knows there's more birds there, or maybe she knows she's done) but.. I've got a boat waiting for me 40 miles away, and its nice out.. No pictures today as I'm motivated to get on the water..

continued:

[reddog]

I get to the ramp, to find my boat still there..:)Hunting in 40 degree weather, and fishing in 40 degree weather requires a completely different set of clothing.. I have to untarp the boat, install electronics, dig out rods and tackle and bait.. In other words, its 3 pm before I'm backing down the ramp.. I fish till dark, and put a limit of eaters in the well. Pretty happy for my first trip of the year... There's always the new learning curve of where, presentation style, baits etc.. I've been texting a buddy all day as he's driving out from Cincinnati OH all day.. Since this is a family friendly forum, I cant repeat all the good things he had to say to me.. I invited him and his brother to the cabin for fresh walleye and pheasant, but they were running out of time and had to get to Pierre to meet a check-in deadline at 10..

Sundays forecast was for heavy winds, gusting to 40 in the early afternoon.. I made the decision to get up early, and fish first.. then load the boat at 10, and go hunting.. I arrived at the ramp at 6:45 am with 2 coffees in me. First cast... walleye.. a few cast later, another.. and on, and on, and on it went. Took a phone call from my buddy for 20 minutes, (who would ordinarily be with me, but his mom is fighting cancer, so hes staying home till they get a prognosis) My electronics said it was 9:45, so I decided to load the boat and head off hunting.. Happy with my decision to fish first..

When I backed the truck in, the clock on the truck said 8:50.. Dang, the electronics were on old time.. Decided to proceed anyway. Filled the livewell with 40 degree water. and loaded up. Dropped the boat and headed back the the WIA with the treelines from the day before. I opted to hunt a completely different part of it this day. 160a of grasslands with two food plots of standing corn.. Wind was howling bad. As happy as I have been with my pooches all season, this morning, everything changed.. The birds wanted nothing to do with holding.. I tried cornering about 7 different roosters on this property, and they evaded me every time.. I think I pushed them into the standing corn, so I walked around to the upwind side, heeled my pooches, and walked crossrows, making as much noise I could, either by talking, yelling "HEEL", whistling etc. Never seen a bird in the field, but didn't really expect to either.. Got the 150 yards across the field, and hit the edge with the dogs still at heel.. I released them out to the grass, the only problem was,, downwinded.. Elllie quartered out to my left, and Breez shot out on a cast that took her 300 yards downwind.. I'm kind of standing there, thinking what kind of dummy would do such a dumb approach and decide to try to catch up with the pooches.. I walk 50 yards out into the wheat grass and catch a glimpse of Ellie locked up 35 yards to my left.. I scan the horizon for Breez, but shes no where to be found. I make my way over to Ellie, and both Breez and I converge on her at the same time. Breez locks up in an honor, and I go marching in.. A rooster jumps up, and rocks and rolls trying to get the wind into his wings. I pull up on the seemingly immobile rooster, trying frantically to get away.. the bbl covers his beak and I drop the hammer on him, only to come away with a "click" As I watch this rooster sail out of sight, I break open the 686 to find 2 open holes..Hmm. I guess its my turn to be dummy for the day.. I swear Ellie was shaking her head at me.. didn't faze Breez, she was gone hunting without me again.. I brought her in with the whistle, and a some help from Reddy Kilowatt, and we had a "discussion" out there in that field..

I decided that hunting with a stiff wind, wasn't in anyones best interests, so I headed to the road, and did a walk around till the wind was in our favor.. We got up to the corn field again,., and Breezs nose and tail come up, and shes putting the sneak on something.. She locks up, and I walk up.. hen, hen, henhenhen.. hen.. she hasn't moved.. Im like Cmon, man theres got to be a cock bird here somewhere.. hen, nothing.. Breez hasn't moved.. so I walk up further.. Im 15 yards in front of her, and the breeze is stiff, so I know where her scent is coming from. I take one more step, and a big rooster launches up 5 yards away.. I slip the Beretta to my shoulder and make the easy going away shot... Breez makes a nice mark on him, and delivers it gently to hand..

Were walking back to the truck heading down a fenceline, and Breez locks up on a clump of kochia.. I walk up, and a rooster comes sprinting out the other side, headed for cover.. he probably would've made it too, except he got his feet tangled up and rolled a couple times, and decided it was probably best to try a airborne escape, which left me with an opening to put him back on the ground.. with Breez on his tail.. with 2 in the vest, I decided to take a 60 mile drive to another area ive hunted in the past.

Theres 1200a there, and I didn't really care if I got my 3rd or not. When I got there, I got intimidated by the sheer expanse of it all( in other words.. I was feeling lazy) There was a small 80 a piece that I had never hunted, because it just never looked good to me. Two ponds, surrounded be bulrushes, isn't really my style, particularly if it isn't froze up,,, but, its only 80 acres..

I walked the downwind side if the larger pond, with low expectations. Even though it was downwind, It was pounding in there.. 200 yards in, Breez and I reach the dam.. (ellies in the truck). I'm surveying where to go, and Breez is making a quartering cast to my right. I look away for a second, and then back, and shes rock solid on point 15 yards away from a small cattail finger 80 yards away... I move briskly to the point of the cattails, and she hasn't moved.. Ok, I gotta go in, but IM not liking it.. (something in my mind, said "coon") I stepped in two steps into the short rushes, and Breez moved up 5 steps and froze again.. my turn. I stepped in one more step, and a cackling rooster jumps up and tries escape route to my right.. right back over the dog and I dump him with a shot that I didn't think I had a chance in hell of making. Breez is on her way for the fetch, and two more roosters get up and take the alternative route out of there..

Enough of my rambling.. When I got Breez 2 years ago. I called Ellie the meat hound, and Breez the meat head. There has definitely been a changing of the guards.. and its done with birds, boys.

Don't know much about goats. but this guy got my attention..

[rundrave]

Back from the Huron area and hate to say it but these last few days were probably the worst hunting I've personally had in a long time.

I'm not sure where the birds went or were but I didn't see next to anything and that included hens. Hunted all public and just struck out I can't explain it.

Friday was super windy, couldn't hear the birds flush or my dogs beepers it was that windy. Unless you saw the bird flush you had a shot otherwise by the time I spotted them they were long gone. I did miss a couple but I hunted from 10am to 3pm and walked 5 different pieces of public, all that I have seen and shot plenty of birds on before. It's not often I go out that long and don't bring a bird home.

Saturday was the exact opposite with virtually no wind at all. Was a great day to be out but just didn't see the birds. Lots of pressure on public land and a lot of hunters out. Hunted from 10 to 2pm and bagged the only rooster I saw all day. Put on about 100miles of driving and walked 6 pieces of public.

I didn't even make an effort to go out today as I new my results would have likely been the same.

My only thoughts were that with the mild weather the birds were out picking corn in fields. Most birds encounters were in areas that weren't very thick. Unfortunately my schedule for the holiday weekend needed me home early each day. If my schedule permitted I would have opted to hunt at dusk instead and I think my results would have been much better.

Really wish we would get some cooler temps and some snow.

[Dave S]

I just returned home from a weekend of hunting. It was nothing like we've seen before in a negative way. We did manage to find pockets of birds, sometimes 40-50 but only a few were roosters. Lots of hens for breeding stock if they make it through the winter.

The birds we did find were mostly in fence lines or tree lines adjoining freshly picked corn fields. There were some in the sloughs but not like we expected in the prime hours of the day (leaving or heading to roost).

The wind was a bear and birds were very spooky. Even down wind they'd jump a quarter mile ahead of us.

By the time it was all said and done, we managed 29 birds for 5 guys and 5 dogs.

Edit: we were north of the border. Caught my mistake after I was looking for this post and realized it was in the SD forum and not the Pheasant forum.

[lindy rig]

Good reports and stories guys. I'm considering heading back for a December hunt. I'm guessing all the crops are out by now??

[rundrave]

I'm guessing all the crops are out by now??

Yeah I would say most but not all are out, you can still find some corn in here and there but for the most part its all been harvested.

[Dave S]

Just north across the border there were several corn fields yet to be picked but I'd say at least 90% were out. One of the farmers we talked to said he was seeing moisture levels at 24% last week in his corn. Sunflowers were lower but there was a lot of damage to some fields with the winds and hail this summer. Several flower fields will end up being volunteer acres and left in over winter.

[rundrave]

Going to be a rough week or so for our ring necked friends with low temps moving in. I won't be going hunting when the high is low single digits. Hopefully the birds are nesting in some nice pheasant condos in some thick cat tails some where.

[lindy rig]

You guys get snow too? Crazy cold and snow here in MN

[rundrave]

yup, just too cold to get out and chase the birds though. barely been above zero for the last week here and some nights well below zero.

I have some late season hunts planned yet, hopefully get out one day this weekend.

[rundrave]

Pretty slow going today. Snow has a good crust and crunch to it which made it difficult to get close to any birds. Hunted from 2 to dark and walked 4 pieces of public and ony saw 2 hens. Lots of tracks every where but didnt get any birds to sit tight.

Got set up on a piece just before dark and spotted a group of birds sitting in a tree and a few others scratching for corn just across the road from me on some private land. They were slowly making there way one at a time back into the piece I had just started to walk. Then had some silly-me come flying down the road only to get out and spook all the birds to next county as they tried to attempt to cut me off on the other end

Gonna head further west after the holiday not having much luck close to home like i was earlier this year.