prairie chickens

[Norsky]

So who else was lucky enough to get selected to hunt chickens this weekend??? Wondering if anyone has any good tips for hunting them? Where do they typically hang out during different times of the day???

[Guest]

Look for them to fly from wood lots in the early morning to cut grain fields for feeding. Pretty much at first light.

After they eat, they'll look for gravel like a pheasant or other Grouse and then spend the remainder of the day in any large expanse of CRP or other open grassy areas.

They'll stick their heads up over the cut grain fields to see what's coming at them, then duck down and start moving away from you. If you have a pointing dog, the faster you get your dog on them the better to make them hold so you can get a shot.

Good Luck!

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Chells

[Perch Jerker]

Watching for them in the woodlots is good advise. About 3yrs ago my father & I noticed that the PC were flying from an island in the middle of the Platte river in NE to the picked corn fields and would perch on the irrigation sprinklers in the middle of it. We decided to grab our lawn chairs, camo up, and sit in the weeds. We limited out on PC every day but the best part is that they came to us like driven phesants. We would hunt PC at dawn, phesants during the day, and pass shoot ducks the rest of the afternoon. Heck we even got a few roosters that were mixed with the PC.

Watch those areas for activity and bag your birds the easy way. Dang that was a lot of fun.

PJ

[bigdog]

Was wondering how the hunting went? Didn't get drawn myself but would like to hear some stories.

[Guest]

So what the heck does a prarie chicken taste like? I'm guessing it tastes like chicken. Funny by but I would like to know.

[Guest]

It tastes like Frog

If you don't over-cook it it tastes like Bald Eagle or Loon.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself...

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Chells

[huskminn]

Prairie chicken is basically just like sharptail grouse. These birds take to the air to move distances and elude danger, unlike the pheasant. Therefore, the breast meat is darker than pheasant, but not nearly as dark as duck. The leg meat is lighter--they only use their legs to walk around.

They are good eating, just as the sharptail is.

[LABS4ME]

I shot one a couple years ago in Nebraska, don't know if I'd worry about eating one again....next one will go on the wall and then I'll just stick to pheasant and ducks. Maybe the one I got was old or something, but it was really dark and really gamey, and I generally like to eat any game.

I do think it's good that the state is having a season on them again. I hope the intrest in the bird helps to bring it back to higher numbers. I'd imagine that any habitat improvement will also help the shapies recover, sad when you think how many shaptails we've lost in just 15-20 years.

Good Luck! Ken

[Norsky]

My Dad and I went out this past Saturday, the first day of the five day season, and managed to get our limit of four birds by 1pm. The birds were actually very skittish and 3 of the four birds were shot at 40 plus yards. It was a little tough since they would typically flush at least a couple hundred yards in front of you, but if you found a big covey of birds, usually there would be a couple pairs that could be singled out. My wife was also included in our group, but was unable to hunt on Saturday, so she and I went out just this past Wednesday and she shot both her birds by 10 am. The dogs did a great job even though the grass was very dry and 1/3 of the public area by Rothsay had burnt off. The meat was actually very tasty, but you need to cook it for at least 6 hours so it's tender. I do have one that I'll be sending to the taxidermist soon. They are really cool birds and I hope that these hunts will increase their popularity so more can be done to improve habitat and increase their population so more people can enjoy hunting this native bird.