So, how'd we all do?

[Eric Wettschreck]

How'd ya fellas do on the opener? Myself, I was out duck hunting in the morning. Then switched gears to phesants. It really wasn't very fair for the birds as I was watching them and listening to them all morning in the slough. I shot a limit fairly quickly.

Holy cow were there a lot of guys out there. Hope everyone had fun and was safe.

Ray, Mrs. Boilerguy and I had dinner at the Loon. Didn't see the fella you were with so I'm assuming you wern't there. Maybe some time this fall we can get toghter and go shoot a few.

[fishlakeman]

Lots of corn up still, which put a hurt on the morning hunt, but the afternoon was fantastic. Overall put up around 25-30 roosters throughout the day with 6 guys. Had quite a few wild flushes out of range though. Ended up with 8 birds. If any of us could've shot worth a darn we would've been filled out. Hunted the Benson-Appleton area.

[james_walleye]

3 of us started hunted for an hour opening morning. We hit some waterways that was surrounded by standing corn, wasnt expecting too much. But we saw 8 roosters, i couldnt believe it. We had bad luck, we didnt get any of them. Then in the afternoon i went off on my own and hit a piece and in 20 minutes i had 2 nice birds and saw 5 other roosters and 6 hens. My father in law who is a farmer saw 1 group of hunters all day. There was no one out in that area, but there are a ton of birds. My 3 year old GSP was great. What a great opening day it was.

[LuciandTim]

What area is that James?

[jake125]

Was down by talcot this weekend, lots of corn still up, lots of birds around tho, 7 of us gt 12 but woulda been better if the corn was down, plenty of honkers flyin to. Good to hear people are seein them

[fivebucks]

I hit public land in Meeker county Sunday afternoon and only had 1 flush that my nephew couldn't get his safe off on, I dropped him as he was getting out of range. I was surprised I did not see more even though I know the areas got pounded. I saw way more people than birds. In a 2 square mile area that had a fair amount of public land I saw 5 groups out towards sunset. The dog worked good and it was good to stretch the legs.

[Little Joe]

Worst opener in years. 3 guys, 1 good dog, and all the CRP land I could walk and we only saw 1 rooster that flushed wild. We did see a ton of hen's but the lack of roosters really has me scratching my head. Lot's of corn up still so things should get better (hopefully). Oh ya, we hunted Yellow Medicine & Lincoln Co's.

[ChuckN]

Due to the heat, our group didn't want to stress our dogs too much so the field hunting was limited. In all we flushed 20 hens and 1 rooster for Saturday.

Yesterday afternoon I hunted a wpa on my way home from duck hunting and flushed 5 hens and 2 roosters in 30 minutes. Missed the easiest shot in the world on 1 rooster, the dogs were exhausted, so that was the end. I will be back when the weather cools and the crops are cut.

[lawdog]

Didn't hunt too long due to the weather and the fact I'm moving in a couple weeks and way behind on my packing, but the 13 year old got his first rooster Saturday and I got a limit.

When it gets cold and the crops are gone, we will get more serious about the roosters...

[CodyDawg]

Had a good hunt both days. Shot 4 on Saturday for 2 of us and 4 of us had 5 by 1130 on sunday when we basically quit. We even knew where another rooster was in a ditch, but we had a good hunt, so we let him go for another day. We did have to work pretty hard for our birds, found most of them in thick cover. Of the nine birds we got, only 1 was an old bird. 2 or 3 werent even fully colored. By the way, that is a good trick to use on your buddy...yell "hen" then shoot it. My cousin was not impressed. But, in my defense, when I did figure it out that it was a rooster, I yelled "rooster". Of course, my shot followed the word rooster by a millisecond. A good laugh followed...It will be much better when the crops come off. We saw around 40 birds both days on mostly private land.

[krats]

Brother-in-law and I were out in the Glenwood area. The dogs flushed 5 hens and 4 roosters on opening day. We got 2 of them the other 2 flushed wild. Alot of crops still in, beans were out but alot of the corn fields are pretty wet so in a couple of weeks it should get even better.

[Northland Sportsman]

On Sat. we ended up with 4 roosters between 3 hunters. Not a bad day at all. We flushed a few others but not many and only 1 hen. It was good to get out and see some birds anyway. The dog did excellent as usual. I can't wait until the corn is out and the temps drop to frezzing. It was very wet in east central MN.

[Heidi]

Hunted around Morris/Alberta area Saturday and 6 of us filled out. Lots of hens. It was plenty warm for the dogs

though. As soon as the corn goes out after this week or next, I would go back out there fellas and hit it hard cause there are plenty of birds to be had this year. My Brittney hasn't woke up since noon Sunday.

[poutpro]

Anyone else having a hard time distinguishing whether birds are hens or young roosters?

[ducksnbucks]

Hunted west of St.Cloud and flushed 6 roosters and 8 hens for the two mornings and an afternoon. Managed to get 4 roosters, found three. To much corn!!!

[Snag]

Got out to some public land around 7 am on Saturday. About 15 trucks went by while we were waiting. While waiting we saw 8 deer, a coyote and 5 pheasants. The problem was the deer flushed 2 roosters into some corn next to the WMA. The dog flushed 2 hens and 1 rooster. Hit one more WMA and didn't see anything. I'll be waiting for the corn to come down before I go out again. It was fun to see all the wildlife.

[JamesT]

Took my two boys (ages 7 & 9 no guns) out on sunday afternoon to a public hunting near Willmar. The dog pointed one rooster and flushed another about 100 yards apart. 2 shots and 2 birds. After unloading the gun, the dog pointed another hen and flushed another rooster on the way back to the truck. Great experience for the kids, they are still talking about it this morning. Lots of corn still up around there also... Good luck all..

[poutpro]

Out of 20 some birds I saw this weekend, only 2 of them were not sitting in willow patches. Managed to get one bird each day hunting land around Fergus Falls. Most corn around that area should be off in the next week.

[Johnnie15]

Did anyone make it into real pheasant country last weekend (South Dakota)? I'm headed there next weekend, just looking for a report.

[Blaze]

Johnnie - where in SD are you going? We hit SD for the opener and there is lots and lots and lots of corn & sunflowers still standing in N Central part of the state. I'd say <10% has been taken down, but all the beans are off.

Lotsa birds - probably saw 200-300 on Sat (for those who have never hunted the Dakotas, I'm being serious), probably half that on Sunday, but we only hunted 2.5hrs. If you can shoot half way decent, you should have lotsa birds to bring home. Once the crops come off and the birds are more concentrated, it's gonna be absolutely absurd!

Good luck & be safe.

Blaze

[rundrave]

Blaze, dont worry I beleive you, I saw it all first hand, but from a different part of the state, lol.

My party of 14 limited out on Saturday we were done at around 3pm. Sunday we were done abour 2:30 or so. Hunted about 10 miles north of Wagner. Tons of birds everywhere, got alot of shooting in, and the weather was perfect.

Most of the corn is pretty much out which really helped on locating some of the birds.

All in all, perfect weekend to be out. Cant wait to blast some more this weekend.

I am pretty confident that pretty much anywhere you go in the state, if you can shoot decent you will have no problems getting your limit. Good luck, let us know how the SD trip works out for you.

[Mr. B]

I got out last night for an hour after work near Glenwood. Maggie and I saw 10 birds, 8 hens and 2 roosters. To bad the roosters flushed way out of range.

But at least I can still say I have not missed.

[walleyedan]

JamesT,

That sounds pretty cool. I remember those days when I was a kid, they are some pretty awesome memories. I had my daughter with this past weekend and she found out that it's not very easy walking through grass all day with short legs. We were down sw with the crew from MN Bound, my Dad and a buddy that I guide with. We worked hard and ended up bagging 9 birds. Great weekend.

Walleyedan

[Roosterslayer05]

group of 4 limited out saturday by 4 and sunday by 11. Only 2 of us hunted monday and we bagged 3 birds. Hunted only 1 field sunday and flushed maybe 30 birds and half were roosters. Hunted 2 fields saturday. Bagged 6 roosters out of one field and flushed maybe 10 roosters. Shot 2 roosters about 50 yards into the second field and we were done. Almost got shot by some SE asian hunters opening morning. We were there first, long story short there was a couple fields around to spread out on and about 20 SE asian guys all decide they want to walk the field we were walking. They started huntinng like 80 yards to our right and behind us, like 15 minutes after 9 we were surrounded and a different group of asian hunters scared up a hen right at us, shot at it, and they were only 60 yards away. We hit the dirt and heard pellits whiz by. We decided to leave after that, it was insane. On the way back we see another group of asian hunters shoot a hen so i took out my phone and called TIP on the way back to the truck and got their liscense plate. What a horrible experience and how disrespectful and careless, these hunters showed no ethics, the more they shot the better. It all worked out for the better though, we found some public land at 10 that no one was hunting and we bagged 6 roosters. Im not racist in the least bit, i even dated a hmong girl, but iv never seen such a group of hunters with such poor ethics as SE asian hunters. Iv seen them skybust(when i say skybust i meen skybust, birds 100 yards to there right, so high they dont flare), shoot at hawks, shoot hen pheasents, shoot at ducks during late goose season, trespass, hunt in a game sanctuary, Shoot at geese when the season's closed, and hunt 30 yards away from you if your in the spot they want to be. Thats also only in the last 5 years, because i had never seen an asian hunter before 5 years ago. We need to educate these people about hunter ethics and the laws, they do it because they dont know any better.

[LuciandTim]

Just curious what area you were in Mr. Roosterslayer??

Sounds like you guys did great!!