Getting close to the end. Upland only

TimJ

TimJ

Well-known member
Been trying to get Deuce a few more birds to end the season. This may be that last hunt unless we make it out Sunday for a quick hunt.

Probably saw the more pheasants today then I had in any day since opening weekend. The snow, cold and wind has bunched them up. The snow is still fluffy so some of the birds hold pretty well for the dogs. Both dogs had numerous points. Mostly hens but enough roosters held tight to make a good day for the dogs. If the pheasants didn't fly when we were 100 yards away they would hold until we kicked them up from in front of a point. I love pointers! This has been my best pheasant season. Maybe I've shot a few more but I've never done it over my dog having this much fun.

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btw I think all the ducks have left the area now. There its somewhat duck related now. :)

Tim
 
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Nice hunt! Glad your season turned out so well.

FWIW, my uncle used to call pheasants "stubble ducks", cause they swim around out in the corn stubble, ya know.
 
Tim, looks like a duck boatload of fun! There, now the thread is even more duck related... Was there good pheasant production this year statewide?

One thing I miss from my move north, pheasant hunting in the fall. But, then, we have very few pheasants now in southern Michigan.
 
Neat. I have found it hard to motivate myself to duck hunt this season after spending two months upland hunting this past Fall. Partly it's the shortage of ducks and the summer like temps but that's not all of it.

Congrats on a great end of the season hunt.

Steve
 
Andrew,
Talk about stubble ducks. A few weeks ago after we melted our first batch of snow we flushed pheasants from cattails in a foot of water.

Tim
 
Rick,
It was a spotty year from what I can tell. If you find birds there are lots of them but I've heard there are areas without. The northern part of the state seems to be behind the rest of the state. They lost a lot of crp and have still been a little dry. So far the heavier snows have missed them. While snow can be tough on birds it is also helpful in keeping farmers from plowing up cover come spring.

Tim
 
Steve,
I enjoyed the early season waterfowling but once pheasant season gets going I usually pick pheasants. Its hard to describe how it feels to walk up to a point. Its as exciting as a cupped and committed duck along with the pride of molding that dog. Its so adicting I'm thinking about another dog.

Have you got a deposit put down on a pointy dog yet? :)

Tim
 
I wondered, since those birds look older. Last winter was hard here, I can only extrapolate how rough it was on the prairies. Somewhere I thought I read that the current Farm Bill offers better payout incentives than previous renditions to hold cropland in CRP acreage. Is this true?

When I first started hunting in NoDak, we would see a wetland being torched about every other day prior being plowed under somewhere on the horizon. That has changed to the natural gas fires off the plume of an oil well now...despite the Governor's efforts to reduce venting burn-off rates.
 
They were about half and half young and old birds yesterday. That was unusual for this year. I should keep track of it but I'd estimate 80% or more of those I shot were this years birds.
They were all well feathered though from the beginning of the season. We had a good early hatch

I haven't kept up on the current farm bill. If the amount of tiling going on is any indication I don't have a lot of short term hope

Tim
 
I will always love watching a good flusher work heavy cover for Pheasants and Quail and for that reason I will never not own a Lab. Heavy cover favors them I believe and my opinion you can't beat a Lab for hard hunted Pheasants in thick cover

That said my time with pointy dogs this pasts fall made me realize that if you're hunting BIG OPEN COUNTRY like CRP and natural grasslands for pheasants, and even more so for Big And Little Chickens anytime other than in September a pointy dog is the way to go.

For that reason there will be a Berg Brothers Setter, (and two if I can convince The Queen that having only one puts you one injury away from being out of business), with me when I head to Montana next Fall.

Truly looking forward to this "new chapter" in my co to using education.


Steve
 
Beautiful birds and pretty pups.
And snow.
Can it get better than that for an upland hunt???
 
Steve as good as you can make a lab look in photos I can't imagine what you will do with Berg Bro setters. I can already see those flowing locks blowing in the wind on its 12 o'clock tail. We will have to avert our eyes from the beauty. And you are already use to hair from labs so getting use to all those white ones shouldn't be much of a problem.
You will be a grouse and hun machine next fall.

I keep going back and forth between another ugly dog or a pretty Pointer. It might take me another year to decide.

Carl the only thing that would have made it better would be half the snow. My hips were hurting by the end of the day.

Tim
 
Looks pretty great to me! Pups look cold!
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Tod I missed your reply earlier. The dogs were beat even though we only hunted 3 places. The cold and snow takes its toll on the dogs when they have to bust through cover. Deuce ate like he was starving when we got home.

Fingers crossed that we might get out for one more hunt tomorrow.

Tim
 
Looks pretty great to me! Pups look cold!
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Tod I missed your reply earlier. The dogs were beat even though we only hunted 3 places. The cold and snow takes its toll on the dogs when they have to bust through cover. Deuce ate like he was starving when we got home.

Fingers crossed that we might get out for one more hunt tomorrow.

Tim
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Good luck iffin you get out!
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As I sit here in DeSmet, I considered bringing the gun along for a couple days of hunting. My brother in law has the dogs and he couldn't make it down from Millbank so I left the hunting gear at home. Looks like it may have been a mistake.

Nice picture Tim. Looks like a lot of fun. I see the snowshoes in the background - must be an interesting way to track down the birds.

Mark W
 
One last time out. A few nice points and a couple good shots. Only about 9 months and 5 days until next season...but who's counting.

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Tim
 
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