Bob, we can only dream of that many roosters on public land by us!
This comment stuck with me. Yes South Dakota is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to pheasant hunting, and we all love it for that, the best rooster hunting in the world. But Glock, don't sell MN too short here. I pulled out my pheasant journal, and on December 28th of 2020, I had a pheasant hunting experience that left me astonished and bewildered, right in dear old Martin county MN. I had been cruising around and hunted one spot at noon where there were boot tracks and we flushed a few hens. On my way to another spot, on a back gravel road, I suddenly saw a hen flush, and then another, from under a large tree. As I pulled up there were still two hens there, who only flushed after I stopped right by them for a minute or more. Off they flew into the cattails. I looked around and lo and behold it was a public hunting spot where they landed!!! New to me, but I parked, and off I went with Skye. Now this was a snowy year, so the walking was tough, I was breaking through the crust with every step. To be honest I was questioning what the hell I was doing as I trudged in there with icicles hanging off my beard while huffing and puffing through those deep drifts. Skye was doing better, but even she was breaking through every once in a while. Once we hit the cattails it was perfect. Not much snow IN them and easy walking. Tracks everywhere, Skye was working perfectly, a hunters dream! It wasn't long and birds were erupting from the marsh in such quick succession that I was dizzied looking at the flying pheasants in all directions! My gun was going up and down like a see-saw... hen, rooster(too far) hen, hen rooster! You get the point. I didn't know that many game birds lived in Martin county let alone a single small piece of public land! Skye did her part but I was as green as grass, not to mention not a little flustered by the constant explosion of hens and roosters in all directions. 2020 was the year I got my first bird, so all of it was so new to me; the shooting, watching the dog, etc. I wish I had that one on video just for the memory of it all. But that's why I keep a journal, and so glad I do. I wrote at one point, "it was a full on jail break!!!" Birds were boiling out of the cattails everywhere, I'll never forget it. Now, I just re-watched A5's video before I posted, and I'll say I didn't see as many birds that day as he did, but it was right there at about 90% of what he witnessed. Man I'm so grateful that pheasant hunting is what it is and that I get to participate. I will add that the only other time I saw a similar amount of birds was in the same "season" 1/25/21. I lucked into a covid furlough at work(aka hunting vacation) and here I'm quoting straight from the trusty journal, "Around 4pm I decided to check out the WIA just north of REDACTED and it was loaded. Birds were flying in, were on the fenceline, and were coming out of the picked corn on the NW side." There were birds everywhere, and yes this was in South Dakota. I guess the lesson here is you just got to go and hunt. Even on the days where I never pulled the trigger and only saw a few wild flushes in the distance, I never thought, I wish I woulda just stayed at home on the couch. I attached a picture of the tell tale hens in MN, and of what I saw in SD walking the edge of the marsh. Both of those hunts were far and away the most pheasants I've ever seen at one spot in my short hunting life. If anyone has a hotline number I can call, I'm all ears, because pheasant hunting has gotten in my blood and I'm so addicted that at this point I don't know what to do.
Looks like a fun hunt, it was fun to watch!
