2019 Reports

Flush em up

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Thought I would start a 2019 report thread.

So far this season has been a struggle. Ive seen birds in every spot, but the shot opportunities have been very slim for verious reasons. Of course the hens have been flushing close. 18 miles logged so far.

Also does anyone on here own a teal Ford Taurus hatchback? I see it in the areas I hunt for a few years now and ran across it a little further west than I normally see it. Just curious on how the season is going for you. I don't know anyone that hunts the area and wanted to see how the season is treating you.

Hope everyone has a safe and bountiful season.
 
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Hunting in Minnesota for my first season.

Been out 7 times. We have experienced 30 flushes and bagged 8 roosters. Myself and the people that I hunted with.
 
I went out yesterday for the last two hours. Flushed 3 hens and 1 rooster. The rooster flushed about 50 yards a head so no shot, even the hens were fairly spooky.

Overall this season, I have been out 3 times hunted a total of maybe 10 hours total and have flushed 10-15 birds, only bagged 1 rooster though, my shooting was very poor opening weekend. I am very happy with how the season has started. I feel that I am finally figuring out MN pheasants I have only been hunting here for 3 years and it seems like the miles driving and walking are finally paying off. Looking forward to the rest of the year.
 
I've been out 4 times, had 3 roosters flush in range. I missed two and the 3rd one I didn't shoot at because I thought it was a hen at first but the bird cackled so maybe a small rooster? A buddy invited me grouse hunting last weekend so I did that instead of going with my uncle on his property. He went out at 5pm and was back home by 530 with his two roosters. Wish I could have went with him that evening!
 
Hey Bob Peters,

How was the grouse hunting? I went for grouse on pheasant opener, that nasty weekend, we managed one grouse and a few woodcock. Due to many late nesters, many of the roosters are just getting their colors...I've seen many young birds so far this season. I PM'd you.....getting to the fun time to the year for pheasants! Crops were coming out last weekend where I was.

Good Luck to All and BE SAFE!
 
The hunting will improve as the season goes on. Not much corn harvested yet - they're still working on beans. Last year I harvested 29 roosters between Thanksgiving and New Years and the population is up 13% from that according to the road side count in my area. Come December there won't be any place to hide and the bag limit will be 3 instead of 2.
 
Been out 7 times. Got 11 birds myself so far. Pretty darn happy with the numbers I have been seeing. Crops out will make a big difference.
 
anyone been out lately? I was out for a bit Saturday and Sunday. Both beautiful days although I am always really cautious this time of year because the sloughs are barely frozen, enough for a bird to get in them but not enough for the dog or a human to walk through. I saw a fair amount of birds Saturday in the tall grass, must have been sunning, all seemed to get up with me pretty far away. Sunday I was lucky enough to drop a young rooster however. It was my dogs best retrieve to date, she kicked him out of the cattails, I dumped him and he dropped about 50 yards into the cattails. She found him and retrieved to hand without seeing the flush or the drop, I was quite proud.

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anyone been out lately? I was out for a bit Saturday and Sunday. Both beautiful days although I am always really cautious this time of year because the sloughs are barely frozen, enough for a bird to get in them but not enough for the dog or a human to walk through. I saw a fair amount of birds Saturday in the tall grass, must have been sunning, all seemed to get up with me pretty far away. Sunday I was lucky enough to drop a young rooster however. It was my dogs best retrieve to date, she kicked him out of the cattails, I dumped him and he dropped about 50 yards into the cattails. She found him and retrieved to hand without seeing the flush or the drop, I was quite proud.

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I went out Saturday and it was the first day of the season i didn't flush a bird. Must be in the cattails...
 
Hello All,

Here is an update from me...I hunted last Sunday morning at a nearby WMA and flushed up 11 birds, a few of them could have been double flushed but 7 roosters and 4 hens is what I counted. Majority of the birds were in the cattails and I was walking along the edge with my 14 month old pup. I had a shot at two roosters but they were flying over a pond and I decided not to shoot since I wasn't sure about the thinkness of the ice. As far as the cattails, I fell thru a few times up to my calfs but I wear rubber boots so not a problem, dog had zero issues with walking in the cattails. My pup is still getting used to pheasant hunting but he had three really good flushes and on those three flushes he got really birdie so it's fun to see my dog develop as a bird dog.

I'll be back at it Dec 7th weekend and will report back, hopefully the snow doesn't ruin too much of the ice.

Good Luck All!
 
I went on Black Friday 11/29/19 and my friend John and I snagged four roosters at the first spot. Took us about an hour to hunt it. Raised about 20 pheasants total. The snow made hunting a little easier although some areas it has drifted to waist deep already.
 
LOTS OF SNOW. At least in the pocket my group was in this past weekend. sloughs not as bad but getting to the slough from road/parking area can be a trek due to deep drifty snow. With educated birds it makes it more difficult to plan and posture to get on top of them without them busting out prematurely. Ya hope a handful hold tight in the cover once you reach it. makes for more effort and hard work but i love the challenge this time of year. Cattails were hit or miss as far as accessibility goes. Majority safe, but spots with more growth obviously the softer spots to be careful for. We shot 4 birds in one and half days, of course always should have had more with misses. Great time of year to knock on doors. Go for it.
 
Luckily the snow has stopped falling for over a week now where I hunt. But its still quite deep. I went on Thursday 12/19 for about 2.5 hours and got my three bird limit. I went right to where I had seen the most birds on my previous hunt a week earlier and they were there again. Areas of or near standing corn have all the birds - nothing else is even worth hunting now. I flushed the main flock of about 25 when I initially got there, folded one up, and then took my time hunting surrounding remaining cover to bag the next two. After the initial flush, the birds scattered into remaining patches of cover and held very tight. My dog Cosmo almost caught a hen. She came up with a mouth full of tail feathers. With this warmer weather, I think some of the snow will actually melt away, making it easier walking until the season ends. I might go one, maybe two more times. Beats ice fishing!
 
Ended my season yesterday. Tried a new (to me) slough area and managed to get one, and tried a few other sloughs were I saw a few that flushed wild, but none that presented a shot. Started the year off with high hopes for public land in Minnesota, did very good the first few times out and was optimistic for late season once crops were out. However, I just never really seemed to find the birds from mid-November on. I believe I ended the year with 7 Minnesota birds and 24 (group total between 2 trips, but when I have the only dog I will count them all as my dogs....) South Dakota birds. Overall, that is probably near the bottom number of birds I have harvested in a year in the last 10ish years.

To anyone heading out in Minnesota to end the season, be careful in the sloughs. They are about all that is left for standing cover and holding birds, so you have to walk them, but be careful and be prepared to get wet.
 
Season's over officially. I went yesterday with my friend Jason for about 3 hours and we got 3 roosters. Again, standing corn was the key. Right in it, or adjacent to it. At the last spot we found the mother load but they were all getting up wild out of range. At least 40 of them.

I finished the season with 14 roosters in 7 hunts - all after deer hunting. The deep snow hindered my success this year even though there were just as many birds. Last year I went 10 times and got 29 roosters by comparison. I know there's brood stock out there for next season at least.
 
walked yesterday for a few hours in the morning, disappointing end to the season. a lot of the cattails and thick cover were snowed in. didn't see hardly any sign at spots where i have flushed birds in the late season several times. Dropped in the cattails a few times just below knee height. Dog never really got birdy and we didn't flush a single bird.
 
I thought this season was disappointing more because of weather and delayed harvest. Rain and wind too often early (especially weekends when kids could go with). Then snow too early. Weather was even worse mid-Sept through Mid-October ... grouse hunting time. Best weather was during deer season.

North Dakota weather even worse.

Killed birds most everyday I went out. Dogs worked well and it was still fun, but overall numbers where pretty thin '19 over '18. Last year (if hunting alone) I would usually be done in my first two walks of the day ... often it would have been sooner b(first walk), but I wanted to shoot a bird over each dog or at least let them have a full run with me carrying a gun.

Sure with there was even a marginal chance of seeing Huns in MN.
 
Well, I can honestly say this season was pretty humbling for me. Tough, tough, tough. I usually hunt with one other guy and two dogs, and I think I we shot a limit twice this season, and probably had less than twenty birds between us for the year. The last four times I was out I shot 0 birds. Trudging through sloughs and braking through ice 6-10 times per trip at the end proved fruitless. One thing I noticed was the pressure in the areas I hunt. More than I have ever seen. I would be walking vast slough areas, look down, and see footprints everywhere I went. Hard, crunchy snow the last few weeks didn't help. So I bow my head to you guys that had great seasons, and look forward to next year. And thank God For Mucks, I didn't wear a regular hunting boot all season!!

The last two birds I flushed this season were about ten feet away. I grinned, shouldered my gun, and wondered what it would be like to dump 2 20 lb. turkeys. My lab looked at me and said "that about sums up our season". We both had a laugh and walked back to the truck...
 
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