Goosemaster
Well-known member
Geese are easy, if you can get up very early.
2023 Resident Opener
- Thread starter Golden Hour
- Start date
Labradinger
Active member
Went out and was at a spot at 930. Just about to head in and 2 vehicles rolled in at 1002 and 5 guys got out to hunt where we were walking in. Ya, it’s all public, but if anyone on here was one of them and reads this, F off. Learn some etiquette. Same truck paced the parking lot 4 times. I have a feeling these kind of guys arent on a bird hunting website. If so, I repeat my previous.
The pup got on some scent, but everything we hunted was surrounded by corn. But i got to see the drive in this dog-gonna be a good time.
The pup got on some scent, but everything we hunted was surrounded by corn. But i got to see the drive in this dog-gonna be a good time.
GetTothePoint
Well-known member
I will say that the etiquette, or lack of it, is different in SD. I've had more issues like this in 3 yrs of hunting there than I have had in 30ish years in Kansas. Even in the heydays when Kansas was packed.
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FlushingSetters1724
Member
I'd like to think anyone on this site would keep driving when there's another vehicle in the lot, but some people act like pheasants are bars of gold. In Wisconsin people will often pull into the same lot that I've sat in all morning waiting for it to get light and then get out and hunt. I usually just leave and hunt elsewhere, but it makes my blood boil. Only once have I had an issue in SD and that was last year's opener. A group of 4 or 5 guys hunted with the wind straight towards me and my dogs. It was beyond bizarre.
Ive seen this several times first weekend or two of season and know its part of the game with limited space, I usually try to make contact and workout a acceptable plan but otherwise let them get in front and hunt all the birds they race past.
Bob Peters
Well-known member
On the etiquette point, I had a guy last year pull in on me 10 or 15 minutes before 9am opener in MN. He came to talk to me, and asked if he could hunt with me, or at least work something out. It was a good sized property and he seemed genuine so I said no problem. We worked out a plan, worked the perimeter separate, then came back down the middle together, no problems. I can see it being extremely aggravating when a large group of people pull in on you like that.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
This might surprise some of you, but Ace & I decided to hunt this weekend. Both days. Each day we started at about 3:30. Saturday, found a spot near picked beans & were done in about 1.5 hrs. Saw about 30 pheasants, including many young ones. This was an area that got pounded even harder than most last winter. Sunday, hunted an area surrounded on all sides by standing corn & were done in about 2 hrs. Saw about a dozen birds. Left home at 2:30 each day & saw only a few obvious hunters in the road. Saw a total of 1 other person hunting the entire weekend, although I didn't do much driving around. I've talked to others, who did real well & haven't seen so many birds on public land this early in a long time. And that's not because corn has been harvested, because most of it has not been. Maybe 10-30% harvested in the places I've been. I think in most parts of the state, the doubting Thomases, who thought it'd take years for pheasants to recover from winter's decimation, were wrong. They just weren't seeing them in the usual places, because they were forced elsewhere to survive in an uncommon fashion. Somehow or another, many of them made it. I'm pretty optimistic that it's going to be another really good season.
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gimruis
Well-known member
That's unfortunate. Its probably gonna get worse next weekend too.
This is part of the reason I quit hunting public land years ago. Seemed like every time I wanted to hunt, I'd encounter another group of hunters. This didn't just occur in the upland realm either; I've encountered it waterfowl, turkey, and deer hunting too. There's really nothing you can do from a rules or law-abiding stand point either because its open to anyone that wants to use it. Its purely based on ethics and respect, which everyone has a different standard of. I have no interest in racing to a spot early in the morning anymore only to have someone show up 5 minutes before legal shooting time a couple hundred yards down.
I compare it to fishing on a public lake or river. I am in one spot and another boat or boats creep in, especially if I start catching fish. Is it against the rules? Nope. Unethical? Yes.
Bob Peters
Well-known member
This isn't from me, but I'm going to speak for someone else here. That young bird on the far right, Goosemaster wouldn't have shot him. He doesn't like to shoot birds that aren't in full color.
Golden Hour
Well-known member
That's awful. I can forgive the accidental "parked where we couldn't see one another" instances, but that is trash to step in on someone else's spot.
Looking forward to hearing about the pup's progress!
gunflint charlie
Member
Ace looks like he earned his dinner. Way out NW in Harding County, birds were very scarce. Blizzards last winter completely buried most cover, saw shelterbelts half a dozen rows wide filled in with 10 ft. high drifts alongside fields scoured clear of snow by brutal winds. In late January I saw dozens of dead birds along a short stretch of roadside where melting had exposed them.
Goosemaster
Well-known member
Nope.I only shoot full color, and try not to shoot young birds.
Goosemaster
Well-known member
That's the way parts of montana were in December. I wonder if birds survived that?
Matt D
Well-known member
Congrats and glad to hear numbers are up in your opinion. Matches what I am hearing also. If we were hunting together I would have had to ask if the one on the right was still on the teet when you flushed it.
. Few years ago had one very similiar and had he not cackled he would have survived as I had no idea it was a rooster until that point.
Goosemaster
Well-known member
The only time I hunt public where other vehicles are parked, is if it's a huge area, and there is no place else to hunt.Then, I will unless it's packed. Don't expect to see any birds.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
That's not exactly prime pheasant country at any time, but especially during a tough winter. Not NEAR the number of shelterbelts & big sloughs around as further east. Snow completely socked in most of the cover out east too. I think lots of pheasants made it through winter in trees/shelterbelts that surround farm places, which obviously aren't near as prevalent out west river.
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GetTothePoint
Well-known member
Be careful how you use those dirty words like shelterbelt and slough. Someone with a track hoe is probably listening.