Recent content by nater

Let the dogs out in the dark this morning, and they came back soaking wet from the dew. Figured the birds would flock to the gravel at sunrise, and I was right--I saw 26 hens with broods in the local stretch in an hour of driving. Only 7 hens without broods. Really good average brood size, with...

Saturday morning coffee drive through the heart of where I hunt: 31 hens, 16 with broods, 15 without. That's not a great sign heading into late July. On the flip side...that's still 16 pheasant broods, and there are a pile of adult roosters out there.

That's accumulated total precip from June 10 - July 14, including only stations that reported 90% of the time.

I've now had rain 26 of the last 40 days at my house in SC MN. This is concerning. Flooding/ponding have not been significant issues over that period, but that's a lot cold and wet for the chicks. I did see 8 broods on my morning coffee drive yesterday, with a good mix of age and brood size. But...

I saw the same thing turkey hunting/scouting. Nearly got run over by a herd of 30+ hen pheasants in March while scouting a WPA. Then when I hunted it in A season, was completely covered up in birds (none of them turkeys, unfortunately).

Lots of variables, but a few things to consider. Median hatch date for MN tends to fall between June 10 and June 15 (depending on the year). Chicks start to fly at 2 weeks, and are decent flyers at 3 weeks. At that age, they can also thermoregulate fairly well. So by now, more than half of the...

Drove through the local grassland complex this morning and saw 5 pheasant broods, 3 of which contained flyers (3-4 week old chicks). It was hard to get good counts since the shoulders and ditches haven't been mowed yet, but the first brood had at least 10. That's a good indicator that the hen...

The bulk of SW MN did not get anywhere near as much rain as the Willmar area did. South of the MN River, the most I've seen cumulatively is in the 2-3 inch range over the last week. It was above 50 degrees overnight all but maybe one night--so cooler, but not that cold, and wet, but not...

I asked the guy who sent out the survey :)

The survey is only going to a random sample of pheasant stamp buyers, not everyone. There will be other opportunities for feedback (open to everyone) if the survey respondents support any of the proposed changes/alternatives.

Season dates (including opener and closing date) aren't chosen each year--they're determined by the established rule. See below, which is what Limitless already said. 6234.0400 TAKING PHEASANTS. Subpart 1. Open season. Only cock (male) pheasants may be taken by firearm or bow and arrow from...

I hunt way too many WPAs to ever carry lead, and can't justify the expense of the higher end alternatives (Boss, Hevi-shot, etc.). I use 3 inch Federal Black Cloud in #4 steel almost exclusively. I use improved cylinder early season when the pheasants display better manners. Modified choke in...

Ice is fine in cattails and most open water on small to medium-sized sloughs in southern MN. What melted during the day was freezing overnight. Standard precautions about thin ice near moving water (ie ditches), drainage tile inlets, muskrat huts, beaver dens, etc. still applies.

In the last 5 years, I've flushed huns from 3 WPAs and at least 6 WMAs that I can think of. I GPS track coveys when I see them (primarily from the road in the winter), and have at least 15 likely populations identified. There are more huns out there than you think.