lockedncupped
Member
Day 1...Hunted south and west of Aberdeen at noon. All hunts all week were public hunting ground. All hunts were myself my father and 1 3yr old German Shorthair. Started fast with 3 hens flushed on the first point of the season just 3 minutes into the hunt. Hunt another 10 minutes and the dog gets on a rooster. The rooster gives me a look but wont get up up high enough for me to take the shot with the dog on his tail. After 10 or so minutes we encountered a single gentleman and his spaniel. He goes one way we go another. A couple more minutes into the hunt the dog is fighting something.....from the wound on his back I assume it was a raccoon. Get the dog back on track and hunt another 15 minutes or so to we bump heads with another fellow and his dog. We exchange plans for working the field and we both hunt our way out of the field. 3 groups in the filed no shots fired. 4 birds seen. Shag ass for new grounds. Find a public field closer to our hotel no cars so give it a shot. Field has grass, cattails, standing corn surrounding. It is approx 3:30 in the after noon. We head straight to a cattail slough when the dog goes on point. I kick around and up goes a ROOSTER! 1 shot one rooster in the bag...yahoooooo!!!! We hunt the remainder of the day see somewhere around 15 roosters or so and numerous hens. I scratched out my limit and if pops could shoot straight he would have also. Day 2 we hunt south and east of Aberdeen. Again grass, cattails, and standing corn. Also some buckbrush, shelterbelt type areas. That held birds in the 40mph winds. Although the area had birds they all flushed my pops way and I was only able to manage one ROOSTER, although I did have a great look at another one I have to say I cleanly whiffed on. Day 3 hunt the field we had scouted and were going to hunt on the opener. Start out slow busting the cattails, birds are skittish to say the least and flushing well ahead of us. Work the slough for an hr before I flush a lone rooster on the other side of the slough. The dog and my dad are tired and on the other side waiting for me. Needless to say one shot of #5 hevi shot folded him up pretty good. I work my way back to my dad and the dog and we pushed the slough towards the rd. Whammo! ROOSTER jackpot. I fold one up, pops folds one up, he can't find his so I work my way over to him when a tight sitting ROOSTER gets up and I fold him up. Not sure exactly but we guessed 7 or 8 roosters and atleast 7 or 8 hens were pushed out right there. We chill out rest the dog and wait till evening to try and go get dad his final birds for the day. We work another area with tall grass and standing corn being harvested adjacent. We nicknamed this field Aberdeen Supreme on the Dog collar GPS. Dad got his roosters I shot the go pro and I believe we counted 37 roosters in this field! Day 4 we headed south to Madison. I have some friends in the area and 2 different farms that we are allowed to hunt. Bird numbers way way way down in this area compared to Upstate, areas. We hunted a piece of public while we waited for my buddy to call me back.....low and behold I let the dog out and didn't put the gps on him. I thought he was only going to take a steamer, and drain the dragon but I guess he got scent and followed it. We didn't want to blow the whistle and yell for the dog so my dad went right and I went left. Low and behold I found him on point on the edge of the pond....ROOSTER!!! One shot and another rooster in the bag. We hunt for 30 minutes or so until we get into some marginal at best cover and the dog goes crazy running birds. He must have flushed 7 or 8 hens but no roosters. I hear roosters cackling but never see one. I have the event on camera but have yet to watch it. We work the field over until we meet up with my dad. He says he has been hearing roosters cackle and saw a few birds fly into a cattail slough so we work our way down to it. Sure enough right where he says he seen a bird go down one gets up and I punish it. As we are looking for the bird the dog acts birdie and flushes another rooster I fold him. My hunt is now over and I didn't even get to hunt the private land I had lined up. I did get those 2 roosters shot on film along with the 7 or 8 flushes earlier and the roosters cackling.
Day 5 everyone tired, dog can barly hunt. Decide to hunt public in the morning (noon) to save the easy crp hunts for the evening. Start out walk 1-2 minutes into some nice grass on a WIA sure enough Jager goes on point and a pair of roosters gets up. I fold one and we press on. Hunt hard find a dead rooster and Jager hunts hard to put up 2 hens no more action. Making our way over to our private field find a freshly harvested corn field with a cattail heavy ditch....no slough...gotta walk it. 2 minutes into the walk 2 roosters get up. One flies across the rd i fold him, the other sits right back down and sits tight! WTH? I walk up to him and he flushes and dies. Never ever have I seen this but wth. I'm now done. We rd hunt our way back to the private where we hunt a great CRP field trying to get dad his limit but I believe the final count was like 21 hens and no roosters, so he never gets his birds. Will be back on 11-14-2015 for 3-4 more days.
Thanks for reading,
Locked
Day 5 everyone tired, dog can barly hunt. Decide to hunt public in the morning (noon) to save the easy crp hunts for the evening. Start out walk 1-2 minutes into some nice grass on a WIA sure enough Jager goes on point and a pair of roosters gets up. I fold one and we press on. Hunt hard find a dead rooster and Jager hunts hard to put up 2 hens no more action. Making our way over to our private field find a freshly harvested corn field with a cattail heavy ditch....no slough...gotta walk it. 2 minutes into the walk 2 roosters get up. One flies across the rd i fold him, the other sits right back down and sits tight! WTH? I walk up to him and he flushes and dies. Never ever have I seen this but wth. I'm now done. We rd hunt our way back to the private where we hunt a great CRP field trying to get dad his limit but I believe the final count was like 21 hens and no roosters, so he never gets his birds. Will be back on 11-14-2015 for 3-4 more days.
Thanks for reading,
Locked
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