2015-16 Hunting Reports & Pictures

I went out this morning for a couple hours. We had 6 roosters flush and 1 hen. Only 1 rooster and the hen flushed in range, and I missed. All the roosters were either in cattails or willows, and the hen was in grassy cover.
 
Originally Posted by lovenstein View Post
So I took the pooch to the vet today. The gal didn't seem too convinced that it was a grass awn but they don't have a scope. She took a look in his nose with a light and found redness and irritation. She gave us some antibiotics and a steroid and told me to monitor him over the weekend. If he is still sneezing and has a bloody nose or green mucous - time to escalate it.

Man's best friend is an understatement here. Damn dog means the world to me. Hopefully he will be alright. Thanks for the replies - I appreciate the first hand account RBinder.


How did the pooch turn out????
 
Made it out Saturday around Marshall and the spots that I had success on in late Oct. did not hold anything but Hens this time around. We did manage 2 roosters between 3 guys, but it wasn't nearly what I had hoped for the drive. I will say it almost seemed like it was opening weekend again with the amount of other hunters we saw. Still great to get out and the dog tracked a cripple, which I never would have found without her. Hoping my dog will get wound up enough during the week to piss off my wife so I can get another kitchen pass! Otherwise, a good season and looking forward to next year.
 
We were out west this weekend too. More hunter trafic on Sunday compared to Saturday. I am assuming the nicer weather played a role in that. We did have some challenges finding an area with not as much snow as our farm had received.

We are running puppies this year so our expectations are never that high. We moved birds in every field we ran. Mostly hens. Good to see that many going into the winter. We had solid dog work on each field and with all of the dogs. We moved about 50 birds each day, but for three of us we only scratched down 8 birds for the two days.

We walked from 9:00 am till lunch at the truck and then till sunset. They are out there, but bunched up. You have to cover a lot of ground to find them. When we did find them they sat tight for the dogs on point but moved off of the hunter when we would get within 30 yards of the dog consistently.
 
Got out Friday Saturday Worthington area, expected to push more birds, most birds flushed were primarily by the dog, others that weren't I'm sure sat tight or ran, at one point I seen two dash through the grass not 20 yards in front of me. It wasn't 20 seconds later they flushed wild about 80 yards up. Managed 3 birds total in 2 days, had a couple misses we should've had. Top freeze over anything with water but still good chance your breaking through when you get into anything dense that doesn't freeze as fast. Seen no other hunters Friday, and a few on Saturday morning but nothing too crowded. Shot 1 rooster out of surprise in thigh high grass, the other 2 out of a pine shelter belt. We'll see how the rest of the year plays out, probably done until next year. Glad to get through the 1st year with the pup, pleased with what he's done. Seeing the first season told what we can work on most in the offseason. Really wanting to purchase a second bird dog to cover more ground, or even add additional help to the current dog so he's not covering as much on his own. Hopefully in a year or two.
 
I went out this past Friday around Hutchinson to a spot that I've seen quite a few birds this season. As I was unloading the car (and trying to be quiet), I saw a couple of pheasants scurry out of the WMA across the road and into the neighboring parcel. My dog went on point and was birdy a few times, but we never flushed or saw anything of note over a couple of hours. Oh well, I had low expectations to begin with!

Thinking about heading down to the Jackson area this Weds. for one last "good" hunt. Think it's worth the drive from the Cities this late in the year?!
 
Seve said:
I went out this past Friday around Hutchinson to a spot that I've seen quite a few birds this season. As I was unloading the car (and trying to be quiet), I saw a couple of pheasants scurry out of the WMA across the road and into the neighboring parcel. My dog went on point and was birdy a few times, but we never flushed or saw anything of note over a couple of hours. Oh well, I had low expectations to begin with!

Thinking about heading down to the Jackson area this Weds. for one last "good" hunt. Think it's worth the drive from the Cities this late in the year?!
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Yup:thumbsup:
 
There is a ton of birds out there. Don't let them fool you. It is just like last year when the snow never came and slough ice was not thick enough for people. MN birds as we all know, love cattails. That's where you will find them. During the day with no snow, they will spend the day way out in picked fields. You can not see them with no snow. So with these conditions, people think there is no birds. It happens to all of us. I got skunked for the first time all season last weekend. And for this very reason. Now, there is snow to spot them, and we have ice :thumbsup:. Now is when you want to go hit some cats.:thumbsup: With snow, they can be seen. The reason they hang out in fields is, well food. Normally "early season", we have hawks. So they get grub, and move quickly back to cover. They know that there is 0 hawks now. So spending the day way out in fields all day in the open is the safest place to be. And also why I can not understand the "don't feed the birds theory during MN winter:)". But that's another story. Right now, when we have what we do for conditions, is my absolute favorite time to go.:thumbsup:
 
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Well in the last week have made it out 3 times. Starting last sat. we hunted public down by the iowa border and ended up getting 2 birds out of the first spot and saw 10 more there. Headed to the next spot and my buddy fell through the ice up to his knees (day was over). Then made it out last wed with another buddy in sw mn on public. We fought the snow all the way out but it stopped right about 9 am. The hunting was awesome ended up with 5 birds for the day and saw about 40 birds all day a mixture of hens and roosters. Headed back out then again on sun straight west almost to the sd border and got 2 more rosters. Should have had 4 but my the shooting wasn't very good that day (told my wife that it was the gun and I need a new one) The ice was good in some spots and bad in others but we found all are birds either in the shelter belts or the edge of cattails.

Was just wondering if someone on here has a red pick up with a ultimate pheasant sticker on the back window. Saw you sun mourning on a gravel just west of windom and gave ya a honk you guys must have been checking something in the ditch. :p

Picture was from last wed hunt.
 
Regarding those that post on this site ... The only thing holding back most from more pheasant trips out west is time ... Lot's going on this time of year between family, friends, and work and it is a 2-3 hour run each way for most metro hunters.

Those that live within 1 - 30 minutes of good pheasant hunting should be out there often. Good or bad I live much closer to grouse country than pheasants.

December has been fine hunting (I try to go every 5-10 days), but it has taken more determination and a little further walks to find pheasants post Thanksgiving with no or little snow on most hunts.

When I had access to private land around Hutch I shot them from opener to last day. That access is gone and the public land around there tends to be BIG and the birds pressured. Snow or not - if you drive around that area you will see plenty of birds out feeding on private land the last two hours of daylight. They are there and know how to run and skirt .....
 
Poyntem said:
Originally Posted by lovenstein View Post
So I took the pooch to the vet today. The gal didn't seem too convinced that it was a grass awn but they don't have a scope. She took a look in his nose with a light and found redness and irritation. She gave us some antibiotics and a steroid and told me to monitor him over the weekend. If he is still sneezing and has a bloody nose or green mucous - time to escalate it.

Man's best friend is an understatement here. Damn dog means the world to me. Hopefully he will be alright. Thanks for the replies - I appreciate the first hand account RBinder.


How did the pooch turn out????
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Winston is doing just fine! Back to his normal self - we are trying to get back SW for a couple more day trips before the 4th.
 
Anyone test the sloughs on the western border recently?

Thinking about going out that direction tues/wed. I know the cold is helping, but not sure what the snow is like out there.
 
Hit a little private spot first l, saw a bunch got one. Hit two public spots but both were pretty dead. Not sure if it was time of day or what.
 
Couldn't fight the urge for one last trip, of course. Brother, Cousin, and I headed down SW Saturday Sunday. Excited to finally hunt with some frozen sloughs. Last hunt (a little over a week ago) we were still breaking through in some parts. Will be out just northwest of Worthington, anybody having any luck down that way? Will be leaving in time to make it home for Viking game Sunday night :cheers:
 
Can anyone tell me how bad the snow depth is around the cottonwood county area? Probably heading out Friday and would like to know what to expect? Thanks
 
Hunted public land in Hutchinson area yesterday. Only hunted cattails and sloughs, didn't walk any grassland except what we needed to to get to the cattails. We didn't see any rosters all day, but would have had a fairly easy limit of hens! Lots of close hen flushes. We did fall through twice on what seemed to be perfect ice, then all of a sudden knee deep in water.
 
Hunted sw mn last Saturday during the snow. Hit 3 different public spots that day and saw a good number of birds. We spent almost all of are time in the cattails and only fell through when we would get close to where the creeks come in to the sloughs. We also ended up in the ditch for about an hour with the truck (good thing I have a buddy that lives in windom otherwise we still might be there). Hope to make it out one last time this year sometime this weekend.
 
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