2017 Hunting Reports

Finish my season yesterday with a three bird limit, one real bruiser with hooked spurs(wish I knew how to share pictures to this site). I felt the season was a success with plenty of bird contacts throughout the season. Good luck for the last few days of the season be safe and have fun.
 
Just my opinion, but the DNR needs to open the season a week later in October and extend it a week longer in January. In a warming climate, we are having much more mild Octobers than we used to, not to mention its a sea of corn. Its time to adjust the season accordingly. Iowa and South Dakota both open later than ours and stay open a week longer in January, there's no reason they can't do that here.
 
I agree with you, except they should just extend it. Little harm to the birds to open it when they do, and its nicer to hunt then.
 
I completely agree with you on this gimruis. It seems like the last couple years most of October was pretty much worthless. Between the heat, and crops still in the field it isn't worth your time. I feel like many states go through MLK day. In WA they always started around the second weekend in October and went to MLK day. I like the idea of opening later and going one more week. The cold sucks right now but I would rather hunt now than the conditions we have been having in October.
 
I agree that a longer season would be nice some years. In fact I'm old enough to remember when pheasant season opened a week later than it does now and closed in early-mid December. I believe they moved the opener up a week (around the late '80s?) so it would be open for the MEA Thursday-Friday break, since that's such a traditional hunting weekend in MN, especially for school-age kids. I've been hunting MEA weekend since I was 12 or 13 years old and it continues to be an awesome 4-day October hunting weekend which I look forward to to this day. I always took my son hunting at that time, still see other youth out there with their Dads enjoying the break. I wouldn't mind a week longer season as some years the weather is decent, but I for one would really miss being able to hunt pheasants on the MEA Thursday-Friday since I traditionally take that whole week off for a duck/pheasant combo hunt in western MN. It's a numbers game and always will be. Not many hunters are out there in December, and shaving a week or two from October and adding it in January would surely result in even less participation, and less license sales, fewer PF memberships, etc. -- which means less money for habitat and ultimately less pheasants. I can recall many late pheasant seasons like this year when it was all but impossible to get out at all due to below zero weather, frigid wind chills, and/or deep snow with many side roads drifted shut, cattail sloughs with 6 foot drifts surround them, etc. -- some even when the season closed in the second week in December. I do love late season hunting, but I don't agree that October is worthless for pheasant hunting. Seems we still have some cool, frosty mornings most years, and I enjoy hunting in 50-60 degree temps in light easy to walk grassy cover, light clothing, jumping some bonus mallards from a creek, taking a naps in the afternoon sun, etc. October for me is always very productive. In fact this year I failed to shoot my 2 birds on only one outing. I stay well away from the corn and always seem to find plenty of birds feeding on other foods. The wide-spread belief that "all the birds are in the corn" is BS in my opinion. And don't forget that a there are a good many of us who love the variety of being able to hunt ducks in the morning and pheasants in the afternoon. Same goes for many ND hunters - they even open earlier than we do. I would support a week or two longer season as it wouldn't hurt the population and some years the weather does allow us to get out there, but shortening the season in October would be huge mistake and I believe most hunters along with MNDNR would agree.
 
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My bet is the DNR would not consider extending the season or delaying the opener - but how about having a split season like we do for ducks? Close the season for nine days during deer season and add those nine days to January. A lot of pheasant hunters wouldn't miss those nine days because they also hunt deer, and I know of pheasant hunters who avoid deer season for several very good reasons. Safety is the main one. Drives, deer running helter skelter, slugs flying around - not the best place to be out with your dogs. The other is that many land owners allow pheasant hunters, but are very protective of their property during deer season. Best to keep the farmers happy and avoid any conflicts. A bunch of hunters and dogs can really mess up a deer hunt. I've made it a point in the past to remind farmer friends who let me pheasant hunt that I won't be around during deer season. I even avoid working private land the week before deer season so as not to chase deer off their property. I know of at least one other state that closes pheasant during deer season. Makes a lot of sense to me.
 
No need for splits.

Splits are used for waterfowl because the Federal Government dictates the number of days that each state can be open for ducks. Liberal season (good to excellent duck numbers and anticipated reproduction) for MS Flyway states such as Minnesota is 60 days. Minnesota is free to set the their season dates from mid-September through end of January. Splits allow season to span longer across the calendar and some may argue allow ducks to rebuild populations in heavily hunted areas. By creating zones and splits a state can have longer seasons ... but still 60 days in any given spot.

Pheasant season is state controlled. Start the season when most roosters are mature enough to identify and some crops are coming off. Close the season when you think the population has had enough pressure.

Opener date is fine for MN.

Extending the season later is up for debate. If they extended the dates further into January and snow cover / temps allowed me to hunt, I would go out.
 
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What state closes their pheasant season during deer season ??

For that matter ... what state has split seasons on any upland game specie ??



I kill quite a few (very high success rate) roosters during deer season (week day hunts only). Mostly public land and have never seen a deer hunter out after 9AM. There are some deer hunters out on stands later in the day ... but then so are a few bow hunters during other times in the fall ...

Never seen a deer drive where I hunt pheasants during deer season. Never a conflict. Never been in a position of feeling unsafe for people or dogs.
 
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I'm well aware of the reason for waterfowl splits. Just know our DNR well enough to be pretty sure they wouldn't go for a longer season than we now have. Especially since it has already been extended considerably in the past. Just saying that if we had to give up some days to extend it at the end I could easily give up deer season since I never hunt then anyway. Where I hunt there have been landowner conflicts involving pheasant hunters during deer season. I'll never forget the time an adjacent farmer to yhe land we were hunting approached us with concern of the upcoming deer season as he had permission to hunt the same land for deer. When I assured him we would be gone well before deer season he breathed a sigh of relief, smiled, and said we could hunt HIS wetlands for pheasants and ducks whenever we wished, opening up a whole new spot to us! Go a bit north in WC where there's more deer and there can be conflicts with deer and pheasnts. Not sure where, but I believe I recently read about a state with a closed pheasant season during deer - maybe it was Texas? I'll try to find where I saw that.
 
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Pennsylvania has split seasons for small game including ruffed grouse and pheasants, presumably due to deer season. There may be more..
 
BRITTMAN said:
What state closes their pheasant season during deer season ??

For that matter ... what state has split seasons on any upland game specie ??.
Click to expand...

Michigan does. Both pheasant and ruffed grouse seasons close during the firearms deer season and reopen from December 1-January 1.
 
One would have to be crazy to hunt grouse in PA, MI, WI, or MN during firearms deer season..hundreds of thousands of trigger happy weekend warriors in the woods is reason enough.. pheasants probably not so much depending on your hunting area, but still perhaps not the best idea..especially given the comparative length of each respective season. I'm lucky to have great pheasant and deer hunting fairly close, and happen to love sitting in the woods waiting for bucks, so losing the deer season pheasant hunting wouldn't bother me in the least..but that's just me..
 
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All my deer hunting and about a third of my grouse hunting is on private land. A few guys chose to walk a trail or two for grouse during the deer weekends that we are there - staying away from stands of course. There is limited access into this private land area with large swamps and rivers boarding the other sides.

I know people out in the Alex / FF area that will chase pheasants on deer weekends especially if they fill out on deer (private land). Combo hunt.

Michigan is deer crazy so I guess I get that. Many MI schools have days-off around/during deer season.
 
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The nine day MN ag region deer season often occurs when Minnesota corn field harvest is in full swing. I would keep that 2nd week in November over the potential (deep snow, severe cold, etc) to hunt MN pheasants in January.

Agree that anyone hunting ruffed grouse on public land in MN during deer season is crazy ... at least on weekends. Not sure you even could in some areas since many of the trailheads are blocked by vehicles, campers, etc...
 
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Most deer hunting injuries (including firearm related) in Minnesota occur with in hunting parties and are not "stranger" interactions or stray bullets.

Are there any documented injuries, incidents, or near misses documented between deer hunters and upland hunters in Minnesota ??

If you are abusive to your spouse ... it may not be wise to hunt with your in-laws.
 
Interesting discussion on the length of season. October has been worthless for years now and it was this year too. Its a sea of corn and it can have summer like weather into the 70's. The birds ARE in the corn, because that's where I found most of them even after the corn was harvested - in and around remaining stands of it. I used to hunt in October years and years ago but that's when there was a significant amount of it harvested too. Lately, its still there even into December and some is still there now! The price of it probably has played a role, as has supply.

I'm guessing that most bird hunters (at least in MN) are also deer hunters since its far more popular and always will be. No sane person that hunted both would leave their deer stand to go tromp around for birds. Deer season is only 9 days and bird season is like 75 so the idea of just "going next week" during deer season doesn't exist. The only way I'd do it is if had filled my tag with a wall hanger and thats happened about twice in 25 years. As for braving a warm October day or a cold January day - I'll take January. My dog will too.

Just my 2 cents. Open it later and keep it open into January. 9 day closure in November during deer season wouldn't bother me because I'm rotting away in a tree anyways. MEA weekend has a youth deer firearms season now, so that probably gobbles up youth bird hunters.
 
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Gimruis your experience in October is not mine. Opening day found me on my usual opening public area watching roosters running around for 45 min till 9 am. Hunted on a side near harvested beans. Shot a limit in 10 min. Limited each day I hunted in October except one day when I only shot 1. Since I was almost always limited by noon the warmer days just found me napping with my dog and a cold drink by afternoon. Not sure where exactly you hunt but where I am there's plenty of wide open spaces with grass and brushlands with birds spread out in areas with no corn for miles some years. I don't hit areas with corn till it's out and yes I find birds there but that's much later in the season.
 
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Lots of valid points on the topic. I find it tough to get out as much as I would like during late December due to holiday preparations, gatherings, etc (especially with kids). so it seems my season ends more like mid December just when things can really start to be heating up late season, unless i can squeeze in a new year hunt, but that can bring its own festivities in itself too. Would like to see the season extended a week or two to allow me to get through the holiday span and still have an opportunity to get out once or twice more. I live in the metro so getting out in prime pheasant range takes a little more of a time commitment, rather than just being able to get out and hunt a couple hours and then go home. However that may change with the success I have been hearing from this thread in EC MN. This would allow me to fit in a hunt within range of home all within a morning or evenings time. As for October success, I lean more in the favor of a waste, but i still go out just because the off season suspense has reached its peak by that point. Have seen warmer wet conditions past couple years and seems like you're really just picking up the straglers that are not hunkered down in the corn. However, I do see how guys could have success and do favor their early season hunts picking off uneducated yearling roosters. (longer days, naps, cold beverage, 50-60 degree temps, thin grass cover) nothing wrong with that.
 
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