2022 Season

Haha. Hunting out of a Buick LeSabre.

My last outing was on Sat, 12/31/22 for a couple of hours. The snow is too deep and crusted to hunt any longer than that. I went directly to areas with pines or standing corn. No other habitat was even huntable. Cattails were completely snowed in. At one point my dog got stuck in a snow drift. I had to hoof back there and pull her out. Its been since 2011 that we've had this much snow by New Years, so 11 years now.

I raised 22 hens, 1 rooster, and 3 wild turkeys at 3 spots. I got the rooster. The area I hunt has a fair amount of standing corn that never got harvested and more trees than the flatter barren terrain out west, so the hens will be fine until spring.
 

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I was able to get out on the 29th. The snow was really deep. I couldn't remember hunting in that much snow. The top was crusted over which made walking tough. I made it a couple of hours but man it was tough going. There were drifts 8' high in spots. I have never seen anything like it. Kicked up one rooster. Brought home one rooster. Saw 3 roosters fly in front of me on the way home. Great season but this snow and weather is going to be hard on the birds. I just hope we don't get any freezing rain. 2023 here we come. I hope you all had a great season and stay healthy going into the new year.
 
I suppose I hunted pheasants for about 20 days or so in Minnesota this fall.

I would say the season was average for us. From the week right after the opener to mid-December, we saw enough roosters each time out to keep it fun. Most days we had "shots at a limit of birds". Most days we saw equal or more roosters than hens. Maybe my Britts can tell the difference and make their points count. :unsure:;)

Mid to late October is just a great time to be out on the prairie in Minnesota. (y) That said ... is it just me that thinks October and November are windier months than they used to be? Certainly, the fall of 2022 was dry.

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I continue to average about/near limits each time I hunt on my own and less when I hunt with others ... mostly because when I am taking people out ... I often do not raise a gun unless I have the only shot at the bird or they have their limit.
 
gimruis said:
Your results in South Dakota should not be posted in the Minnesota forum. Please move them to the appropriate and relevant thread.

Thank you for your cooperation.
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See the first line in the post above:

In case you cannot scroll up. Here is the first line Quote:
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The post above was for MN only as are the photos is both posts.

I did NOT include any reports for any hunts in other states in the MN forum. Your assumptions well :unsure:, you know ______. :rolleyes:
 
Actually, I have hunted pheasants in at least 28 Minnesota counties and killed birds in about 80% of those counties over the past 29 years or so. The photo of my Britt with two roosters is on a MN WIA.

You should try hunting MN before the start of deer gun season. Most of us on this site enjoy what MN has to offer in October and early November. Your idea of moving the MN pheasant season later in October to get more days in January ... silly (being polite) even in less severe winters as this one.
 
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So you'd rather hunt when its 70 degrees in October with a sea of standing corn and a bag limit of 2 than the first week of January when its 20 degrees, minimal corn, and a daily bag limit of 3? You already stated that you didn't hunt beyond mid December anyways so maybe you should consider hunting the final 3 weeks of the season yourself.
 
BRITTMAN said:
Actually, I have hunted pheasants in at least 28 Minnesota counties and killed birds in about 80% of those counties over the past 29 years or so. The photo of my Britt with two roosters is on a MN WIA.

You should try hunting MN before the start of deer gun season. Most of us on this site enjoy what MN has to offer in October and early November. Your idea of moving the MN pheasant season later in October to get more days in January ... silly (being polite) even in less severe winters as this one.
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This feels like a contest to see who can be more pathetic. Too close to call at the moment...
 
I am only posting my final MN season update and then get slandered as being a liar.

Gimruis is just POed that I called him out on a poor SD weather forecast. 😈 So he has to attack me on the MN thread page.

By the way - I do often hunt past mid-December most years, just not this year. My MIL went from hospital to nursing home to grave over the past 20 days or so. So there is that. My wife was POA and I was her support.

The few days my older son had time to hunt around Christmas time ... well it was -40F windchills to hunt snow-filled land. Nope.

I have OFTEN hunted MN in late December. One time I thought boy it was cold out there this afternoon. As we drove into Hutchinson a bank sign said it was -10F. I have closed the season more than once in both MN (grouse or pheasant) and ND (pheasant and/or partridge).

I grew up hunting and fishing in ND. Cold is cold there.

I am not willing to give up a day in October for extra days in January when the birds need to go into survival mode to be ready for next spring.

I have hunted predators in January and ice fish once there is safe ice. Plenty to do in MN once the pheasant season ends.
 
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BRITTMAN said:
Gimruis is just POed that I called him out on a poor SD weather forecast.
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Except that's not what occurred. I posted the forecast for Sioux Falls, SD in the South Dakota forum and you clearly indicated that it was a Minnesota forecast and was therefore "irrelevant." You are not a moderator so don't pretend to be one. At the time it may have been inaccurate, yes. I only copy and pasted it from a forecast website; but it was in fact for South Dakota. I don't care for someone assuming something that was not at all true, and that is exactly what you did.

And yes, I am only attacking because I was attacked first. I only return fire when I get fired upon. Now that we both kind of look like idiots on the subject and the season is over, its time for me to move on too.

I prefer to hunt later in the season because the conditions are simply better and I can shoot 3 roosters instead of two. I'm sure there are some who disagree with that assessment. More often than not we do not have this much snow by New Years, so in most years hunting into January is not an issue. This year it clearly is.
 
Sounds like 10”-12”of snow this week across pheasant land. Also heard much of the area is already close to the yearly average and we have a lot of winter to go yet.
 
Was out in western MN this past week for work. Saw quite a few pheasants between Hutchinson and Granite Falls, just out on the side of the roads looking for grit. Roosters really had long tails too.
 
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