2023 Hunt

AtTheMurph

AtTheMurph

Well-known member
First IN hunt this year, north of Fowler in Benton county. Warm and very windy hunting private property for a few hours. 3 hunters and my newly adopted dog. Saw 11 birds and I bagged two cocks in 2 shots. No one else fired a shot.

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One long ditch had only the one cock. The second spot was about 3 acres of cattails with a small amount of cover around it. Kicked 10 out of there but only got one shot. Cock landed dead in the cattails and dog never saw bird come down. Amazingly I found it 40-50 yards in. Very happy about that.

Third place we went only saw 2 snipe and my dog got into it with a mink. Last week he pointed and killed a squirrel 1/2 mile from the nearest tree. Crazy.
 
I've been drawn 0 times in 30 years. But I have gotten to hunt 3 times with others who have been drawn. I'm pretty sure that many of the spots are reserved for connected politicians who hunt. 9at least that the scuttle I hear from a couple of connected people).

nkhrfh - lucky the hunt wasn't Friday! Blowing 25-30 with gusts close to 40mph. It was tough.​

 
AtTheMurph said:
I've been drawn 0 times in 30 years. But I have gotten to hunt 3 times with others who have been drawn. I'm pretty sure that many of the spots are reserved for connected politicians who hunt. 9at least that the scuttle I hear from a couple of connected people).

nkhrfh - lucky the hunt wasn't Friday! Blowing 25-30 with gusts close to 40mph. It was tough.​

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Agreed.
 
AtTheMurph said:
I've been drawn 0 times in 30 years. But I have gotten to hunt 3 times with others who have been drawn. I'm pretty sure that many of the spots are reserved for connected politicians who hunt. 9at least that the scuttle I hear from a couple of connected people).

nkhrfh - lucky the hunt wasn't Friday! Blowing 25-30 with gusts close to 40mph. It was tough.​

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Any luck?
 
AtTheMurph said:
Friday? Got my limit. three hunters. 1 dog and I took 2 shots. Saw 11 birds.

Last week in Illinois we saw probably 60 or so. 10 hunters and 19 birds. 15 cocks and 4 quail.
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I was curious how the birds were with the wind. Iowa had crazy like wind Saturday and the bird behavior wasn't what I expected
 
Last weekend my son and I hunted in Illinois, maybe 40 miles straight west of you. The cover on this private land basically consists of deep, overgrown drainage ditches bordered by continuous filter strips. There were cattails in sections of the ditches which provided good cover for the birds. Each of us collected two roosters, which is the limit in Illinois. It was a privilege to collect these limits this late in the season, on these very spooky birds. I was using an A5 Sweet 16, with Boss #5 ammo. All honors go to my 3 year old yellow Lab; he is very aggressive in finding, flushing and retrieving the birds. This year, we killed roosters in Iowa, South Dakota and Illinois. We hope to get out again before the Illinois season ends.
 
I hunt mostly in Illinois. Ditches and a few assorted patched of grass here and there. Where there is cover, there are birds.

Did get to hunt a 15 acre switch grass patch near Tab, IN, in Warren county. Kicked 6 birds out of it but no shots. That's the 3rd time I have hunted it but first time we've seen anything. That seems crazy to me, but first two times the switch grass had to be 10-12 feet tall. This year about 5.
 
Hunted SE Indiana last weekend. Friend and I parked the truck at a spot where we have seen a covey occasionally. Hop out and walk about 1.5miles and see nothing. Back at truck. grab a drink of water and look at dog along the little ditch we parked at and he's on point 20 feet away. I'm thinking squirrel, raccoon, rabbit.

Turns out to be a covey of 25-30 birds tucked under the lip of the ditch. Spent the next hour hunting up singles along that ditch in both directions. Great dog work and didn't shoot any.

Hunted three other spots we have seen birds in the past and saw nothing but 4 coyotes (one with a nice peppering of 7.5 shot from both barrels at 25 yrs) and one rabbit that I nicked in the ass. Dog took off and after about 150yds he came back with rabbit in mouth awfully proud of himself. I didn't give him a chance of catching that thing.
 
AtTheMurph said:
Hunted SE Indiana last weekend. Friend and I parked the truck at a spot where we have seen a covey occasionally. Hop out and walk about 1.5miles and see nothing. Back at truck. grab a drink of water and look at dog along the little ditch we parked at and he's on point 20 feet away. I'm thinking squirrel, raccoon, rabbit.

Turns out to be a covey of 25-30 birds tucked under the lip of the ditch. Spent the next hour hunting up singles along that ditch in both directions. Great dog work and didn't shoot any.

Hunted three other spots we have seen birds in the past and saw nothing but 4 coyotes (one with a nice peppering of 7.5 shot from both barrels at 25 yrs) and one rabbit that I nicked in the ass. Dog took off and after about 150yds he came back with rabbit in mouth awfully proud of himself. I didn't give him a chance of catching that thing.
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Why didn't you shoot any of the quail?
 
Nick said:
Why didn't you shoot any of the quail?n
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I tried on the initial covey flush and downed one, but never did find it. (I think I downed it and turned to look at others flying away from hunting partner.) Then with the singles just decided to work the dog and get him on point and flush them. Chased them around for a while and had a great time.

With that being the only covey we found, glad I didn't hurt them.
 
Any of you midwest guys looking for a SXS or two? Have a Ugartechea AOC 16ga choked IC/IC, a garbi 100 16ga IC/Mod that has had a stock repair. Both 28" barrels both 14 1/4 LOP
 
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