2026 Pheasant Fest-Report

And here it goes…. Can we not have one fucking place free of regurgitated politics? This is exactly why we don’t get into this shit on here.
 
I apologize, not to the left-wing wacko who blocked me but everyone else. When I see or hear those bullshit Good Morning America/CNN style claims of blanket racism like he proposed about people of color having a legit fear of living life, it sets me off. In person or online. This is why I dont have facebook.
 
eharlow49 said:
Jesus Christ it must be exhausting being this angry and scared all the time. I’m sorry you had to witness a lady on TV yelling *cough exercising her 1st Amendment rights cough* but “that bitch”? C’mon.

I will repeat the fact that I had a lovely weekend up there, walked all around Minneapolis as well as St. Paul and neither my wife or I felt afraid, and it’s a shame that talking heads on TV and people from rural Minnesota who probably (I say probably because I admit I can’t know for sure one way or another) also never set foot in MSP scared a bunch of people to the point that they missed out on an amazing fest (Thursday night alone the concert raised over $100,000 and if I remember correctly, over $100,000 was raised at the Banquet on Saturday night as well). I’ve got to say that random people whom I’ve never met before the festival this weekend were a hell of lot nicer and more welcoming than the people complaining about “citizens”, “that bitch”, “lawlessness”, etc on this thread that I thought was full of adults. It’s a wonder half of you can muster the gumption to go hunting in the wild given how afraid you are of big cities and women on TV expressing their 1st Amendment rights. I’m out.
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What a way to start a post by using the Lords name in vain.
 
Well, the guy he's replying to did call her the b word, Bird Buster 😂

But, yes, can we please stop the political talk here. The thread is supposed to be about Pheasant Fest (activities happening inside the conference center).
 
I'm curious to hear from the people that actually went about what seminars they found helpful, any new-to-them dog breeds they discovered, any new products they discovered, etc. We didn't sit in on as many seminars as we had the last time we attended, which coincidentally was also the last time it was in Minneapolis (it would be awesome if it came back to Des Moines since it seems to have been quite awhile), but we took a lot away from the "Lessons Learned: Plan Your Own Upland Road Trip" discussion with Tyler Webster, Katie Willis (a gem of a human being and a well of knowledge), and Bob St. Pierre. I hunt Nebraska and Minnesota quite a bit, as well as travel all over Iowa, but nowhere near close to Tyler and Katie's 120+ days a year each across 7-9 states while basically living out of campers so they definitely had some tips and tricks for stuff that honestly had never crossed my mind before.

Outside of the seminars, we had a good discussion with Matt from Final Rise and his customer service rep, Carl, who I made sure Matt knew I thought was the best customer service rep in the game lol. The "Lead-Free Minnesota" booth was super-informative with different ballistic gel blocks showing the penetration and fragmentation of different shot types. Purina had a fun booth where you tried to hold your hand under ice water for as long as possible, which my wife and I turned into a competition to see who could last the longest, that was meant to approximate what our dogs go through when they swim through icy water. We got to meet a few Versatile Champion Small Munsterlanders at the SMCA booth, a lot of which were from the same kennel we got Utah (our Small Munsterlander) from. Ruffed Grouse Society, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and quite a few other conservation groups had booths there and were all nice to talk to. I know we did a lot of other stuff and met a lot of other really awesome people but those are the things that spring to mind. We were also there to hand out samples from the business we own, which is in the hemp-derived THC space, so that inadvertently made us pretty popular and got us introduced to people who I'd only seen on TV shows or heard on podcasts and which led to me being star-struck quite a few times and just sitting there like a blubbering idiot.

All in all, it was a really fun, informative festival and we're really looking forward to Omaha next year. It's amazing what a weekend of talking to people who are passionate about hunting, dogs, and conservation can do for your mental health. Now if they would just bring it back to Des Moines...
 
As always I enjoyed the dogs the most. It amazes me how well behaved they were overall in both the convention hall and the hotel. I must be a bad dog owner because mine always seem to be overstimulated in those situations. There were some absolutely beautiful dogs there and several breeds I had never seen in person. Lots of shotguns on display but I doubt I ever buy another, possibly a new A-5 16gauge but I don’t know if I care enough to. As bad as I have been shooting I might go broke with 2-3 extra shots per opportunity. Overall I found everyone extremely nice. My wife even treated me to a big steak at Murray’s. I am pretty critical of steak I eat out but it was excellent
 
Labradinger said:
I apologize, not to the left-wing wacko who blocked me but everyone else. When I see or hear those bullshit Good Morning America/CNN style claims of blanket racism like he proposed about people of color having a legit fear of living life, it sets me off. In person or online. This is why I dont have facebook.
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Just keep tuning into your favorite news outlet. It will tell you everything you want to hear and you'll believe all of it.
 
carptom1 said:
As always I enjoyed the dogs the most. It amazes me how well behaved they were overall in both the convention hall and the hotel. I must be a bad dog owner because mine always seem to be overstimulated in those situations. There were some absolutely beautiful dogs there and several breeds I had never seen in person. Lots of shotguns on display but I doubt I ever buy another, possibly a new A-5 16gauge but I don’t know if I care enough to. As bad as I have been shooting I might go broke with 2-3 extra shots per opportunity. Overall I found everyone extremely nice. My wife even treated me to a big steak at Murray’s. I am pretty critical of steak I eat out but it was excellent
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My wife and I were thinking the same thing re: how well behaved the dogs were there. Our Small Munsterlander is rarely on a leash and as such, I've been an admittedly bad dog owner and never really worked on leash skills with him so he would have been an absolute menace at the fest simply because he's not great on-leash. He's calm around other dogs and he spends a couple days a week inside my wife's office with all kinds of different people coming and going and he does fine but I think between being on leash and the sheer number of people there, he'd end up overstimulated. When he gets overstimulated, he turns into a bit of a humper and nobody wants to deal with that lol. We might take him next year to Omaha though for an hour or two just to see how he does in that situation (with some work put in beforehand of course).

The one breed we saw there that neither of us had seen before in person was the Curly Coated Retriever. I suppose the term I'd use to describe it is... interesting? Extremely well behaved and seems like a fantastic hunting dog but the curls seem so much "curlier" in person than what I had seen on the internet.

We must have walked passed Murray's 5 or 6 times and almost went in for dinner on Friday night but decided on the fish fry at Gluek's instead. Glad to hear the steak was good though! We'll have to check it out the next time we're up there.
 
eharlow49 said:
My wife and I were thinking the same thing re: how well behaved the dogs were there. Our Small Munsterlander is rarely on a leash and as such, I've been an admittedly bad dog owner and never really worked on leash skills with him so he would have been an absolute menace at the fest simply because he's not great on-leash. He's calm around other dogs and he spends a couple days a week inside my wife's office with all kinds of different people coming and going and he does fine but I think between being on leash and the sheer number of people there, he'd end up overstimulated. When he gets overstimulated, he turns into a bit of a humper and nobody wants to deal with that lol. We might take him next year to Omaha though for an hour or two just to see how he does in that situation (with some work put in beforehand of course).

The one breed we saw there that neither of us had seen before in person was the Curly Coated Retriever. I suppose the term I'd use to describe it is... interesting? Extremely well behaved and seems like a fantastic hunting dog but the curls seem so much "curlier" in person than what I had seen on the internet.

We must have walked passed Murray's 5 or 6 times and almost went in for dinner on Friday night but decided on the fish fry at Gluek's instead. Glad to hear the steak was good though! We'll have to check it out the next time we're up there.
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Off leash with an ecollar my dogs are somewhat well behaved but onleash they are terrible.
I saw the curly coat people post something on facebook. the curls look short and tight, are they not? they looked bullet proof! Another facebook post that I saw was a polish spaniel, kind of neat looking smallish dog with a tail.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
Off leash with an ecollar my dogs are somewhat well behaved but onleash they are terrible.
I saw the curly coat people post something on facebook. the curls look short and tight, are they not? they looked bullet proof! Another facebook post that I saw was a polish spaniel, kind of neat looking smallish dog with a tail.
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They are indeed short and tight and do appear bulletproof. There were just a lot “more” curls than I was expecting, if that makes sense.

Dang, we must have missed the polish spaniel because that’s a breed I’ve never even heard of. They had most of the breeders in one row and between that and the fact that quite a few breeders had puppies which, understandably, draw a crowd, it becomes a bit of a log jam down that row and makes it hard to see every breeder. My wife did get to hold (and fall in love with to the point that someone told her, “Hold the puppy, I’ll create a distraction, and you run that way.”) this little 8 week old English Setter at the Furvor booth. One of the ladies at the Furvor booth had picked up the puppy from a breeder that was at the fest (who’s name I forget so my apologies on that) and it just laid there asleep most of the time, oblivious to the fact it was at a gigantic festival with everyone swooning over it.
 

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Went last year to KC. If anyone remembers seeing me. I had an orange hat on. Still feeling like I should be in charge of this thing. I’d start with all 28 and 20 gauge shooters just using the women’s restroom.
 
I went and it was a fun time. I didn't attend any seminars. The dogs are my favorite part. I didn't buy anything, although I would have liked to, it's just that when it comes to upland hunting once you've got the basics there's not much need to buy anything until your boots or pants wear out. I wished public land Ts were there, woulda bought something from them for sure. I'll go again when it comes back to Minneapolis.
 
Bob Peters said:
I went and it was a fun time. I didn't attend any seminars. The dogs are my favorite part. I didn't buy anything, although I would have liked to, it's just that when it comes to upland hunting once you've got the basics there's not much need to buy anything until your boots or pants wear out. I wished public land Ts were there, woulda bought something from them for sure. I'll go again when it comes back to Minneapolis.
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I bought some ghost pepper jelly and a shirt for my son. I spent most of my adult life doing trade shows and I can appreciate how grueling they are.
 
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