ctfisher
Member
Wanted to give a recap of my second trip out to hunt the NCK public.
We arrived Sunday of opening weekend and scouted/hunted a couple of WIHA spots that we had never looked at before. Was 50s and windy if I remember right. The first walk we did was along a field edge/fence line with 20yards +/- of good grass before it turned into a harvested milo field. We walked the middle of the milo field down (about a mile) and then turned and swept the field edge back to the truck (wind in our face on the walk back). I expected something to get up, even wild and too far to shoot at, but nothing. Was a tad disappointed as it looked good as far as WIHA goes. Second spot we walked was very similar and down the road a ways, nothing. On the way to the other side of that same property a rooster crossed the road in front of us (leaving private headed onto private). Encouraging, we thought. Walked some good grass on the nearest piece of that WIHA tract and flushed a hen right near the end of the walk. It was across the road from an unharvested milo field.
Rest of our hunts were all on wildlife area land.
Monday was nothing to write home about except for being 14 degrees and very frosty. I was amazed that the frost didn't wet my clothes as i walked thru the grass - it just disappeared...i guess due to such low humidity? Got there late and wasnt able to listen for cackling to locate birds. We hunted the bulk of the day since we knew it was going to get up into the 70s on Tuesday. We flushed one covey of juvenile quail (3 of them) that were small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Flushed another cover of quail that my dog ran over top of, 5 of them, of which I shot one. Only saw 3 pheasants get up out of range in a standing corn field, no shots fired.
Tuesday was frustrating. Heard several different birds in the predawn minutes, and lots of quail in every direction. We ended up figuring out there were some birds hiding in cattails within a dry creek bed between a Beaverdam and the river channel. I missed a long shot at one that got up 60ish yards away from me (i had stopped walking waiting on my dad to catch up to me, knew it was a mistake). Two more ran up on the creek bank and then flushed making for a hard shot with a short window - in my excitement and panic i rushed the shot at #1 and emptied the gun, no dice. Reloaded and the second flushed and same thing, two misses. I was apoplectic. We ended up flushing one more on that creekbed at about 1030 (it was hot already by then) and my pops knocked it down but it was not hit well at all. My dog didn't locate it. We rested Tuesday afternoon. it was 73 deg.
Wednesday AM was our best hunt, and our last hunt. Dog flushed a rooster 70+ yards away when I had let him get away from us and range, and then we flushed 2 more shortly after. I shot it and knocked all kinds of feathers off, at close range too, but we couldn't locate the bird after looking for 10 minutes. I must have not delivered a kill shot. That one hurt. We walked one last strip of cover that would land us right back at the truck - a grown up ditch between the standing corn and a alfalfa field. A covey of 8 quail got up (dog ran over them again...). I doubled on 2 shots. Then a rooster flushed, pops folded him into the corn and after about 2 minutes of searching the pup turned up with feathers in his mouth and led me back to the bird. We finished that strip of cover and saw 4 hens in total, and I walloped a rooster right at the truck as they spilled out of the cover one after another.
Overall was a good hunt and the thick cover and standing crops made it tougher, but not impossible. Just need to shoot better!
I was a little frustrated that another year went and I still haven't had my dog point a pheasant or a covey of quail up there though... I would love to blame it on the lack of humidity/tough scenting conditions, but i truly don't know if that is the reason or not.
We arrived Sunday of opening weekend and scouted/hunted a couple of WIHA spots that we had never looked at before. Was 50s and windy if I remember right. The first walk we did was along a field edge/fence line with 20yards +/- of good grass before it turned into a harvested milo field. We walked the middle of the milo field down (about a mile) and then turned and swept the field edge back to the truck (wind in our face on the walk back). I expected something to get up, even wild and too far to shoot at, but nothing. Was a tad disappointed as it looked good as far as WIHA goes. Second spot we walked was very similar and down the road a ways, nothing. On the way to the other side of that same property a rooster crossed the road in front of us (leaving private headed onto private). Encouraging, we thought. Walked some good grass on the nearest piece of that WIHA tract and flushed a hen right near the end of the walk. It was across the road from an unharvested milo field.
Rest of our hunts were all on wildlife area land.
Monday was nothing to write home about except for being 14 degrees and very frosty. I was amazed that the frost didn't wet my clothes as i walked thru the grass - it just disappeared...i guess due to such low humidity? Got there late and wasnt able to listen for cackling to locate birds. We hunted the bulk of the day since we knew it was going to get up into the 70s on Tuesday. We flushed one covey of juvenile quail (3 of them) that were small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Flushed another cover of quail that my dog ran over top of, 5 of them, of which I shot one. Only saw 3 pheasants get up out of range in a standing corn field, no shots fired.
Tuesday was frustrating. Heard several different birds in the predawn minutes, and lots of quail in every direction. We ended up figuring out there were some birds hiding in cattails within a dry creek bed between a Beaverdam and the river channel. I missed a long shot at one that got up 60ish yards away from me (i had stopped walking waiting on my dad to catch up to me, knew it was a mistake). Two more ran up on the creek bank and then flushed making for a hard shot with a short window - in my excitement and panic i rushed the shot at #1 and emptied the gun, no dice. Reloaded and the second flushed and same thing, two misses. I was apoplectic. We ended up flushing one more on that creekbed at about 1030 (it was hot already by then) and my pops knocked it down but it was not hit well at all. My dog didn't locate it. We rested Tuesday afternoon. it was 73 deg.
Wednesday AM was our best hunt, and our last hunt. Dog flushed a rooster 70+ yards away when I had let him get away from us and range, and then we flushed 2 more shortly after. I shot it and knocked all kinds of feathers off, at close range too, but we couldn't locate the bird after looking for 10 minutes. I must have not delivered a kill shot. That one hurt. We walked one last strip of cover that would land us right back at the truck - a grown up ditch between the standing corn and a alfalfa field. A covey of 8 quail got up (dog ran over them again...). I doubled on 2 shots. Then a rooster flushed, pops folded him into the corn and after about 2 minutes of searching the pup turned up with feathers in his mouth and led me back to the bird. We finished that strip of cover and saw 4 hens in total, and I walloped a rooster right at the truck as they spilled out of the cover one after another.
Overall was a good hunt and the thick cover and standing crops made it tougher, but not impossible. Just need to shoot better!
I was a little frustrated that another year went and I still haven't had my dog point a pheasant or a covey of quail up there though... I would love to blame it on the lack of humidity/tough scenting conditions, but i truly don't know if that is the reason or not.
