carptom1
Well-known member
Sitting here at home after getting in about 2:30 from SD. I had to get up and get the kids off to school. My wife has plenty of things for me to do around home today as penance for another 4 days of hunting. Just thought i would share a couple of observations from the trip.
1. sun hunted around Pierre on private land. The bird numbers there are phenomenal in spots. The first draw yielded 3 birds. One of which I winged and the dog did not get a mark on in some cut corn. As i was trying to get the dog over, i saw the bird hop off and fly about 5 feet off the ground and land behind us in the edge of the draw. My lab chased it down a 100 or so yards and brought it back, dead as dead gets. Weird. In the same draw watched my buddies 10 yr old lab make a retrieve, then keel over sideways in a seizure. We got him some water, and 15 minutes later he was good. Hunted 3 days and never slowed again. Next we went through a couple of tree lines, and had a hand full of birds. The farmer then took us to a 5 acre weed patch behind his grandmas house. He said " there will be birds in here". What an unerstatement! As the eight of us pushed through, birds got up in groups of 30-50. The waves went on for 20 minutes. At the end of it all I was hauling 4 birds, and never fired my gun. Unfortunately having a lab has it's drawbacks. Everytime someone around me shot a bird, my damn dog would disappear and come back to me hauling a bird. I told them i was going to start charging 10.00 a pheasant. At the end we had harvested 14 from that patch, and were done by 1:30 with a 7 man limit. The farmer said he figured there were a 1000 birds in that patch. I have never seen anything like it in 35+ years of bird hunting. It was fun watching two novice hunters harvest their first roosters. Both guys were in their 30's and had never pheasant hunted, i told them don't get used to this. That being said, that last patch had a game farm feel to it. Sure it is fun to see all those wild birds in one spot ( and yes for you SD haters they were wild) but for me I like to earn my birds a little more than that.
2. The second day we hunted up around Aberdeen. I had heard the birds were down, and they were. Funny the guys were kinda bitchin about the bird numbers. I had a great day my dog was fantastic in the cattails. If you have never watched a good hardworking lab in cattails, you have missed alot. I have spent much time training and conditioning, and it really pays off. I need to get in better shape so I can keep up.There were only 6 birds shot. Buddy and i got 3 of them. Funny in the field with all the birds, I didnt even get a shot. We only had 3 dogs, more on that later. A good dog makes all the difference.
3. Third day we went back south and west to get into birds. We hunted a large WPA north of redfield. We pushed quite a few birds out of some great looking grass and into the cattails surrounding a frozen lake. We split up and decided to walk at each other in the cattails. My dog and I were about 20 yards from the edge working south. He put up a rooster for me that i missed cleanly at about 30 yards. Then he put up another that i nailed. After his retrieve, he immediately got birdy again. People ask if he is a pointing lab, and i say no, but you can tell by the tail when he is on a bird. It goes back and forth at a furious speed. He is trying to root this rooster out of some layed over cattails. I see the bird run out about 10 yards in front. It flushes quartering back to my left, as I have stated on here before that is my worst shot. My first shot is behind, i hit him with the second at about 40 yards and break a wing. He hits the ice running. The next thing was the single best thing about my whole trip. My dog tears out of the cattails and across the ice. My buddies 10 year old lab is about 20 yards behind him. The rooster is making a run for the cattails on the other side of the lake. At about 200 yards the rooster makes a hard left turn. Both dogs try to turn, and slide about 20 feet past the mark. My dog starts closing about 50-60 yards to my left. He has a tendency to make a snap pick up at full speed. As he snaps the bird, he falls and lands on his back. He slides about 15 feet with the cock in his mouth, gets up and brings him in. All 7 of us just watched, rooting him on as he struggled on the ice. Man i wished i had a video camera. I have told the story a couple of times, and it does not do it justice.
4. Never be afraid to ask for permission. We were out freelancing and came across a great looking piece of ground. The farmer granted us permission to hunt, but only on the south side. I really liked the waist high grass on the north, but he had cows in the corn stubble around it so we understood. We hunted the south side for 2 hrs, and only yielded 2 roosters. The next part showed me how kind some people are. While we were in the field on the south, the guy moved his cows so we could hunt the north side. Man what a gesture! We had never even met this guy before, and he did something like that. Man was i right. We walked a 75 yard wide by 200 yard long patch and yielded 4 roosters. Amazing, this guy left this grass patch for the birds, then let us have them. What a great guy.
5. If you want to bring your young dog, at least have him obedience trained. I won't say any more.
6. Spend some time teaching your dog to woah with the tone on the shock collar. While others were incessantly whistling and yelling at their dogs, i was able to controll mine and only had to nick him a couple times. Well worth the effort.
7. Don't buy the wrong non-resident license. One of the guys bought a 5 day preserve license instead of a small game. The warden was understanding of the mistake, but it cost him 125.00 and most of a day of hunting.
Sorry i am a little long winded this morning. I am wanting to do anything except the honey do's. I think i'll take a nap. Hope you all have a good christmas.
1. sun hunted around Pierre on private land. The bird numbers there are phenomenal in spots. The first draw yielded 3 birds. One of which I winged and the dog did not get a mark on in some cut corn. As i was trying to get the dog over, i saw the bird hop off and fly about 5 feet off the ground and land behind us in the edge of the draw. My lab chased it down a 100 or so yards and brought it back, dead as dead gets. Weird. In the same draw watched my buddies 10 yr old lab make a retrieve, then keel over sideways in a seizure. We got him some water, and 15 minutes later he was good. Hunted 3 days and never slowed again. Next we went through a couple of tree lines, and had a hand full of birds. The farmer then took us to a 5 acre weed patch behind his grandmas house. He said " there will be birds in here". What an unerstatement! As the eight of us pushed through, birds got up in groups of 30-50. The waves went on for 20 minutes. At the end of it all I was hauling 4 birds, and never fired my gun. Unfortunately having a lab has it's drawbacks. Everytime someone around me shot a bird, my damn dog would disappear and come back to me hauling a bird. I told them i was going to start charging 10.00 a pheasant. At the end we had harvested 14 from that patch, and were done by 1:30 with a 7 man limit. The farmer said he figured there were a 1000 birds in that patch. I have never seen anything like it in 35+ years of bird hunting. It was fun watching two novice hunters harvest their first roosters. Both guys were in their 30's and had never pheasant hunted, i told them don't get used to this. That being said, that last patch had a game farm feel to it. Sure it is fun to see all those wild birds in one spot ( and yes for you SD haters they were wild) but for me I like to earn my birds a little more than that.
2. The second day we hunted up around Aberdeen. I had heard the birds were down, and they were. Funny the guys were kinda bitchin about the bird numbers. I had a great day my dog was fantastic in the cattails. If you have never watched a good hardworking lab in cattails, you have missed alot. I have spent much time training and conditioning, and it really pays off. I need to get in better shape so I can keep up.There were only 6 birds shot. Buddy and i got 3 of them. Funny in the field with all the birds, I didnt even get a shot. We only had 3 dogs, more on that later. A good dog makes all the difference.
3. Third day we went back south and west to get into birds. We hunted a large WPA north of redfield. We pushed quite a few birds out of some great looking grass and into the cattails surrounding a frozen lake. We split up and decided to walk at each other in the cattails. My dog and I were about 20 yards from the edge working south. He put up a rooster for me that i missed cleanly at about 30 yards. Then he put up another that i nailed. After his retrieve, he immediately got birdy again. People ask if he is a pointing lab, and i say no, but you can tell by the tail when he is on a bird. It goes back and forth at a furious speed. He is trying to root this rooster out of some layed over cattails. I see the bird run out about 10 yards in front. It flushes quartering back to my left, as I have stated on here before that is my worst shot. My first shot is behind, i hit him with the second at about 40 yards and break a wing. He hits the ice running. The next thing was the single best thing about my whole trip. My dog tears out of the cattails and across the ice. My buddies 10 year old lab is about 20 yards behind him. The rooster is making a run for the cattails on the other side of the lake. At about 200 yards the rooster makes a hard left turn. Both dogs try to turn, and slide about 20 feet past the mark. My dog starts closing about 50-60 yards to my left. He has a tendency to make a snap pick up at full speed. As he snaps the bird, he falls and lands on his back. He slides about 15 feet with the cock in his mouth, gets up and brings him in. All 7 of us just watched, rooting him on as he struggled on the ice. Man i wished i had a video camera. I have told the story a couple of times, and it does not do it justice.
4. Never be afraid to ask for permission. We were out freelancing and came across a great looking piece of ground. The farmer granted us permission to hunt, but only on the south side. I really liked the waist high grass on the north, but he had cows in the corn stubble around it so we understood. We hunted the south side for 2 hrs, and only yielded 2 roosters. The next part showed me how kind some people are. While we were in the field on the south, the guy moved his cows so we could hunt the north side. Man what a gesture! We had never even met this guy before, and he did something like that. Man was i right. We walked a 75 yard wide by 200 yard long patch and yielded 4 roosters. Amazing, this guy left this grass patch for the birds, then let us have them. What a great guy.
5. If you want to bring your young dog, at least have him obedience trained. I won't say any more.
6. Spend some time teaching your dog to woah with the tone on the shock collar. While others were incessantly whistling and yelling at their dogs, i was able to controll mine and only had to nick him a couple times. Well worth the effort.
7. Don't buy the wrong non-resident license. One of the guys bought a 5 day preserve license instead of a small game. The warden was understanding of the mistake, but it cost him 125.00 and most of a day of hunting.
Sorry i am a little long winded this morning. I am wanting to do anything except the honey do's. I think i'll take a nap. Hope you all have a good christmas.
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