bad day hunting near Mitchell

[FrenchBrie]

I road hunted in the Mt. Vernon-Plankinton area today but saw very little under the windy conditions. My dog flushed a few hens but the only roosters I saw flew across the road when driving back to the motel. How did others do?

 

[raginrooster]

Hunted up near Mobridge. Hit some cattails early on the lee side of a ridge top. Knocked one rooster down. Dog couldn't find it. Had a chance at another but missed. Other birds were getting up out of range. Goin a million miles an hour with the wind.
Suprising they can still sense you coming with the wind making a howling noise. Oh well thats part of hunting. How lucky am I to be in SD anyway.
Had to wear sunglasses walking back into the wind otherwise my eyes would water up so bad I could not see.
Tomorrow is another day
Ragin Rooster.

 

[hunter94]

very typical, pheasants hate a strong wind, it dulls their sense of hearing which they really depend on to survive. they sit out (you won't see them) where they have a good view of any approaching danger and will fly as soon as they see your movement. best tactic is to hunt sparingly until the last hour of daylight, then hit it hard right up until dark, as often the wind decreases just before sunset and you will have a better chance to get close to the birds. the only time they consistently tuck in during a high wind is when it is snowing as well, then head for every cattail patch you can find.

 

[GSP]

"Bad day" hunting... Nonsense.

 

[CRP]

I hunted with a friend over by Murdo today, and that wind was nothing short of incredible! It was even hard to open the doors to get out of the vehicle. In spite of the wind, we got our 6 birds in about an hour.

After that "lively" thread last week regarding 20 vs. 12, I grabbed the Citori 20and some Win. 3" Super-Pheasant 5's for the challenge of very poor conditions today. The 20 crumpled the birds just fine with no cripples or runners. Under even windy conditions, my lab seems to get the birds up for 30-40 yard shots which suit me fine, with I/C over I/C.

 

[Riverman]

My group of 4 also hunted in those winds. We were near Gettysburg and had great luck. We shot 12 birds in 1.5 hours and we all hunted independently (i.e., not hunting as a group, but working ditches and field edges). There were a lot of birds that flushed wild, but most of the ones in heavy cover had to have a dog or person on top of them for them to flush. In my other experiences with wind it seems like they flush wild, but this was possibly the worst wind I have seen and they were holding tight. I think it was so windy that they wanted to be in thick grass and cover and could not hear us coming. At first I thought it would be a worse day than t he previous three days, which were all heavy rain days, but we found that it was all good.

 

[1pheas4]

I road hunted in the Mt. Vernon-Plankinton area today but saw very little under the windy conditions. My dog flushed a few hens but the only roosters I saw flew across the road when driving back to the motel. How did others do?

I hunted that area (Mt. Vernon) last week. Didn't see much but could hear them in the corn fields cackling back and forth. I Didn't road hunt but tryed to hunt that one and only (as far as I know) public area in Mt. Vernon south of I-90. There was too much water! Couldn't even get across the ditch to get into the cover. Had good hunting in every other direciton from Mitchel though. There's a lot of birds this year.