Merry Christmas! Niceshot, nice to hear from you. My last two outings were very different--the trip from 12/9 was difficult, as the group was smaller than normal, and some of the guys hadn't hunted pheasants much, nor had their dogs. We struggled, but it was still fun--good guys, good food, good socializing with the locals. We averaged 2 birds per hunter per day, which isn't too bad, but we never really got into them, which is kind of frustrating when you know that they are there, somewhere, but you're not finding them.
The last trip was much different...8 hunters, who I hunt with pretty consistently, all with good dogs, good shots, good shape, etc. We were asked to join another group so we could effectively hunt some large sloughs, which we did. When it was all said and done we had 19 licenses, though only about 14 of us were actually hunting...there were 5 old timers who were there, holding guns, but were not really hunting...those snow drifts were pretty tough to get through. We got our 57 birds, and it was a bit of work. I think we were with them for 5 hours, with an hour lunch break, and probably another hour of truck time moving from spot to spot. There were some sloughs that we hunted that were full of a few hundred birds or more...fun to see, but in reality, not my first choice as to how I hunt. Day two, however, is how I like to hunt...8 guys, 1/2 section of crop/crp, birds galore! We have hunted this farm dozens and dozens of times, so we have it down pretty well...it isn't a casual, follow-your-dog-around and see what happens kind of a hunt, as we all have a "position", of sorts, kind of like playing "zones", I guess. Bottom line, it culminates with all of us "pinching" a corner of the crp where the birds invariably end up (kind of a small spur of land that jogs off of the main field, adjacent to their grain bins and silos)...there must have been 300 birds that were hanging around the grain bins alone...when the hunter came through those structures, the birds flew about 75 yards and lit in that little spur of crp, about 100 yards in front of me. I was on a gravel road, blocking, and I could see that the snow had drifted in about 30 yards, so I knew that the birds wouldn't run right up to the road like normal, so I entered the field to where the drift ended, and the other blocker followed suit, about 150 yards to the South of me. Then we waited and watched...it was quite a sight! I have seen this "show" in this exact spot many, many times, but I never get sick of it! It was a great hunt, but the dogs were grabbing hens due to the snow, which isn't good, as a good % of those don't make it. We got our 24 and waited to see what the weather was going to do the next day...a little hunting was done on 12/21, but it had to have been minus 30 wind chill, or colder...we shot 11 that day, it was really, really cold and I threw in the towel...I am pretty able to withstand the cold, but that was really unbearable. Probably done for the season, but I haven't ruled out one last run...could happen!!!
