Birds here for the unselfish.

I will hunt the same as I have for the last 40 plus years. My dogs are better than good, they are excellent and I will shoot limits. Not quite for sure if birds look good, but habit is horrible. Never seen so much hay cut, ever.
 
Rogue Hunter said:
Never been concerned with limits...well, not exceeding them, of course. My pleasure comes from being outdoors.
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Me either, but the more birds you shoot and get into the better your dogs will be. Finding birds, marking them, trailing cripples, etc is what makes a dog better so the more you expose them to the better they will be. So from that standpoint, I want to shoot as many as I can. But if I don't, I still love the experience.
 
haven't shot a limit in some years probably due to less time afield and fewer birds. i'm happy with fewer birds in the bag, an attitude age has brought me; another of life's surprises. last spring my hunting partner said he was going to shoot only one tom considering the reduced population, and that made sense to me so i followed suit.
 
The year before I shot one tom and threw my second tag away. The population was so poor this year that I didn't hunt. I did put in for a a Unit 4 tag and didn't draw so just didn't bother hunting. Kind of disgusted really, as I think those tags should go to residents first.
 
Spoke to my farmer friend and his crop insurance guy out in Rush Co. yesterday said hail and drought taking it toll on the birds. I will take every shot I can if Josie makes it until the season as I owe it to her. We had her first oncologist visit yesterday.
 
Best of luck to you and Josie in getting afield together soon.
 
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kick them up said:
Spoke to my farmer friend and his crop insurance guy out in Rush Co. yesterday said hail and drought taking it toll on the birds. I will take every shot I can if Josie makes it until the season as I owe it to her. We had her first oncologist visit yesterday.
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Your guy is wrong. We have been wet and have been for the last several years. Very mild hail this year. If we go a month without rain, everyone is yelling "Drought". We have been far from it and if anything, to wet in the spring the last 3 years. Definitely not drought. We had a cold snap that hurt at the end of April and birds had to re-nest. Then we had a harvest that started a little early, which hurt the re-nesting. The problem here is over haying and loss of CRP. Not drought, that is simply false. I can't remember a summer this wet since I moved out here 20 years ago. Pheasants will always do better in a dry year versus a wet year. My best friend is 61 and has been farming here his entire life in Rush and and Ness County. The last 3 years he has raised his best crops ever due to good rain.
 
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if there is one thing i have learned, the reports here are what someone sees when he looks out the window or drives 10 miles to his farm ground or neighbors house. one grain of salt please. drought years are usually much worse than a little extra rain.
 
hunter94 said:
if there is one thing i have learned, the reports here are what someone sees when he looks out the window or drives 10 miles to his farm ground or neighbors house. one grain of salt please. drought years are usually much worse than a little extra rain.
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Well I live in Rush county and I am out on the dirt roads every day. We are not in a drought year and haven't been for quite sometime. We had the best hatch we have had in since 2016 but that is not saying a whole lot. The loss of habitat will be felt for years. I will take dry over wet. A serious drought is different. That is why the pheasant range is located in the drier parts of the midwest. They don't tolerate rain well but can stand dry conditions. North Dakota is in a serious drought but guys are seeing good numbers for chicks right now. It's all about the hatch. Need a mild dry nesting period to have good numbers of pheasants in the fall. We have had cold conditions the last 2 years. Last year the cold rain June 6th was a death sentence for chicks during peak hatch.
 
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