Colorado Opener?? How did everyone do?
- Thread starter bpowell
- Start date
dead pheasants forever
Member
No he is not, but he actually did lock-up a few times he got birdy...so maybe I should have been working on it with him. His great grandpa was a pointing lab though, so maybe some of it leaked on through to him
It sure looks like he's pointing something in that pic, with his head and tail high and one paw held up in the air.
Wow I strongly disagree. The farmers lose way more money by not farming the land than by enrolling it in CRP. With the prices of grain now, I'm surprised anyone has CRP. We should all be happy that there is good CRP for the birds to live in. I invite you to read what CRP is really about. It's not about paying them not to grow crops, but to enhance wildlife habitat, help control erosion and to reduce the reliance on groundwater for irrigation.
I hunt private land that has WIA across the road. This weekend I saw half a box of empty shells, broken clay pigeons, empty water bottles and candy wrappers laying in the road next to the WIA. And you wonder why farmers don't allow hunting on their property in the CRP???
I'm not trying to be cynical, but you can't go calling CRP a form a welfare. They own the land, take all the risks and make all the profits when things go good. If your example of welfare and use of the land was true, I should be able to go enjoy a BBQ with the neighbor down the street who lives off food stamps. Just saying......
Hunted my usual haunts this weekend. to say it was windy Saturday was an understatement. Like most have commented numbers of birds are way down. The birds I did see where on large tracks of land. Since I hunt alone and with no dog these big fields are quite challenging for me. Even with the wind and large fields I managed to bag the one rooster that flushed in range. I did see a bird in most every filed I walked. A couple of fields had 4 plus birds in then. Unfortunately they flushed so far out that it was hard to tell hen or rooster.
On Sunday it was cold but near as windy. Got a rooster in the second filed I hit right about 7 am.
Later in the day I headed to another large filed. I park and get out and start to walk the filed. 50 yards in a group of trucks show up and sit there and watch me for a minute. Then two trucks drive to the end of the filed, guy hops out and gets in the other truck and heads back to the other group of trucks. Now all the guys are out and milling around, they give me about a 100 150 yard head start then a group of 10 guys and 5 dogs fan out behind me and start walking the filed. I realize this is public land and it belongs to all of us but I hate it when this happens. So I am on a mission now, this is a big field but I try and cover as much of it as humanly possible. 3/4 of the way into the filed I kick up a rooster behind me and to my left. I swing on the bird and all I see is this line of guys, I figure they are at a safe distance and I shoot, bird keeps going shoot again, bird keeps going shoot 3rd time damn bird is still going. Lets just say not only was I pissed I missed what I thought should have been an easy shot but I had 10 guys watch me do it! So I kinda hang my head really upset that all that hard work went for naught when I kick up a second rooster, put this one down first shot. Lets just say I was pretty proud that I was able to get that bird with no help but my own two feet. Made the walk back to the truck a lot easier. Talked to the group that was behind me and they had yet to get a bird Sorry for the rant but thinking about that still makes me smile!!!
On Sunday it was cold but near as windy. Got a rooster in the second filed I hit right about 7 am.
Later in the day I headed to another large filed. I park and get out and start to walk the filed. 50 yards in a group of trucks show up and sit there and watch me for a minute. Then two trucks drive to the end of the filed, guy hops out and gets in the other truck and heads back to the other group of trucks. Now all the guys are out and milling around, they give me about a 100 150 yard head start then a group of 10 guys and 5 dogs fan out behind me and start walking the filed. I realize this is public land and it belongs to all of us but I hate it when this happens. So I am on a mission now, this is a big field but I try and cover as much of it as humanly possible. 3/4 of the way into the filed I kick up a rooster behind me and to my left. I swing on the bird and all I see is this line of guys, I figure they are at a safe distance and I shoot, bird keeps going shoot again, bird keeps going shoot 3rd time damn bird is still going. Lets just say not only was I pissed I missed what I thought should have been an easy shot but I had 10 guys watch me do it! So I kinda hang my head really upset that all that hard work went for naught when I kick up a second rooster, put this one down first shot. Lets just say I was pretty proud that I was able to get that bird with no help but my own two feet. Made the walk back to the truck a lot easier. Talked to the group that was behind me and they had yet to get a bird
Sorry for the rant but thinking about that still makes me smile!!!dead pheasants forever
Member
Well said. I'm grateful that the few farmers left who still enroll their land in CRP are willing to take a loss by not farming it or leasing it. If you forced the farmers to allow any joe off the street to use their land without permission, I don't think we'd have any CRP land left.
I do know what CRP is and we used to have land enrolled in CRP. I grew up in South Dakota where many farmers I know personally bought land for the sake of putting it into CRP, getting paid by the Gov, and leasing it for hunting. In fact I have a cousin doing that exact thing right now and he owns no farm equipment and owns hundreds of acres. I will concede that not all of their land should be put up for public use, but a percentage should be.
DrahtLvr
New member
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Later in the day I headed to another large filed. I park and get out and start to walk the filed. 50 yards in a group of trucks show up and sit there and watch me for a minute. Then two trucks drive to the end of the filed, guy hops out and gets in the other truck and heads back to the other group of trucks. Now all the guys are out and milling around, they give me about a 100 150 yard head start then a group of 10 guys and 5 dogs fan out behind me and start walking the filed. I realize this is public land and it belongs to all of us but I hate it when this happens. So I am on a mission now, this is a big field but I try and cover as much of it as humanly possible. 3/4 of the way into the filed I kick up a rooster behind me and to my left. I swing on the bird and all I see is this line of guys, I figure they are at a safe distance and I shoot, bird keeps going shoot again, bird keeps going shoot 3rd time damn bird is still going. Lets just say not only was I pissed I missed what I thought should have been an easy shot but I had 10 guys watch me do it! So I kinda hang my head really upset that all that hard work went for naught when I kick up a second rooster, put this one down first shot. Lets just say I was pretty proud that I was able to get that bird with no help but my own two feet. Made the walk back to the truck a lot easier. Talked to the group that was behind me and they had yet to get a bird
Stel67
Visited this board for the first time yesterday and this post motivated me to register and post. I had a nearly identical experience. Solo hunting with the dog both Saturday and Sunday from Burlington up to Holyoke, I covered some serious ground, but this is pretty typical for me. I really struggled to find an open field to hunt and never fired a shot all weekend. I've hunted Southwest Kansas on family property and WIA since I was young enough to remember, this was my first experience in Colorado and I'll likely never do it again. The hunter numbers were extreme, not enough WIA to support the crowd. The bird population is poor at best, that's not anyone's fault.
Saturday started around Burlington and Seibert, no open fields at sunrise and hunters everywhere. I found one field I thought was open, only to run into a few hunters on the other side of the hill. A few shots heard, but nowhere near enough considering the number of hunters. Found some open fields mid-morning, but suspect most had been walked already. I worked my way north all day and finally found an outstanding open field far away from areas with lots of WIA. I was about 20 yards from the truck before I flushed multiple birds, followed them to the landing spot and ended up kicking out about 20 more, plenty of roosters, nothing within sensible range. Since the field I was in was an overgrown circle with an old sprinkler in it, and heavy cover, I decided to work this field hard. I spent the next hour (one guy and dog) working the circle from center to outside, herding the birds to one area. Felt good about all this work because I had a handful of roosters landing back toward one area. I probably walked three miles inside this circle covering every logical yard of ground.
I get about 70% through the field, feeling damn good about my prospects on the remaining 30% AND HERE COMES THREE TRUCKS. They sat and watched me for a while (it was obvious what I was doing), then proceeded to exit their trucks and cut out the remaining portion of the field, right friggin' in front of me. They ended up bagging two roosters out of the mix, missing another, and dropped one within 40 yards of me as I was returning to the truck. My dog nearly retrieved it before their dogs. I walked right past the group and through the middle of the area they had "claimed" just to attempt to screw up their plans.
Message to those in this group: You hear about giant disrespectful d-bags in the field with more regularity these days. If you were in this group, you now qualify in that d-bag category. Have some respect for solo hunters that have to work ten times as hard just to find an open field and bag a couple of birds.
It was everything I could do not to lob some lead over their heads or flatten a few tires on the walk back to my truck. I didn't want to lower to their level.
I did see a LOT more respectful people, so to those guys :cheers: To the rest of you? Stay home and play your video games! You don't belong out there!
Regardless of the complete lack of birds (the dog kicked up maybe ten hens sitting tight in two days of walking), had a great time with the dog. My pup just turned two and really hit her stride this season.
The roosters I did see were at least two years old, doesn't bode well for future seasons considering the very small number of hens. Plenty of birds sitting in shelter belts in front of houses. Counted 11 roosters ( no hens) on the edge of a high school football field in one town, what a cool sight!
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Hunter1971
New member
Draht,
Enjoyed your post. Happened to me on last years opener more that I care to mention. Extreme lack of consideration by those larger groups and even some of the smaller groups. Good thing is that it really slowed down after the first weekend and especially when it got cold. The more days I hunted the better it got and it became easier and easier to have a WIA's to yourself in certain areas. Perfect for the solo hunter and their dog. I really enjoyed it with my Setter.
Enjoyed your post. Happened to me on last years opener more that I care to mention. Extreme lack of consideration by those larger groups and even some of the smaller groups. Good thing is that it really slowed down after the first weekend and especially when it got cold. The more days I hunted the better it got and it became easier and easier to have a WIA's to yourself in certain areas. Perfect for the solo hunter and their dog. I really enjoyed it with my Setter.
Bigj
Member
We started opening morning up by Flemming. We kind of got a late start and every wia field we went to had a least two if not more trucks parked at it. There was also a bad fog bank up there so we decided to leave the wia and head to the swa on the river and check them out. We found a spot to hunt and we had only gone about 200yds from the truck and my dog bumped a rooster. I was hoping there would be more birds in the field but we hunted around there for another hour and didn't see anymore birds. We decided to try a different area. We parked and got out of the truck and within 50 yards the dogs found the first covey of quail. The dogs found 3 coveys for me and i ended up getting a bird out of each of them. We were heading back to the truck and my dad and friend were about 40 yards ahead of me talking and not paying attention. I looked and my GWP was on point right behind them. I yelled at them and told them to quit bulls...... and flush the birds for blaze. My dad walked in on blaze and another covey flushed, there were birds flying everywhere and my dad and friend didn't know which way to swing. They both shot twice and never even touched a feather. Poor blaze did all that work and didn't even get rewarded with a retrieve. We went back to flemming after lunch and walked through a couple of fields and didn't see any other birds. Which didn't surprise me after seeing all of the people up there in the morning. We will be back after them in a couple of weeks.
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This happens because most of us are "sportsman" and not in the "opprotunist" phase. Guys that cut us off wait to see what we push out and block an end we are walking and road hunt are only there to shot, nothing else matters to them, not dog work, not the experience, just getting a limit. That is one of the reasons I did not make the CO opener (she was sick to). Not introducing a new hunter to that.
walk213
Active member
My Thoughts from the Weekend
We arrived in Phillips County Friday afternoon to scout. I have some favorite fields that I wanted to check out. Unfortunately, I blew a tire before we made it to the first field. After changing the tire and dropping it off at a local station, we went on our way. It was the first time I was back east since the end of last season. From the reports, I was anticipating poor cover and a lot less birds. We drove around for 5 hours and saw about 25 roosters and 10 hens. What was stunning was how little cover there was in the WIAs.
We hunted on Saturday with 4 dogs (2 experienced) and 6 guns. Our first field produced 4 roosters that got up about 80 yards out. Not worth even attempting a shot. My dog was on target all day, and was able to track down a young rooster that I shot at about 20 yards. There were a ton of hunters out, and all of the public fields were hunted by lunch. The afternoon got cold and a bit icy. 4 of my friends went back to the bar, so I hunted with one other guy. In a field that abuts private land, a really nice rooster jumped up at about 25 yards. I simply missed the shot (and the next two). Total bummer as it was and easy one and the bird was huge.
On Sunday we hunted in the fresh snow. We went back to the first field and found 3 roosters....my buddy shot his first wild bird 20 minutes into the initial walk. Another young bird that my dog tracked down pretty easily. The two other roosters got up but were not shootable. We did see a few hens as we left the field. My four friends decided to call it a trip and headed home. I hunted the rest of the day with one guy and my dog. We received permission to hunt some private land. I really appreciate the access that the landowner provided me (he has a nice gift coming before Christmas). He has had a very tough year, and we wish him the very best. His land did produce 30 birds but they all got up 100 yards out.
920 miles of driving, 5 shots and 2 birds. I will be back in a month! Picture of Greg, my dog Pride and his first wild bird.
We arrived in Phillips County Friday afternoon to scout. I have some favorite fields that I wanted to check out. Unfortunately, I blew a tire before we made it to the first field. After changing the tire and dropping it off at a local station, we went on our way. It was the first time I was back east since the end of last season. From the reports, I was anticipating poor cover and a lot less birds. We drove around for 5 hours and saw about 25 roosters and 10 hens. What was stunning was how little cover there was in the WIAs.
We hunted on Saturday with 4 dogs (2 experienced) and 6 guns. Our first field produced 4 roosters that got up about 80 yards out. Not worth even attempting a shot. My dog was on target all day, and was able to track down a young rooster that I shot at about 20 yards. There were a ton of hunters out, and all of the public fields were hunted by lunch. The afternoon got cold and a bit icy. 4 of my friends went back to the bar, so I hunted with one other guy. In a field that abuts private land, a really nice rooster jumped up at about 25 yards. I simply missed the shot (and the next two). Total bummer as it was and easy one and the bird was huge.
On Sunday we hunted in the fresh snow. We went back to the first field and found 3 roosters....my buddy shot his first wild bird 20 minutes into the initial walk. Another young bird that my dog tracked down pretty easily. The two other roosters got up but were not shootable. We did see a few hens as we left the field. My four friends decided to call it a trip and headed home. I hunted the rest of the day with one guy and my dog. We received permission to hunt some private land. I really appreciate the access that the landowner provided me (he has a nice gift coming before Christmas). He has had a very tough year, and we wish him the very best. His land did produce 30 birds but they all got up 100 yards out.
920 miles of driving, 5 shots and 2 birds. I will be back in a month! Picture of Greg, my dog Pride and his first wild bird.
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copheasanthunter
Member
I hunted over the weekend around Haxton with a couple of friends, saw some hens on Saturday, one rooster right at quiting time, it jumped up right at the road and flew parallel to the road than made a arch back to my right, and I missed. The only shot all day. On Sunday we decided to hunt until noon as we all needed to get back to our homes, we ended up with 3 birds. Not very good but at least I was out with some good friends and great dogs and the VFW had a great rocky mountain oyster fry. Debating if I will go again or not.