Miforester
Well-known member
My son and I made a trip out to the Faulkton area for a late season hunt, Dec 20 thru 25th. The trip was a great time on several accounts and also was a bummer on another account. The weather was fantastic with highs ranging from the 20's to mid 40's with variable winds all week. Best part first time my son and I were able to hunt together in SD since 2018. We did cut our trip a day short so we left on the 24th so only had 4 days in the field. Our shooting was pretty good this trip with connecting on 17 of 22 shooting opportunities and unfortnately we lost 2 winged birds.
Day 1: We started our day hunting a WPA and it wasn't long when Bella, Brittany, and River, Setter, got birdy and rooster exploded out of the grass and both my son and I missed and I was thinking this is what my last trip was like. Good news was the rooster landed within our WPA so we were hoping we would find him again. We continued to work the cover and both dogs and good points on hens. We hunted some planted trees and two roosters flushed wild by my son and his rust showed thru as we was caught by surprise and didn't get any shots at them. We started another cast into the wind and it wasn't long before Bella was birdy and tracking, River also picked up the scent and we followed the dogs, winds were 10-20. The dogs were tracking for I'm guessing 60 yards wth a rooster flushed 30 to 40 yards in front of us, my son made a nice shot, however, the bird was winged and the dogs didnt see if fall. We quickly got to the area we thought the bird landed but cover was sparse and the dogs were not able to pick up the scent, also no snow to help track. So already one miss and one lost bird. We exhausted out search and continued on, we focused our next pass along the picked corn fence line, at the corner we found a massive shed in the fence and as we were admiring our dogs kept hunting and Bella was on point and a rooster flushed, needless to say we were not ready and this guy got a free pass. We continued on after a few choice words, it wasn't long and they dogs pinned another rooster and both my son shot bagged this rooster.
I see I'm getting long winded so I won't bore you with all the details. We continued to hunt this WPA, worked to the boundary along a bean field and unused road. As we got closer both dogs were birdy going different directions. My son followed Bella and I followed River, Bella went on point and River starting to track back towards Bella and she pointed. I walked in to flush and 5 birds came up and both my son and I managed to bag a rooster. More birds flushed after our shots and we just watched where they flew and they landed on to far ahead of us in the WPA. We followed up and were able to bag 2 more roosters. We hunted 3 hours in this WPA and were able to harvest 5 roosters and a nice shed.
The downfall to this hunt was Bella sustained a big gash on her front right paw. So after the hunt I called the local Vet and they were able to see her, so we dropped her off to get stitched up and looked to get our 6th bird. I new another good spot not far away and was pretty confident we could find a rooster. Sure enough after walking about 60 yards River got birdy and a rooster flushed ahead of her and my son was able to finish our day.
We were heading to clean our birds when the Vet called, Bella needed 5 stitches to close the wound and I was told she was done for the week. River is just coming into her own and was now going to be carrying the water for the rest of the week.
Day 2 - We hunted a CREP with a nice wind break in it. We walked the mowed area to put River into the wind, I hunted this in November on a similar day but like a dummy didn't use the wind to my dogs advantage and 15 birds came out will out of range. River worked the wind break very well. She pointed a rooster near my son and as he waked in to flush the bird flushed out towards me and I was able to harvest this bird, she continued and same thing happened again, however, I missed this bird. I told my son I would walk the road and he could follow me up with the truck. River worked both sides of the road and as we got close to the end a rooster flushed wild out of range. As we got closer to where the rooster flushed River got birdy and briefly stopped and 6 birds flushed, I dropped 2 roosters one dead and one evidently winged. The winged bird landed in the picked corn and we could not find any tracks so another lost bird, we did look for 15 minutes. As my son pulled up with the truck he was getting his gun when another rooster flushed next to the truck but he couldn't shoot. We hunted another CREP and managed to bag another rooster that River was tracking. This was our final bird of the day. We did hunt a favorite ditch line we call the "Limiter" and my son heard a rooster way out in front of us along the road this one "T's" into. We trekked up to the area, River pointed a hen along the fence, ditch was mowed, she continued on and pointed again as soon as she stopped a rooster flushed and I fumbled getting my safety off, after I shot and missed another rooster flushed and we both missed, these were two easy shots missed. My son said well the rooster called us out and we failed miserably. I made contact with my farmer friend and he was still at the farm so we stopped by to drop off some Christmas goodies and chat. I asked again to make sure we could hunt some of their property and it was, I told him we would be hunting their land during the rest of the week.
Day 3 - We hunted some great cover with some snow and saw tracks galore but our first two private spots only produced 3 pointed hens. We traveled to another spot on we could hunt and again flushed several hens, River was doing well and birds were holding very tight. River pointed a rooster for my son and when he shot a rooster busted out behind me, we both were able to bag our birds. We hunted a couple of pot holes in the bean field with no luck. Hunted a fence line with heavy Kocia weeds and River pointed a rooster that I was able to kill. We hunted a small postage stamp pot hole and River pointed a rooster that my son bagged and we ended the day hunting a tree line and I bagged a rooster who flushed ahead of a trailing River.
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Day 4 - We started again on private, we hunted the spot we bagged two rooster the day before, but this trip only hens were flushed. Needless to say River was very tired by this point so we were trying to manage the type of habitat we were putting her in. We then looked at some picked corn fields that had pot holes in them and the first one we hunted we saw a ton of tracks but only managed to flush one rooster that we killed. As we walked back to the truck roughly 6 hens flushed about 10 yards from the truck, the lightbulb then went off in our heads the birds were just hanging out in the pick corn as the temps were mid to high 40's. I moved the truck to another pot hole and my son walked the corn with River, he was able to bag one rooster on his trip over, as I was stopping in the field I evidently parked in the middle of a group of birds as 4 roosters and 6 hens flushed as I got out of the truck, I could only see the hens. This time my son drove to the road and I walked with River, she pointed a hen, but we didn't see any roosters. We decided to travel to the "Limiter" again and on the way stopped at a small WPA I have hunted. After our initial pass we started up a fence line and River pointed but no birds, she started to track and he speed kept picking up and 2 roosters flushed well out of range much to my cussing......we finished our walk and River pointed 2 more hens. As we arrived near the "Limiter" I decided we should hunt the road that it T's into as the cover looked good, as soon as we stopped a hen and rooster flushed ahead. We walked about 100 yards when my son said he could hear a bird in the ditch running, no sooner then he said that a rooster flushed about 30 yards in front of us, he shot and hit the bird hard a leg dropped and we both kept firing but didn't drop him. The bird was not tracking properly in flight and I told my son to watch him as I anticipated a death climb, that didn't happen instead the bird turned into wind and cupped both wings and landed. I didn't see the bird run, so my son left his gun with me and took River to find the bird, pastureland non the less. I stayed to guide him where I saw the bird land. He looked for a while and didn't find anything nor did River get birdy. I unloaded my gun and walked to help look. After a period of time we were going to call this a lost bird when my son said "there it is" sure enough you could see tail feathers sticking up out of the short grass. The bird was about 30 past where I thought it had went down. Bird was stone cold dead, when I picked it up neither leg was broken and when we cleaned it no shot in the body, must of been a golden bb in the head. That was the largest bird we harvested and a fitting way to end the day. I had decided that would be our last day as River was just simply whooped and I knew if I hunted Friday I would put Bella back in the field and I didn't want to risk it.
Miforester
Day 1: We started our day hunting a WPA and it wasn't long when Bella, Brittany, and River, Setter, got birdy and rooster exploded out of the grass and both my son and I missed and I was thinking this is what my last trip was like. Good news was the rooster landed within our WPA so we were hoping we would find him again. We continued to work the cover and both dogs and good points on hens. We hunted some planted trees and two roosters flushed wild by my son and his rust showed thru as we was caught by surprise and didn't get any shots at them. We started another cast into the wind and it wasn't long before Bella was birdy and tracking, River also picked up the scent and we followed the dogs, winds were 10-20. The dogs were tracking for I'm guessing 60 yards wth a rooster flushed 30 to 40 yards in front of us, my son made a nice shot, however, the bird was winged and the dogs didnt see if fall. We quickly got to the area we thought the bird landed but cover was sparse and the dogs were not able to pick up the scent, also no snow to help track. So already one miss and one lost bird. We exhausted out search and continued on, we focused our next pass along the picked corn fence line, at the corner we found a massive shed in the fence and as we were admiring our dogs kept hunting and Bella was on point and a rooster flushed, needless to say we were not ready and this guy got a free pass. We continued on after a few choice words, it wasn't long and they dogs pinned another rooster and both my son shot bagged this rooster.
I see I'm getting long winded so I won't bore you with all the details. We continued to hunt this WPA, worked to the boundary along a bean field and unused road. As we got closer both dogs were birdy going different directions. My son followed Bella and I followed River, Bella went on point and River starting to track back towards Bella and she pointed. I walked in to flush and 5 birds came up and both my son and I managed to bag a rooster. More birds flushed after our shots and we just watched where they flew and they landed on to far ahead of us in the WPA. We followed up and were able to bag 2 more roosters. We hunted 3 hours in this WPA and were able to harvest 5 roosters and a nice shed.
The downfall to this hunt was Bella sustained a big gash on her front right paw. So after the hunt I called the local Vet and they were able to see her, so we dropped her off to get stitched up and looked to get our 6th bird. I new another good spot not far away and was pretty confident we could find a rooster. Sure enough after walking about 60 yards River got birdy and a rooster flushed ahead of her and my son was able to finish our day.
We were heading to clean our birds when the Vet called, Bella needed 5 stitches to close the wound and I was told she was done for the week. River is just coming into her own and was now going to be carrying the water for the rest of the week.
Day 2 - We hunted a CREP with a nice wind break in it. We walked the mowed area to put River into the wind, I hunted this in November on a similar day but like a dummy didn't use the wind to my dogs advantage and 15 birds came out will out of range. River worked the wind break very well. She pointed a rooster near my son and as he waked in to flush the bird flushed out towards me and I was able to harvest this bird, she continued and same thing happened again, however, I missed this bird. I told my son I would walk the road and he could follow me up with the truck. River worked both sides of the road and as we got close to the end a rooster flushed wild out of range. As we got closer to where the rooster flushed River got birdy and briefly stopped and 6 birds flushed, I dropped 2 roosters one dead and one evidently winged. The winged bird landed in the picked corn and we could not find any tracks so another lost bird, we did look for 15 minutes. As my son pulled up with the truck he was getting his gun when another rooster flushed next to the truck but he couldn't shoot. We hunted another CREP and managed to bag another rooster that River was tracking. This was our final bird of the day. We did hunt a favorite ditch line we call the "Limiter" and my son heard a rooster way out in front of us along the road this one "T's" into. We trekked up to the area, River pointed a hen along the fence, ditch was mowed, she continued on and pointed again as soon as she stopped a rooster flushed and I fumbled getting my safety off, after I shot and missed another rooster flushed and we both missed, these were two easy shots missed. My son said well the rooster called us out and we failed miserably. I made contact with my farmer friend and he was still at the farm so we stopped by to drop off some Christmas goodies and chat. I asked again to make sure we could hunt some of their property and it was, I told him we would be hunting their land during the rest of the week.
Day 3 - We hunted some great cover with some snow and saw tracks galore but our first two private spots only produced 3 pointed hens. We traveled to another spot on we could hunt and again flushed several hens, River was doing well and birds were holding very tight. River pointed a rooster for my son and when he shot a rooster busted out behind me, we both were able to bag our birds. We hunted a couple of pot holes in the bean field with no luck. Hunted a fence line with heavy Kocia weeds and River pointed a rooster that I was able to kill. We hunted a small postage stamp pot hole and River pointed a rooster that my son bagged and we ended the day hunting a tree line and I bagged a rooster who flushed ahead of a trailing River.
i
Day 4 - We started again on private, we hunted the spot we bagged two rooster the day before, but this trip only hens were flushed. Needless to say River was very tired by this point so we were trying to manage the type of habitat we were putting her in. We then looked at some picked corn fields that had pot holes in them and the first one we hunted we saw a ton of tracks but only managed to flush one rooster that we killed. As we walked back to the truck roughly 6 hens flushed about 10 yards from the truck, the lightbulb then went off in our heads the birds were just hanging out in the pick corn as the temps were mid to high 40's. I moved the truck to another pot hole and my son walked the corn with River, he was able to bag one rooster on his trip over, as I was stopping in the field I evidently parked in the middle of a group of birds as 4 roosters and 6 hens flushed as I got out of the truck, I could only see the hens. This time my son drove to the road and I walked with River, she pointed a hen, but we didn't see any roosters. We decided to travel to the "Limiter" again and on the way stopped at a small WPA I have hunted. After our initial pass we started up a fence line and River pointed but no birds, she started to track and he speed kept picking up and 2 roosters flushed well out of range much to my cussing......we finished our walk and River pointed 2 more hens. As we arrived near the "Limiter" I decided we should hunt the road that it T's into as the cover looked good, as soon as we stopped a hen and rooster flushed ahead. We walked about 100 yards when my son said he could hear a bird in the ditch running, no sooner then he said that a rooster flushed about 30 yards in front of us, he shot and hit the bird hard a leg dropped and we both kept firing but didn't drop him. The bird was not tracking properly in flight and I told my son to watch him as I anticipated a death climb, that didn't happen instead the bird turned into wind and cupped both wings and landed. I didn't see the bird run, so my son left his gun with me and took River to find the bird, pastureland non the less. I stayed to guide him where I saw the bird land. He looked for a while and didn't find anything nor did River get birdy. I unloaded my gun and walked to help look. After a period of time we were going to call this a lost bird when my son said "there it is" sure enough you could see tail feathers sticking up out of the short grass. The bird was about 30 past where I thought it had went down. Bird was stone cold dead, when I picked it up neither leg was broken and when we cleaned it no shot in the body, must of been a golden bb in the head. That was the largest bird we harvested and a fitting way to end the day. I had decided that would be our last day as River was just simply whooped and I knew if I hunted Friday I would put Bella back in the field and I didn't want to risk it.
Miforester
