Easiest Pheasants of the Year!!!

A5 Sweet 16

A5 Sweet 16

Well-known member
This time of the season usually makes for some really tough hunting. And I've had my share of that this year. So it came as a welcome surprise to NOT have to work so hard for them this past weekend. Hunted with a friend who I consider a "good far north hunter" Saturday. He had access to some pretty nice land. The spots have it all in terms of winter habitat - cattail sloughs, food, shelterbelts, some other miscellaneous loafing cover. And lo and behold, they also have pheasants. It was fun to be able to hunt a shelterbelt or food plot & see pheasants move from it into the next piece you plan to hunt, as opposed to flying a half mile onto a different piece of property, never to be seen again. It wasn't easy hunting, but it wasn't hard either. We had a great day. The dogs had a great day. Everyone had a great day.

Then Sunday I headed out to try a couple little public spots I hadn't hunted in at least a year. Stopping to hunt a handful of small cattail ditches on the way out, we ran into a couple hens & 3 very cooperative roosters & were done in about half an hour & 3 shells. So we went & checked out our public spots anyway & left the gun in the truck. That was from about 3:00 to 4:30, so if any birds are using the spots, the majority would've probably been out feeding somewhere else anyway. It was fun to just take a walk & let my mind wander a little, rather than be 100% keyed into where Ace is & what's on his mind. And it's so much easier to maintain warm hands without carrying a shotgun.

It was a great weekend of hunting. It'll be bittersweet, & I can't imagine the hunting being so seemingly effortless, but we look forward to our last hurrah next weekend.

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A5 Sweet 16 said:
This time of the season usually makes for some really tough hunting. And I've had my share of that this year. So it came as a welcome surprise to NOT have to work so hard for them this past weekend. Hunted with a friend who I consider a "good far north hunter" Saturday. He had access to some pretty nice land. The spots have it all in terms of winter habitat - cattail sloughs, food, shelterbelts, some other miscellaneous loafing cover. And lo and behold, they also have pheasants. It was fun to be able to hunt a shelterbelt or food plot & see pheasants move from it into the next piece you plan to hunt, as opposed to flying a half mile onto a different piece of property, never to be seen again. It wasn't easy hunting, but it wasn't hard either. We had a great day. The dogs had a great day. Everyone had a great day.

Then Sunday I headed out to try a couple little public spots I hadn't hunted in at least a year. Stopping to hunt a handful of small cattail ditches on the way out, we ran into a couple hens & 3 very cooperative roosters & were done in about half an hour & 3 shells. So we went & checked out our public spots anyway & left the gun in the truck. That was from about 3:00 to 4:30, so if any birds are using the spots, the majority would've probably been out feeding somewhere else anyway. It was fun to just take a walk & let my mind wander a little, rather than be 100% keyed into where Ace is & what's on his mind. And it's so much easier to maintain warm hands without carrying a shotgun.

It was a great weekend of hunting. It'll be bittersweet, & I can't imagine the hunting being so seemingly effortless, but we look forward to our last hurrah next weekend.

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You guys are lucky to still be hunting.
 
It was a lot of fun to have you and Ace come up and spend a little while chasing pheasants. Ace is a cattail busting little bugger! Lots of fun to watch. Sage prefers to take the easy path and wait to scent a bird before committing to such intensive cardio activity. Regardless, both dogs got to scare some birds in the air and get some feathers in their mouth.
 
Golden Hour said:
It was a lot of fun to have you and Ace come up and spend a little while chasing pheasants. Ace is a cattail busting little bugger! Lots of fun to watch. Sage prefers to take the easy path and wait to scent a bird before committing to such intensive cardio activity. Regardless, both dogs got to scare some birds in the air and get some feathers in their mouth.
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Sage is...well...more sage, & knows how not to expend unnecessary energy. Ace hasn't reached that point yet. Consequently, in his 3 seasons, he's been to the vet to have crap removed from his eye once, crap removed from his nose twice, and cleared a long piece of cattail stick from his nose by himself just last week. He can't go balls to the wall anymore (that was a different trip to the vet🙄), but he's still a bit reckless.
 
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A5 and GH, looks like a great hunt and thanks for sharing. I will echo sediments that you guys are lucky to be still hunting wild birds. Ace and Sage sound like my britt and setter, britt knows no bounds when it comes to cover and my setter when alone seems more refined, but when hunting together follows the britt everywhere. Thanks for the picks, GH do you run a tree service?
 
Your first picture kind of shows what my labs think of springers. From a labs view point "a little pushy". My labs prefer to hunt as far away from a springer as possible, yet are fascinated by that stub tail and their hunting technique so they will stop and watch every once in a while.
 
Golden Hour said:
In case anyone was interested, here is the video. I'll apologize for the language in advance.

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Very nice video with honest language, can relate. Thanks for sharing and so jealous you can still hunt.
 
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