nstric
New member
What an absolutely beautiful day today, with the hoarfrost and all. So picturesque!
My buddy and I almost opted to pass on today's hunt, given the looming weather. We finally decided to give it a go . . . even if slow . . . around 10 AM this morning. We jumped in the truck and headed towards the Manson area.
A one field hunt . . . about 40 acres of big block blue stem, much of it VERY thick and difficult to walk. I went in with sore hip flexors and shoulders from working out. That wasn't good. It's Crown you all recommend, right?
We found the birds sitting extremely tight on the far east edge, in the most dense cover within the field. I had some real trouble pushing through it, so I stepped further inside the field, and . . . later learned . . . that I'd walked by about a dozen pheasants. Good thing Gunner swung back around and started locking up on them. In a span of 3 minutes or so, we forced the flight of 9 hens and 2 roosters on that edge alone. The first rooster was just outside of range so we passed on the shot, the second came up off Gunner's point and I connected with him.
We're now in the SE corner of the field and start pushing west on that edge. So many pheasant tracks! Gunner is hot, he's tracking, and up comes another rooster after a few more hens held for point. This rooster was at the far end of my comfort range, but he flared for me and I took the shot. He immediately dropped one leg . . . but kept flying NW. But wait! He started to climb the sky, so I knew I'd delivered kill shot. Sure enough, gravity overtook his lift and he plummeted straight down into the blue stem. Relief! I was nearly cursing myself for wounding one. Trouble was, he flew nearly 200 yards, dropped into thick cover, and we had a serious blind retrieve.
We log our best guesses as to where he went down, ask the dogs to 'hunt dead', but come up empty after 10 minutes or so. We agree to push that edge south again, into the wind, with hope the dogs will pick up the scent cone. Sure enough that happens, but it's my buddy that sniffs his way to the rooster before the dogs. I couldn't believe it. What luck to happen to step on him! He was dead as a doornail. Two in the bag now.
Back on the north edge, pushing east. We're seeing tracks everywhere, constantly scanning the ground for sign. Amazingly, I then see a rooster tail feather buried in the grass. My boot is inside of a yard of him, yet he doesn't move. I back off, call my buddy over, and guide him into the rooster's hiding location. 10 feet. 5 feet. 3 feet. 1 foot! Nothing flushes. I step back in to see if it was only a tail feather, and not a live bird, and he again certainly appears to be the latter! I can't see his body, but the tail feathers didn't appear to have been pulled out.
I back away again, suggest different approach for my buddy, and this results in the flush I was hoping for! A straight away shot. Cake. My buddy has his first rooster of the day in the bag.
I joke that it's easy to find the dead ones like he did. I find them alive!
Long story not so long, Gunner finds one more rooster for my buddy and he drops him too. We each bag a couple, on 2-2 shooting.
We'd not hunted the entire field, not by a long shot, but decided that taking 4 roosters was plenty and we'd let the rest live on. In total we saw 7 roosters and nearly 15 hens. I'm sure more than double that were in this field. It was a good one!
Time to head towards home as more weather was starting to set in, and I wanted to pick the kids up early from school to give my wife a bit of a break.
We took gravel and saw LOADS of pheasants. Easily an additional 30 pheasants on field edges, in ditches, etc. This was about 2 PM, so time for their second feeding. We even happened upon 4 roosters in a coverless ditch that allowed us to stop the truck and admire them. I couldn't believe it. We EASILY could have ditch hunted our way to a two man limit, but where's the fun in that? They too will live on . . . until we potentially . . . hopefully . . . meet next season!
I'll take some time to compile my throughout the season statistics, as I do every year. Overall, I'm very satisfied with how things transpired. We found good bird numbers, and plenty of evidence that we had a relatively good hatch this year. Nearly all birds we harvested were first year birds. Less than a handful of exceptions, I imagine.
Both my buddy and I shot amazingly well, which is commonplace for him, but me . . . not me. His skills must be rubbing off on me! I think we had a total of 3-4 misses throughout the season. Connected on nearly 60 roosters.
My buddy and I almost opted to pass on today's hunt, given the looming weather. We finally decided to give it a go . . . even if slow . . . around 10 AM this morning. We jumped in the truck and headed towards the Manson area.
A one field hunt . . . about 40 acres of big block blue stem, much of it VERY thick and difficult to walk. I went in with sore hip flexors and shoulders from working out. That wasn't good. It's Crown you all recommend, right?
We found the birds sitting extremely tight on the far east edge, in the most dense cover within the field. I had some real trouble pushing through it, so I stepped further inside the field, and . . . later learned . . . that I'd walked by about a dozen pheasants. Good thing Gunner swung back around and started locking up on them. In a span of 3 minutes or so, we forced the flight of 9 hens and 2 roosters on that edge alone. The first rooster was just outside of range so we passed on the shot, the second came up off Gunner's point and I connected with him.
We're now in the SE corner of the field and start pushing west on that edge. So many pheasant tracks! Gunner is hot, he's tracking, and up comes another rooster after a few more hens held for point. This rooster was at the far end of my comfort range, but he flared for me and I took the shot. He immediately dropped one leg . . . but kept flying NW. But wait! He started to climb the sky, so I knew I'd delivered kill shot. Sure enough, gravity overtook his lift and he plummeted straight down into the blue stem. Relief! I was nearly cursing myself for wounding one. Trouble was, he flew nearly 200 yards, dropped into thick cover, and we had a serious blind retrieve.
We log our best guesses as to where he went down, ask the dogs to 'hunt dead', but come up empty after 10 minutes or so. We agree to push that edge south again, into the wind, with hope the dogs will pick up the scent cone. Sure enough that happens, but it's my buddy that sniffs his way to the rooster before the dogs. I couldn't believe it. What luck to happen to step on him! He was dead as a doornail. Two in the bag now.
Back on the north edge, pushing east. We're seeing tracks everywhere, constantly scanning the ground for sign. Amazingly, I then see a rooster tail feather buried in the grass. My boot is inside of a yard of him, yet he doesn't move. I back off, call my buddy over, and guide him into the rooster's hiding location. 10 feet. 5 feet. 3 feet. 1 foot! Nothing flushes. I step back in to see if it was only a tail feather, and not a live bird, and he again certainly appears to be the latter! I can't see his body, but the tail feathers didn't appear to have been pulled out.
I back away again, suggest different approach for my buddy, and this results in the flush I was hoping for! A straight away shot. Cake. My buddy has his first rooster of the day in the bag.
I joke that it's easy to find the dead ones like he did. I find them alive!
Long story not so long, Gunner finds one more rooster for my buddy and he drops him too. We each bag a couple, on 2-2 shooting.
We'd not hunted the entire field, not by a long shot, but decided that taking 4 roosters was plenty and we'd let the rest live on. In total we saw 7 roosters and nearly 15 hens. I'm sure more than double that were in this field. It was a good one!
Time to head towards home as more weather was starting to set in, and I wanted to pick the kids up early from school to give my wife a bit of a break.
We took gravel and saw LOADS of pheasants. Easily an additional 30 pheasants on field edges, in ditches, etc. This was about 2 PM, so time for their second feeding. We even happened upon 4 roosters in a coverless ditch that allowed us to stop the truck and admire them. I couldn't believe it. We EASILY could have ditch hunted our way to a two man limit, but where's the fun in that? They too will live on . . . until we potentially . . . hopefully . . . meet next season!
I'll take some time to compile my throughout the season statistics, as I do every year. Overall, I'm very satisfied with how things transpired. We found good bird numbers, and plenty of evidence that we had a relatively good hatch this year. Nearly all birds we harvested were first year birds. Less than a handful of exceptions, I imagine.
Both my buddy and I shot amazingly well, which is commonplace for him, but me . . . not me. His skills must be rubbing off on me! I think we had a total of 3-4 misses throughout the season. Connected on nearly 60 roosters.
