Final outing

BigRand

Active member
Made it out for my last hunt of the season yesterday. Always a sad feeling. Decided to try a new piece of public ground a friend told me about. Knee deep snow but the cattails were holding the birds. The dog and I broke up around two groups of twenty. After that we were able to get back on the birds one at a time. After the first two large groups everything else sat so tight you had to step on them. Had at least 20+ points yesterday, which was great to see Asher lock up so tight. Rooster to hen ratio was about one to ten. So we needed to go through quite a few points. Got the first two roosters on individual points with one shot a piece. Always a joy to watch her point them and then bring them back to my hand after a good shot. The final rooster got up behind us after we had just flushed two hens from the same spot and had decided to move on. Ten steps later he gets up behind us. Wheeled around and hit him with the first shot and needed a follow up shot. He went down and we couldn't find him after 15 minutes of searching. So decided to keep going. Asher gets birdy and I see the fresh tracks she is following. Then I start seeing pretty good spots of blood along with the tracks. We tracked him for five to ten minutes until he holed up and she went on point. Well he can't fly with a broken wing so I have her go in after him and out of the snow comes her head with our wounded rooster. Couldn't have been happier for our final trip. She did point two separate hens and I could see where they want in and I looked in the hole and came face to face with a pheasant looking back at me. Funniest thing I've had happen in a while.
 
We also just got back from our last trip this year and the birds #'s are strong. We were able to thin out the roosters on our ground and we should have a good hen: rooster ratio going into the heart of winter. The trees we planted and the habitat work we have done is starting to pay dividends.

Happy New Year!
 
Thanks for the post BigRand. Sounds like a great end to the year. South Dakota is such a special treat for us upland bird hunters...already counting down the days for 2016.
 
Finished our SD season near Winner today. Moved over three hundred birds out of twenty-five acres of creek bottom. Most flushed ahead, but a surprising number held very tight. Four of us took our limit, all over points. Been working with a year-old pointer that had a pretty incredible day. Gives me something to think about during the long 8.5 months until our grouse season opens next fall....
 
Sweet

We finished with 4 birds and a coyote after a one hour hunt. Saw a good number of birds, which is always great to see this late in the year. Hope the winter is easy on the birds. Should be a good 2016. Viking
 
26th-30th

Final pheasant hunt of the season was a tough one. First day was a white out blizzard followed by single digit days. The snow was wind packed enough that the birds could run on top of it, dogs and me...not so much. Saw tons of birds, most were far away flushes. Did manage to take a few shots and came home with nine birds. After walking around in a foot of snow for five days the dogs and I were beat. Would I do it again...you bet cha!
 
Last hunt

I usually spend my last late season hunt along the northeastern border of SD. It's not quite as far of a drive and I have a friend up that way and stay at his place in Minnesota, and hunt just across the border. There don't seem to be nearly the bird numbers there, as compared to farther west. I was surprised though this year. I hunted from opening to close for three days and really worked at it, and had an opportunity at a limit each of the three days. I hunted almost exclusively on WPAs in the cattails, in about six to seven inches of snow. Darn if there weren't enough birds in there to keep my dog interested, and they held pretty tight. The shots I had were really manageable, and my dog loves to hunt cattails for some reason. I've learned that when you see these areas from the road they look so thick that you don't even want to get out of the truck. When you get into them though, often times they are like little mazes, with trails and matted down areas, that really lend themselves to slow mozy hunting. You can just slowly meander through, stopping often to rest, and let the dog hunt around you. I find the smallest ones on the atlas, and hunt alone. I know you really have to be careful in those areas, but many times they are dry. In November I hunted one of these kinds of areas farther west and had my limit on the ground by 10:38am. That's the quickest limit I've ever shot. Next year I'm gonna leave my Wingworks in the truck late season and use a waist game bag and skinny myself up as much as possible to make slipping through these areas easier. You don't need the water at that time of year, and losing the bulk really helps me. It's still exhausting, but tolerable if you are alone and hunt at a snails pace. How many of those nine birds I put in my bag will remain confidential. I don't want to get banned from the forum for incompetence.
 
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