Holyoke's chicken coop

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homeradam

Member
And I thought there were a gob of birds on opening weekend. My Dad went out to the fields yesterday and said he saw more birds than he's ever seen. He reported seeing over 500 pheasants in the normal spots we hunt in. His friend who was with him shot 2 BOXES of shells. Makes me sort of wish I was a Colorado Resident and could hunt more often.......Lets hope for a continued easy winter and wet spring/summer.
 
homeradam said:
And I thought there were a gob of birds on opening weekend. My Dad went out to the fields yesterday and said he saw more birds than he's ever seen. He reported seeing over 500 pheasants in the normal spots we hunt in. His friend who was with him shot 2 BOXES of shells. Makes me sort of wish I was a Colorado Resident and could hunt more often.......Lets hope for a continued easy winter and wet spring/summer.
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Two boxes of shells on Pheasants?

He might want to take lessons on shooting.......

Yep in places there are some good bird numbers...
 
Maybe he was thinkin it was dove season? Only good part of hunting with that guy is you shoot one box and look like a hero. In reality though I bet he had to take longer shots than he could make. Good to hear the numbers are still high out that way.
 
You almost got it with the Dove hunting part. Come to find out, Dad asked to see his shells and he was shooting 8 shot. Not sure about how far the birds were flushing, but it's private property and we're the only ones hunting it, so the birds aren't getting pressured much. Dad just had to call me up in Alaska and rub it in.
 
homeradam said:
Dad asked to see his shells and he was shooting 8 shot.
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Wow - that's a bummer... even if he only connected on half of his shots, that's a whole lotta roosters that likely ended up crippled and became coyote food. :(

Bad for the bird population and bad for the sport, in my opinion. :mad: A responsible hunter wouldn't even consider going after wild roosters with 8 shot unless he/she was supremely confident in his/her ability to connect solidly.
 
From what I saw on NY's wknd, I bet he ain't hurt S*#!...Probably just flingin long-shots, which in foot ball we call Hail-Mary's! Tell him Thank You 4 educating dem roosters even more than they already were!!! :eek: :D :cheers:
 
jflewis88 said:
Wow - that's a bummer... even if he only connected on half of his shots, that's a whole lotta roosters that likely ended up crippled and became coyote food. :(

Bad for the bird population and bad for the sport, in my opinion. :mad: A responsible hunter wouldn't even consider going after wild roosters with 8 shot unless he/she was supremely confident in his/her ability to connect solidly.
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I don't know the situation. Maybe he grabbed the wrong shells at home. If I drove 150 miles, I'd use the shells I brought with me also. Maybe he had never been pheasant hunting before. I'll leave the guessing to professional arm chair QB's like you seem to be.:(
 
homeradam said:
I don't know the situation. Maybe he grabbed the wrong shells at home. If I drove 150 miles, I'd use the shells I brought with me also. Maybe he had never been pheasant hunting before. I'll leave the guessing to professional arm chair QB's like you seem to be.:(
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Leave the guessing to me? Interesting you see it that way...

What I said was that it was a bummer (which I think is a universal truth - nobody likes throwing two boxes of lead and not putting a rooster in the bag) and that a responsible hunter wouldn't have gone after roosters improperly equipped. Also, I believe, a universal truth

"Maybe he grabbed..." = a guess
"Maybe he had never been..." = a guess
"... seem to be." = a guess

I'm not the one guessing here. And I wasn't making a judgement on the guy in question, just pointing out a couple of basic truths:
- Proper preparation is key
- Improper ammo can leave birds crippled
- Crippling birds is bad for the sport and the population

Why get so wound up and make it personal by calling me an "armchair quarterback"? If you disagree with my opinion, feel free to say so - but the name-calling is unneccesary. I'd like to keep it productive - wouldn't you agree this is best for all?
 
From the sound of it, most likely the man was a total novice flinging harmless long-range air-balls of #8 lead at cackling (i.e.-LAUGHING) roosters!!! Either that, or the poor fellow can't hit the side of a barn @15-25 yds (which I HIGHLY doubt was the case w/late-season roosters)... :p

Last time I was out, I wouldn't even pull the trigger on most of 'em with high-brass #4's & 5's - and the few I did fling a Hail-Mary at flew away completely unharmed. Just sayin... :eek:

For the life of me, don't know why a man would show up or his pheasant-hunting mentor "friend" would turn him loose so handicapped in a rooster-field w/#8's - or why they didn't at least run down to the nearest local hardware store for one $20 box of appropriate size shot for the job??? :cheers:
 
That's what I was trying to say :cheers:

I apparently didn't say it very well and ruffled homeradam's feathers :eek:

Thanks for putting a better spin on it - I'll try to do a better job of that myself...

Homeradam - whaddaya say we bury the hatchet here? Sorry for my part in the confusing exchange...
 
Ok what did we learn here....This site is built on stories, being a sailor I would call them yarns. So in reading homeradam's story from his father, (who was trying to make him envious) I took it as some fact and some fiction and probably somewhere in between. The last time I shot a box of shells was shooting sporting clays and the last time i saw 500 pheasants I was sound asleep and dreaming. So homeradam I will supply the shells, lets go hunting.......
 
@sdtEvgn: I read it the same way, part-truth/part-fiction (perhaps the word HYPERBOLE which I am very insider-familiar with would be fitting)! :D But trust me, I def saw more than 500 pheasants my last time out. However I won't be wasting either of our time taking you to see them on our little escapade on the 23rd or 24th, bcuz with most of them highly-educated & gathered up in one quarter-section of grass we would never get close enough to touch a single one with two boxes each of triple-B goose shot!!! :eek: :p
 
Anyone who hasnt seen 500 birds lately after the storms. Im sorry u werent able to get out. As far as bagged depends on how the situation unfolded. 2 weekends ago I think we had seen 500 and didnt have a bird in the bag. Hit these big groups from a bad angle or wernt sitting where they normally hang. So by the time u hit the sweet spot the birds had a different angle. By afternoon must be luck but things started working in the hunters favor. End of friday we had seen roughly a thousand birds for the day. Saturday regrouped and was much easier to limit out. Having the knowledge of where they would be in the honey holes from the day before. Long story short. 84 were taken home for the weekend. Moral of my story dont be baggin anyone for seeing hundreds or a thousand birds because its a true story. This year anyways. As far as the 8 shot goes and as wild as the birds are. Highly unlikey the individual hurt to much with 30-50 yard flushes. Crippling shots likely if alot of them were taken at 15-20 yards.
 
I started out at Otis and ended in Holyoke today. Saw a total of maybe 20 birds. Four rosters, the rest hens. Never was close enough to shoot. My new knot head only ran off once. I think I'll go jump in front of a train.
 
@homeboy: Good Deal, hopefully that means they're finally dispersing a little again - sometimes I would much rather have to scratch for spread out birds all day long than try getting past all those tattletale eyes & ears tightly bunched together! :eek: Now if I can just happen to get out on a nice day with a 10-20 mph headwind instead of pindrop silence or that nasty 40 mph stuff (the remainder of that crunchy-snow mess all melted away would be really sweet too)... :thumbsup: :cheers:
 
engpointerman said:
Cant speak for holyoke but no more snow here. We have a half inch of rain already. Who would think that could happen?
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;).. have you been in the Lounge and visited the "global warming" post?....:p

In all seriousness though, this winter has been some what of a phenomenon here in CO, ain't it?...:cheers:
 
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