How many birds do you shoot in a season?

Too bad there isn't a way to catch and release in hunting. I might just get a 20 lb longbow next time and shoot a big rubber point of some type so I don't have to kill deer. I have been donating to the feed the hungry program for the last 20 years or so. I have dry aged my deer, had them processed, etc. and no matter how I do it I don't like the taste. Hate pickles to. But I do like to eat pheasant and quail. But if I have to give it away just so I can shoot more, I would feel greedy. It becomes killing and not hunting and definitely not conservation.
 
remy3424 said:
BB, I am guessing that your out of state birds would not count against your MN limit. You might be required to identify them and have valid licenses for where they came from. You have studied this 8 am guessing and know was is legal. It would be like if I have an elk quartered in my garage and a game warden stops by and gives me a ticket for elk hunting in Iowa, that isn't going to happen.
I do think that the possession limit is maybe ths least understood and most often crossed hunting reg, but it is meant to help conserve the resources. You don't likely need more that what the limit allows, even if you can "get rid of them".

Over.
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These possession limit “issues” may be important to some here, not to me, I never have a freezer brimming with birds, and if I did, because I spent $ and traveled to various locales and harvested birds, that’s my deal…eat them in a timely manner, by next summer at the latest? Always. I never have carry over from prior year. Anyway, focus on getting young people out in the field, and, doing what you can to promote habitat for the birds. I don’t care what you do in the dark, or with your taxes, etc…live your life. Here, on a pheasant hunting forum, I want to talk about that. Good day.
 
The people I share pheasants and sharptail with are enthusiastic recipients, and I’m filled with joy when I hear their comments. I don’t care if you deem that “getting rid of them”. One of the guys on the next trip fishes walleyes a lot, he’s bringing that for a meal or two, like he did on a sharptail trip 6 weeks ago. I don’t fish much, I love that gift he provides! If my gamebirds do something similar for my people, I’m thrilled. Again, do what you do, I’ll do what I do. I don’t do it to allow me to shoot more. You should see what I bring TO the farmer friends, cleaning lady, bar owner, motel owner in ND, SD, and other places in between…the racks of smoked pork ribs from DuquetteMN, and the smoked salmon from Northern Waters Smokehaus in Duluth, and the berry pies from the rustic inn north of two harbors…it’s what I do, and always have, and always will. My best farmer buddy just left the lodge we’re in (sleeps 4), has the best line…”give while you live, so you know where it goes!”. Good day.
 
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BTW, my go-to pheasant dish is pheasant wild rice soup on steroids…dry sherry, herbs de Provence, sour cream, smoked paprika, and many other ingredients…a shit ton of sautéed veggies, cream of mushroom soup…etc, etc..I so enjoy shopping for the ingredients, making it, eating it, and sharing it. There’s a cashier at my grocery store who I’ve gotten to know…she knows when I’m making it..,I’ve brought it for her to the store before…she wants more…and I serve it with kings Hawaiian sweet rolls…I can’t stop eating it to be honest…
 
benelli-banger said:
Bottom line, one trip to SD is 15 birds, that’s more than I can possess evidently as a MN resident with a MN license. Stupid if I can’t legally have my 15 SD birds despite the MN possession limit being less. Come and get me, this is a ludicrous discussion in that case. I’m a criminal, I guess. If you’re wracking your brain over this minutia, go hunting instead…
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Yeah possession limit doesn't have to do with what you have in your freezer at home. It has to do with what you have while traveling on a bird trip.
 
benelli-banger said:
The people I share pheasants and sharptail with are enthusiastic recipients, and I’m filled with joy when I hear their comments. I don’t care if you deem that “getting rid of them”. One of the guys on the next trip fishes walleyes a lot, he’s bringing that for a meal or two, like he did on a sharptail trip 6 weeks ago. I don’t fish much, I love that gift he provides! If my gamebirds do something similar for my people, I’m thrilled. Again, do what you do, I’ll do what I do. I don’t do it to allow me to shoot more. You should see what I bring TO the farmer friends, cleaning lady, bar owner, motel owner in ND, SD, and other places in between…the racks of smoked pork ribs from DuquetteMN, and the smoked salmon from Northern Waters Smokehaus in Duluth, and the berry pies from the rustic inn north of two harbors…it’s what I do, and always have, and always will. My best farmer buddy just left the lodge we’re in (sleeps 4), has the best line…”give while you live, so you know where it goes!”. Good day.
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I trade pheasant for salmon, elk meat, sometimes my mechanic, sometimes I give them to Farmers, and I also like to eat pheasant and I do a lot of different recipes.
 
Labradinger said:
Possession limits are stupid. I should be able to catch as many fish as I want or shoot as many birds as I want if im doing a fish fry or big party or something as long as I followed the daily limits.

But for the original question, id guess ill shoot 40-50 his year and thats a big year for me. Especially late season, I may hunt for 2 hours and get one, then head home.
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I don't know exactly, I do know that I lost 15 last year but this year so far I've only lost two I think. My young lab Jones is getting better at tracking birds that take off running.
 
benelli-banger said:
These possession limit “issues” may be important to some here, not to me, I never have a freezer brimming with birds, and if I did, because I spent $ and traveled to various locales and harvested birds, that’s my deal…eat them in a timely manner, by next summer at the latest? Always. I never have carry over from prior year. Anyway, focus on getting young people out in the field, and, doing what you can to promote habitat for the birds. I don’t care what you do in the dark, or with your taxes, etc…live your life. Here, on a pheasant hunting forum, I want to talk about that. Good day.
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I've been working on trying to get my 11-year-old nephew into bird hunting, but his parents are religious freaks, and and his mom is really strange.
 
When I was 11 my dad and 10 guys bot a duck camp on a fabled lake in SW MN…it was heaven. They were mid-to-late 40’s. By the time I was 18, 5 of the 10 partners had died. I was impacted by this…very impacted. I discovered SD in ‘93, I was 27. Have hunted 6-8 trips annually since then. Bot a 1/4 in ‘99, enrolled it in a permanent conservation easement (WRP) in 2005. Bowling, golf, flying kites, sitting in casinos don’t do it for me. Currently, nothing hurts on my body. I can and do go all day many days…some days I take it easy, but love being out here. Nothing else does it for me…always been that way…I’m going with the flow…not a church guy, not a volunteering guy…very narrow interests…current philosophy: more dogs, less people=greater happiness.
 
I remember the lean years when I was kid I limited myself to one each time I went out. Maybe got 6 or so a season.

Triple digits a year seems weird to me, but I only hunted South Dakota once, not for me.

As another poster said, I count wounded and lost birds towards my daily limit.

Again, stay within the rules and I have no issue with whatever a person does.
 
If you are hunting in multiple states, then I would add up the possession limit total for each individual state license you possess, and that would be the total possession limit. I'd also clearly label my birds with the state and date they were harvested for good measure.

If you only hunt in one state, it's very simple.

Possession limits are in place for a reason. They don't want you to stock pile a freezer full of birds or fish. If you want to feed a family with a big fish fry, take them with you fishing so they can contribute.
 
Again, what about preserves? In MN, seasons go from 9/1-4/1? No limits, no license…have the owner write a note explaining things? 😝. Some people eat a lot of wild game, by choice…I’m not judging them if that’s their choice, and they harvest lots of game…protein is protein, some is better than others…I hear about some documentaries out there about slaughterhouses and that whole deal and viewers vow they’re done eating processed meats…go do whatever it is you do…
 
Labradinger said:
Possession limits are stupid. I should be able to catch as many fish as I want or shoot as many birds as I want if im doing a fish fry or big party or something as long as I followed the daily limits.

But for the original question, id guess ill shoot 40-50 his year and thats a big year for me. Especially late season, I may hunt for 2 hours and get one, then head home.
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Gotta disagree there. I have photos of my uncle and his buddies filling rail cars with ducks to send out east.

Don’t think we want to go back to those days.
 
gim said:
Sorry, I meant "hunting." A game farm isn't hunting. It's right up there with shooting at domesticated poultry.
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I know…but your freezer could be full of them…looks the same as a wild bird…just a hypothetical. But I just called MN DNR, she laughed…it is the possession limit from each state you hunted, which makes complete sense. And if you have birds from a preserve, have a receipt verifying your dates/#’s. So I can possess 33 at the moment…I have about 5 in the freezer, and about 10 in my possession…left a few with my buddy who joined me yesterday. I’ll cook 1/2 mine with me before I head back out, then I’ll have 10 in the freezer. I’ll come back in 9 days from now, probably have a dozen…I’ll be good. Hope I’m not guilty of ethical, moral, philosophical, religious, or any other transgressions…to be serious, it’s interesting that it’s almost impossible to damage pheasant #’s by harvesting roosters. I see more birds with each trip, and they typically peak at the end of the season…at least where I’m based. There’s a crapload of habitat in my county, and surrounding counties…lots of low ground, it’s been put into various public and private conservation programs over the years, including very recently. Habitat is the key…I don’t know much, but I know that…
 
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There’s a lot of people that don’t hunt, but used to, or that have people in their lives that used to hunt, like dad’s, uncles, brothers, grandpa’s, etc..and preparing pheasant for them reconnects them with these people, or different periods of their life…or gifting them fresh birds, and they prepare them…keeping people connected to the land, and nature, and my way of life, is a good thing, based upon my empirical data…lots of positive associations and memories…I met my birth father 9 years ago, lived outside St. Cloud, Mn…been driving within 3 miles of his home dozens of times per year for 30 years. He hunted as a younger person. I started breasting birds in Clara city, Mn at a little rest stop about 8 years ago, I’d drop in and say hi, and they’d prepare them a day or two later and have friends over. It was a “thing” and they loved it! He died 5 years ago, I had a few years getting to know him…the pheasant was a fun connection for us. His widow is a gourmet cook, she had so much fun preparing the birds and entertaining. I’m adamant that keeping people connected to the land, the natural world, however we do it, is vitally important. Screw the virtual world, screw “progress” and the “corporatized” world, screw the transformation of nature into pavement and strip malls and developments…I like the natural world, and have no time for the hollow, vapid world that increasingly surrounds me.
 
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Goosemaster said:
Yeah possession limit doesn't have to do with what you have in your freezer at home. It has to do with what you have while traveling on a bird trip.
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Incorrect. Possession is simply in your possession. If you have a freezer with 100 pheasants you are in violation.

Going back to the multi-state issue, it is best to mark packages of birds by where and when you took them. I write on freezer bag the state and date and how many are in the bag. CO instructed me to do so, just in case, but he said unless the CO has reason to think you're a poacher, they are never checking your freezer. But I guess if you have 100 birds frozen, you might be a suspected poacher!
 
AtTheMurph said:
Incorrect. Possession is simply in your possession. If you have a freezer with 100 pheasants you are in violation.

Going back to the multi-state issue, it is best to mark packages of birds by where and when you took them. I write on freezer bag the state and date and how many are in the bag. CO instructed me to do so, just in case, but he said unless the CO has reason to think you're a poacher, they are never checking your freezer. But I guess if you have 100 birds frozen, you might be a suspected poacher!
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And this is what I did back when hunting 4 states for birds. I would date and mark the harvest. Legally if I possessed licenses from each state my possession limit was the cumulative of the four states, not just the state I live in. The possession and the limit travel with the license. I don’t believe I ever had more in my freezer than allowed but it was not uncommon to have 20 or a few more. My Kansas and South Dakota should have allowed me 31.

To the original question I average 30-35 a year. There was a time it was double that amount along with 50 quail or so
 
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