Riverman
Member
Four of us just spent 5 days hunting north of Pierre and east of the MO River. We hunt an area about 70 miles N/S and 40 miles E/W. We each walked over 5 miles each day and a couple days we all walked 8-10 miles. We all have decent dogs. We put a total of 45 birds in the cooler, so we were 15 short of a full limit. I shot 15, personally, but the others did not do as well. We saw a fair number of birds, but the numbers are certainly down from two years ago. Are they down from last year???? I don't know. I think there are more birds than last year but most folks, including two of the guys I hunt with think they are down. The problem is that last year almost all of the crops were harvested, along with a lot of the CRP and ditches in the early season. This year I would estimate that 60-70% of the crops are still in the field, although harvesting is going full bore. We have a trip scheduled for late November and that should tell us more of the story.
We saw a fair number of birds in larger groups, especially in crop areas.
We had better luck hunting in areas where more crops have been harvested---as you would expect.
Had an interesting hunt this morning. We had 1-2" of new snow fall last night, so we thought this morning would be amazing. But it didn't happen. We saw lots of tracks and a lot of birds, but they were all in the crops. They must have gotten up early and gone to eat. Usually with a fresh snow you have to bust them out of the heavy stuff at close range with some good dog work, but not today. In fact we had several that flushed wild.
We saw some very young birds, and a couple hens with broods, but we also saw a lot of mature birds that are colored up. Another month should be good to let them mature and get more colors.
The weather is shaping up to be a cold winter--we only had one day of 60's then it got cold and windy.
The beer is always cold though!!!!!!:cheers:
We saw a fair number of birds in larger groups, especially in crop areas.
We had better luck hunting in areas where more crops have been harvested---as you would expect.
Had an interesting hunt this morning. We had 1-2" of new snow fall last night, so we thought this morning would be amazing. But it didn't happen. We saw lots of tracks and a lot of birds, but they were all in the crops. They must have gotten up early and gone to eat. Usually with a fresh snow you have to bust them out of the heavy stuff at close range with some good dog work, but not today. In fact we had several that flushed wild.
We saw some very young birds, and a couple hens with broods, but we also saw a lot of mature birds that are colored up. Another month should be good to let them mature and get more colors.
The weather is shaping up to be a cold winter--we only had one day of 60's then it got cold and windy.
The beer is always cold though!!!!!!:cheers: