Riverman
Member
We (five of us) just got back yesterday from our first 5-day hunt. It was probably the hardest hunting we have had in 15 years in that area, aside from times when a blizzard has hit. Four of us got all of our birds and the 5th should have if he could have hit one of 5 that jumped up on the last day. Although we got our birds, for this time of year we really had to work for them a lot more than in past years. All five of us have good to excellent dogs (labs) and we walk for all our birds.
We hunted primarily ditches, WPAs, State areas, with a few private pits thrown in. Would have hunted some walk-in areas but all that we looked at were hayed or planted and harvested.Based on what we say I would say that the G&F forgot to put a minus sign in front of the 20% in their estimates from last year!
All of the crops have been harvested, and most fields are shaved flat--not sure if they are using stubble for biofuel....we saw one field of sunflowers in 300 miles of driving. So the birds had to be in the cover and ditches.
We hunted near Gettysburg, Hoven, Onida, Tolstoy, and Agar--most areas were not good and loaded with hunters. There was not nearly as much water as there was last year, which is what folks say may be limiting the numbers, but I'm not sure. I walked 2-3 return pits with water and flushed 0 birds, which is unheard of for me. I think we saw more birds in areas with water close by, but I'm not sure that is the only reason we didn't see many. The second day I walked 10 miles and killed 3 birds (maybe missed 1) and another guy walked 12 miles and didn't kill a bird, which for us was unprecendented. I would estimate that the 5 of us walked 150-200 miles total and we did not see the number of birds we should have if the numbers were even close to what they were last year, which was not that great.
I have a friend that hunted the Winner area with a big group doing the typical push and block. He said they got birds, but nothing like years past and there were days that some guys didn't shoot at all. He has hunted that area for 40+ years and he said that bird numbers are definitely down from last year. He seemed to think it was much better around water.
Me and another guy are going back before Thanksgiving, but will not go back after Christmas which we usually do. I drive 14 hours from UT to hunt and I still think it is better hunting that any other place, but it was not easy. I have hunted SW and Central Nebraska, Eastern Wyoming, southern ID, and nothern Utah, and it is much better than any of those places. Based on the number of hunters we saw from IA, MN, and WI I would say it is better than those places as well. We saw more hunters this year than we ever have and we can go 2-3 days in places we hunt the second week of the season and not see another vehicle, not so this year. I think the drought might have concentrated the hunters as well as the birds. Although, most of the guys hunting did not look like they were walking much. If you aren't willing to work for the birds and walk ~ 5-10 miles per day you will have trouble unless you have access to some good fields.
We mnaged to kill a few more grouse than we normally do, but unless you are used to hunting grouse and pheasants together it can be tough since the grouse look a lot like a hen pheasant until they are out there and you can see the difference in flight.
One thing that will make a difference is the weather. If they get much snow then the birds are going to be more concentrated than normal since many of the ditches have been hayed and there are no crops in the field. That would push them to shelter belts and cover around houses, which is tough to get permission to hunt.
Make sure you can hit the birds you shoot at or you may be dissapointed if you hunt this area.
Good luck.
We hunted primarily ditches, WPAs, State areas, with a few private pits thrown in. Would have hunted some walk-in areas but all that we looked at were hayed or planted and harvested.Based on what we say I would say that the G&F forgot to put a minus sign in front of the 20% in their estimates from last year!
All of the crops have been harvested, and most fields are shaved flat--not sure if they are using stubble for biofuel....we saw one field of sunflowers in 300 miles of driving. So the birds had to be in the cover and ditches.
We hunted near Gettysburg, Hoven, Onida, Tolstoy, and Agar--most areas were not good and loaded with hunters. There was not nearly as much water as there was last year, which is what folks say may be limiting the numbers, but I'm not sure. I walked 2-3 return pits with water and flushed 0 birds, which is unheard of for me. I think we saw more birds in areas with water close by, but I'm not sure that is the only reason we didn't see many. The second day I walked 10 miles and killed 3 birds (maybe missed 1) and another guy walked 12 miles and didn't kill a bird, which for us was unprecendented. I would estimate that the 5 of us walked 150-200 miles total and we did not see the number of birds we should have if the numbers were even close to what they were last year, which was not that great.
I have a friend that hunted the Winner area with a big group doing the typical push and block. He said they got birds, but nothing like years past and there were days that some guys didn't shoot at all. He has hunted that area for 40+ years and he said that bird numbers are definitely down from last year. He seemed to think it was much better around water.
Me and another guy are going back before Thanksgiving, but will not go back after Christmas which we usually do. I drive 14 hours from UT to hunt and I still think it is better hunting that any other place, but it was not easy. I have hunted SW and Central Nebraska, Eastern Wyoming, southern ID, and nothern Utah, and it is much better than any of those places. Based on the number of hunters we saw from IA, MN, and WI I would say it is better than those places as well. We saw more hunters this year than we ever have and we can go 2-3 days in places we hunt the second week of the season and not see another vehicle, not so this year. I think the drought might have concentrated the hunters as well as the birds. Although, most of the guys hunting did not look like they were walking much. If you aren't willing to work for the birds and walk ~ 5-10 miles per day you will have trouble unless you have access to some good fields.
We mnaged to kill a few more grouse than we normally do, but unless you are used to hunting grouse and pheasants together it can be tough since the grouse look a lot like a hen pheasant until they are out there and you can see the difference in flight.
One thing that will make a difference is the weather. If they get much snow then the birds are going to be more concentrated than normal since many of the ditches have been hayed and there are no crops in the field. That would push them to shelter belts and cover around houses, which is tough to get permission to hunt.
Make sure you can hit the birds you shoot at or you may be dissapointed if you hunt this area.
Good luck.