Ideas for Nebraska trip (help)

B

bradhill

New member
First off thank you in advance for the tips!

It's looking like the duck season in TN will be poor for the last few days of Jan (50+ degrees and sunny) so a friend and I are going to drive out to Nebraska and hunt Pheasant. I'm going to be driving from Nashville next Tuesday the 24th and would like to hunt until Saturday, drive home Sunday.

I've done some free lancing in Nebraska twice 4 and 5 seasons ago and didn't get a lot of birds but had a really good time in that beautiful area of the country. I'm curious if anyone has any ideas on public land that we can try. From what I'm reading online it looks like the southwest WMAs are doing the best. Any tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks again, hope you all have a great rest of the season.
 
I was in SW Nebraska a few weeks ago, there are some birds on the open to the public land. Not a lot of birds, but if you work hard and have good dogs you should get some opportunities. Good luck and it would be great to hear how you do.
 
Current report

Bradhill,
I am in NE now hunting until the end of season. I had been working in TX doing pipeline work. Finally got away for some late season hunting.
I have been hunting from McCook to Imperial.
There are birds there in the CRP (WIA) Rarely see birds graveling near the road edges.
I target CRP where a feed source is in the adjacent field.
I have flushed lots of hens which would have been in the bag had they been roosters.But the roosters are running ahead of the dog and flushing to far out for me. Have had a few shots at 60 plus yards.But missed.
Not giving up though by any means. Love watching the dog work and getting excercise. Just a matter of time I figure before I put something in the bag.
Lets us know how you do! A few guys and blockers would be the way to go.
Ragin Rooster.:cheers:
 
Brad, Ive been hunting in NE all my life for rootys. If you are driving all the way here, you may want to head into SD. Better luck on public land.
 
Thanks ( and a few follow up questions)

Thanks guys, I appreciate the tips. If we do sd, any tips on that? I got ahold of a friend who is making a house available and a large farm that is normally not hunted available. I hope we can smack um.

1) I can get my hands on a dog that pheasant hunts but I don't really know what I'm doing (in terms of running the dog). Would you say a dg is a required asset to the hunt?

2) lead shot ok? Plug/no plug?

Thanks again!
 
A dog would almost be a necessity as some fields are pretty vast. A good dog is pretty easy to handle. You'll just want to know the basic commands to whoa the dog... Bring led shot, because often if you cant find them, check out cat-tails and marshes. Also, you can hunt road ditches up there legally, in-which case you could do without a dog. If you happen to shoot a rooster from a ditch and it falls in private land, you are legally allowed to cross into the private land to retrieve your bird, just leave your gun with a buddy. As for area, the farthest away from the SE region of SD, the better. And I dont mean to steer ya from Nebraska, just head far west for more birds. Good luck.
 
Hunt update

Killed one nice rooster and the dog flushed a decent covey of quail (we only got one but I'm not complaining).

We hunted hard all day, had a great time on this friend's farm. We hunted two public fields a little north of Fullerton, saw zero birds or tracks. Gonna try some new public areas tomorrow after we hit an early hunt back at the farm.

Just wanted to post an update, hope y'all are doing well.
 
Headed west

No pheasant today so we're headed west. Got one quail and a squirrel, flushed 6 hens and saw two roosters.
 
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