PheasantWhisperer
Member
Had 2 great days of hunting this weekend. First morning out, right out of the truck my older Vizsla locks up in a big weed patch in about 6 inches of snow. Thinking quail because of how long she stood there letting me take pictures. Nope. Rooster. Put him in the skillet!! 5 minutes into the hunt one down. She made a nice retrieve to hand and moved on. 5 minutes later, another in the bag. We move out of the weeds and into crp grass with hedgerows in it. 30 feet down the first hedgerow. Big covey of quail. Then another. Then another. 3 covies in one hedgerow! Couldn't believe it. Then we get down to the end of the hedgrow and there is a cedar patch with three big brushpiles in the middle of it. I was getting ready to make my way around it when all 3 dogs lock up. Twenty feet in front I have the biggest pheasant rise I think Ive ever seen. First about 30 hens get up. Not one rooster. Then here they come. Seemed like the roosters and hens were really segregated. 4 of us dropped 5 roosters on that flush alone. Walking back to the truck my puppy locks up. But my old dog didnt believe her and kept going so thought nothing was there. I was wrong. It was rooster number 4. Had to wait for an opening to shoot. Finally I get about a 40 yard opportunity. Knock him down, but he went down with his head up. We know what that means. Luckily my puppy is not trained to wing and shot and stayed with it and saw it drop. And the chase was on! Once she pointed it, the bird quickly popped out and eluded the puppy for about 100 Yards. Watching her slip and slide across the snowy bean field was hilarious. She finally caught him and made about a 200 yard retrieve back to my hand. Very proud of her. She carried that bird pretty high coming across to me. So my day is done right... Was gonna just pull the camera out and take pictures. But then I saw something flying that Ive never seen before. Dogs pointed. Nothing. But dogs wont come off point.?. But the wind was blowing in their face pretty hard. 40 yards in to the wind 20 big birds get up making a weird noise. Prairie Chickens!! For me it was like seeing a sasquatch. By the time I realized what they were they were out of range. They fly into a tree about a mile in the direction we r going. But as soon as we get close they are out. So back to the truck we go when the dogs lock up again. Prairie chickens!! They all fly out of a big cedar patch but one flew the wrong way and found his way into my buddies vest. Beautiful bird!! Male. Will be going up on the wall in the near future. We saw three different groups of chickens, I dont know how many pheasants, and 5 coveys of quail none of them with less than 15 birds.
Day two was awesome as well. We didnt hunt as hard because we had such a good day one but had lots of points and managed to find plenty of pheasants and 6 more coveys of quail. Two of which we didnt even chase.
So in two days the count was 17 roosters, 24 quail, and 1 prairie chicken. Awesome weekend
Day two was awesome as well. We didnt hunt as hard because we had such a good day one but had lots of points and managed to find plenty of pheasants and 6 more coveys of quail. Two of which we didnt even chase.
So in two days the count was 17 roosters, 24 quail, and 1 prairie chicken. Awesome weekend
