Is it worth going this year, and why I like pheasant hunting

B

Bob Peters

Well-known member
What are the counts??? MN and IA are both up.... Unless you count them against the long term average. SD? Kristi pulled the plug on the brood count, everyone knows that. Well should you even go? What do the numbers say? I personally say I will just go, regardless of any info, because it's what I like to do. If there's a stack of birds or very few, it doesn't matter to me. I've not been in the sport very long, but can anything replace a bird dog working cover and flushing a game bird? I will do whatever I can to promote upland hunting, but number one, I will go regardless of any prediction/brood count/etc.
 
Couldn't agree more! Unless the weather is ungodly hot, I plan on buying a MN license this season, just to get a jump start on our season. I'm sure most of the crops will still be standing, but it will be worth it to me to get the dogs out. If we find birds, that's just icing on the cake. I'll hunt IA and NE, too. I hunt mostly public ground in IA, as I will in MN, but I really enjoy the challenge and I've got plenty of dog power. I think I will have access to some private ground in Clark, Co, SD for the late season, I don't think I could pass that chance up. Hunting 4 different states with lots of alone time with the dogs is my goal for this season.
 
With all the doom and gloom and horrible weather Kansas has been having, I’m still going opening weekend through mid week. If there are not many birds, so be it. I’m with my dogs and a great group of guys and we will have fun walking around the prairie no matter what.
 
Bob Peters said:
What are the counts??? MN and IA are both up.... Unless you count them against the long term average. SD? Kristi pulled the plug on the brood count, everyone knows that. Well should you even go? What do the numbers say? I personally say I will just go, regardless of any info, because it's what I like to do. If there's a stack of birds or very few, it doesn't matter to me. I've not been in the sport very long, but can anything replace a bird dog working cover and flushing a game bird? I will do whatever I can to promote upland hunting, but number one, I will go regardless of any prediction/brood count/etc.
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Where did you see the MN and IA roadside survey results for this year? I do not see those published anywhere yet.
 
Woollybob said:
Where did you see the MN and IA roadside survey results for this year? I do not see those published anywhere yet.
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They are not published yet. I was getting on my soap box and preaching a little bit and wearing my heart on my sleeve. It seems to happen to me when I get thinking about pheasant hunting, especially this time of year. Sorry if I jumped the gun!🙃
 
UplandHntr said:
If you wait to go or make your decision based on a gov funded cackle count you may not be a hard core pheasant hunter..
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I think that is a fair assessment, however, there is a substantial amount of "casual" pheasant hunters out there that likely base whether they are going to hunt once or twice this season on those counts. I don't personally know of any other pheasant hunters where I hunt anymore regardless of the count. People in the area I hunt stopped going a decade or more ago. Most of the posters on this site are probably not what would be considered a "casual" upland bird hunter.
 
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