smdmz
Member
Hi people. I just joined this forum, and hope to glean any bit of knowledge I can from yall. I'm going to try and contribute just in case someone finds my advice/reviews valuable. I just posted in the "Introduction" forum, so see link at the bottom of this post if you're interested. Long story short: I'm new to CO, grew up in Wisconsin hunting pheasants then shot a few in Iowa during college.
Seeing that I'm pretty fresh to CO still, I know very little about where to go other than what I've gathered off this forum, other similar forums, and pheasant population data from the state's wildlife studies. So currently my approach to finding good places is to get out and check every SWA and walk-in place on the map. If that place sucks, I head east. That's the plan.
SO last weekend me and my buddy took our French brittany spaniel and GSP (respectively) and decided to try our luck on the Jean K Tool SWA near Fort Morgan. I was surprised that we only saw 1 other pair of pheasant hunters out there for the start of opening day. Should've been an indication regarding the amount of birds that we'd find there: zero. Not even a hen. Plenty of waterfowl guys bangin away along the South Platte. But we walked the length of the SWA on the north side of the S Platte and back - saw a couple whitetails and a dog-sized rabbit but that's it.
Got an always-delicious McDonald's bfast before we decided to give Jean K Tool the ol' double deuce and check out the Elliott SWA, about 10ish miles northeast of Fort Morgan. It looked much more promising - less woods and more fields. We parked in the 3rd parking lot (I think there are 4) about midway along the SWA. Again, it looked like it was more suited for waterfowl hunting. But a group of 4 guys and their lab were leaving when we got there, and they had a rooster they accidentally flushed while walking back to their truck, and they said they heard more cackling to the southwest. So instead of heading off into the drier field to the northeast, we headed off into the cold, swampy mess those guys came out of. Flushed a couple hens and a few snipe, but other than that - nada.
I think the northeastern part of the Elliott SWA might be worth a look, but me & my buddy are going to head out to Yuma county tomorrow. Any suggestions would be nice. We did knock on a few doors out near those SWA's because there looked to be some nice private land, but everyone was either unwilling to let us hunt there, told us there were no pheasants on their land, or wasn't home. Bummer. On to the next...
Seeing that I'm pretty fresh to CO still, I know very little about where to go other than what I've gathered off this forum, other similar forums, and pheasant population data from the state's wildlife studies. So currently my approach to finding good places is to get out and check every SWA and walk-in place on the map. If that place sucks, I head east. That's the plan.
SO last weekend me and my buddy took our French brittany spaniel and GSP (respectively) and decided to try our luck on the Jean K Tool SWA near Fort Morgan. I was surprised that we only saw 1 other pair of pheasant hunters out there for the start of opening day. Should've been an indication regarding the amount of birds that we'd find there: zero. Not even a hen. Plenty of waterfowl guys bangin away along the South Platte. But we walked the length of the SWA on the north side of the S Platte and back - saw a couple whitetails and a dog-sized rabbit but that's it.
Got an always-delicious McDonald's bfast before we decided to give Jean K Tool the ol' double deuce and check out the Elliott SWA, about 10ish miles northeast of Fort Morgan. It looked much more promising - less woods and more fields. We parked in the 3rd parking lot (I think there are 4) about midway along the SWA. Again, it looked like it was more suited for waterfowl hunting. But a group of 4 guys and their lab were leaving when we got there, and they had a rooster they accidentally flushed while walking back to their truck, and they said they heard more cackling to the southwest. So instead of heading off into the drier field to the northeast, we headed off into the cold, swampy mess those guys came out of. Flushed a couple hens and a few snipe, but other than that - nada.
I think the northeastern part of the Elliott SWA might be worth a look, but me & my buddy are going to head out to Yuma county tomorrow. Any suggestions would be nice. We did knock on a few doors out near those SWA's because there looked to be some nice private land, but everyone was either unwilling to let us hunt there, told us there were no pheasants on their land, or wasn't home. Bummer. On to the next...