Last 2012 hunt!

H

Husker

New member
Went back last weekend to close out the 2012 season and had great success! We kind of do a combo hunt at the end of the year, we save our doe tags and hunt about anything we can for a couple days. The results were 11 Coyotes, 8 Does, 6 Coons and 46 Roosters. The birds are bunched up and a little tricky to get to but when you figure them out it's a ball! The snow was deep and we had to pull a few pickups out but it was worth it. Lots of birds left and the hen to roosters looks great! Hope everyone had a great 2012 and the 2013 is even better!

(We hunted until noon Monday morning and this was the take)

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WOW! that's a real smorgasbord you got there. I'm a little surprised the Coon was out and about though.

Nice job !:thumbsup:
 
Nice combo hunt there Husker. I will be headed out to the Tolstoy area tomorrow for one last pheasant hunt. I have a friend in the area that has a hunting operation (family farm/all wild birds) and every year he invites a number of buddys out for his annual Rooster Reduction Hunt. Thin out a few roosters so there aren't so many to carry over the winter. I was out there a couple weeks ago and there were thousands of birds bunched in the tree lines and food pots. The hunt isn't one for good dog work other than retreiving. But a lot of shooting will be had by all.

Then with the pheasant season behind me I'll start to concentrate on the spring NSTRA field trial seaaon. I have my entries sent in for 7 trials.
 
Photos Please!

Hello Dakota Zeb,

You will have to post pictures of the birds in their habitat and your successful hunt. What I wouldn't do here in Iowa to see 1000 birds!:)
 
Sorry but was unable to get any pics. Wind was blowing about 30-40 mph with drifting snow so the conditions were not good. However, lots of birds. 10 of us limited out in less than 2 hours. Would have been sooner without the wind. A rooster in that kind of wind is a very difficult target. :) The first tree line, with milo food plots along side, we pushed probably had over 2,500 birds in it. It is a sight to see. I probably saw more birds today than many less fortunate hunters see in a lifetime. I feel very blessed to have such an opportunity.
 
Sounds like a fun day. I know it's probably not your favorite kind of hunting, but it still get's my heart going seeing that many birds. Pheasants in that kind of wind can humble a guy quickly. Funny how those birds covey up like that. I hunted an area up there in dec that I had hunted in oct. Farmer told us not to bother hunting north of a certain spot, as he had not seen birds there since it got cold. We went up there one day and there were no tracks where there had been hundreds of birds in oct. No hens, cocks or anything. They had all moved 5-6 miles south and bunched up in ten or twelve bunches. One group was 2k plus. I didn't think they were pheasants at first. Waves of 2-300 at a time. Pretty amazing birds.
 
The sun has set another SD Pheasant season--hope everyone had a good time and lets hope ma nature is kind this year so we can once again have an enjoyable fall chasing the wild rooster.:cheers:

JIM
 
Another try?

Hello DakotaZeb,

How about getting some shots for us this week. I believe the forecast calls for sunny and mild all week. Would really enjoy seeing that many birds flush and the cover they stay in! I am sure others on here would like to see it too!:)
 
last two day hunt

Hunted the Miller area over New Year's and saw hundreds upon hundreds of birds on the farm that I hunted, but only managed one bird and one shot. The ice crust was thick and every step was like a car door slamming. Most of the birds were out ahead of me, and close flushes were all hens. Good dog work though, with 30 or so points, so I'm glad I went. The walking was really tough and noisy though. Glad to see a few of you guys had good end of the year hunts. Fun hunting in a little snow, but the ice was too much for my 55 year old legs. The weather was great. Almost no wind both days. I can't wait until next season. I learned after two trips alone this year that's it's not so easy by yourself. There were four of us on our trip in Nov. with two dogs and we saw fewer birds but had more success in getting them. Those roosters out there are sharp and full of tricks, that's for sure. I had an altercation with a half frozen pond on this trip. I'm sure glad I read that post. I saved me and the dog from getting wet, or worse.
 
KBell said:
Hello DakotaZeb,

How about getting some shots for us this week. I believe the forecast calls for sunny and mild all week. Would really enjoy seeing that many birds flush and the cover they stay in! I am sure others on here would like to see it too!:)
Click to expand...

Sorry, but the season is over and the place I hunted is 140 miles west of me so I won't be back out there until next year. Also, it's tough to get photos of large numbers of birds flushing like that. I've tried in the past but they never turn out. Just looks like a bunch of little specks in the sky. Besides, I'm too busy shooting and reloading to snap photos! :)
 
On December 28th, I had some work near Howard so I went early and hunted a field south of Fedora that I owned at one time. I was pleasantly suprised to see about 300 birds on the place. They were wild but I finally got a rooster pointed and shot, plus additional hens pointed in one hour of hunting. .
I got a couple of guy's to run up 1/5/13 to the same spot and some ground not far away. Pretty nice weather when we got there, and we saw good numbers of birds out feeding on the way up. We saw only about 40 in the same field, and once again got a lot of hens pointed to include several by Lulu, a 7 month old pup from my last litter, but no roosters. The snow was kind of mixed in this field and not too hard to walk in . The next was very tough snow conditions, crusty by and large and hard on my 64 year old knees. The results were the same, good number of points and kicking, all hens. I suspect a lot of birds were out feeding as we saw tons of track in the first field, less in the second.
The wind had come up and the snow started blowing so we called it a day at 3:00 so we could watch the Packers clobber the Vikes. The roads were slicking up with the around 30 temps and blowing snow in some areas.
Sunday I went out back of my house. I had not seen many birds lately, but thought I could pick one up. Their were a pretty good number in there at Thanksgiving. The snow had blown into the Creek worse than I had guessed and it was very tough walking. No birds, just deer. Guess the pheasants moved in with the neighbors cattle.
So, the season did not end exceptionally well, but the birds are around and with a little luck we will have a decent season next year. I did get over a shooting slump, putting my last 8 birds of the season down with as many shots.
I appreciated the great work my dogs provided a lot more and had a number of good days, just not as many as in the past few years.

Happy New Year to All !

Uncle Buck
 
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