a buddy of mine usually heads up a trip from MS to SD for a 3 day hunt in November. This year, he lined it up with the farmer in the spring, but had to back out on account of his boss getting the COVID a couple weeks before the trip. the rest of us decided to go anyway and i brought my 1yo lab along to get see how she would do in the field.
after i got back to town, i kept looking at the weather and pestering my buddy about whether he had 4 or 5 days he would be able to break away for one more hunt before the season ended. i also looked into a shooting preserve in KS that is 5 hours closer to home and provides opportunities after jan 31. my dog is 15 months old and literally has 6 days of experience with pheasants, so even if we could make a trip work, he wasn't too optimistic with the prospect of success in the field.
on Jan. 18, my buddy informs me and another friend of ours that he is scheduled to be off Jan. 28, 29, 30 and suggests that we could leave after he gets off work at 7:00 on thurs. jan 27 and drive through the night to hunt the next morning, sat. and sun., and head back home sun. afternoon, drive through the night and make it back home before work monday morning.
i reached out to the shooting preserve in KS to see if they have any openings. he's booked through march.
the weather in SD looked favorable on the 10 day forecast, so i reach out to the the farmer whose place we hunt in november to see if he is able to accommodate 3 or 4 hunters those three days. he says we can use one of his places to stay, but he has friends coming from honduras that weekend, so we would be on our own without a guide. he explained that the late season with unseasonable weather would make the hunting more difficult than usual and couldn't make any guarantees about how many birds we'd find.
our efforts to include one more guy in our last-minute, impromptu road trip were unsuccessful. folks either couldn't get off on such short notice, worried about the weather, or didn't feel up to to long, overnight drive. so it was just the 3 of us planning a 2500 mile road trip in just a few days. to add to the excitement, the buddy who was able to take off on fri. found out he could also take off thurs. so the revised itinerary was to leave after work on wed., drive thru the night, arrive in SD thurs. morning, hunt thurs. afternoon, fri., sat. and sun. morning, and then drive back through the night to make it back to be at work before 9:00 mon. morning.
we were able to get out of town at 7:30 wed. night and arrived in SE SD at noon on thurs. after a brief stop for my buddies to get their licenses, we arrived at the farm house at 1:00 where the farmer's son was waiting on us. turns out, the hondurans were not arriving until midnight, so he was going to take us out that afternoon with his dog and see what we could find.
the plan was to hunt dried creek beds that ran through their harvested ag field and a few small crp patches nearby. the snow rolled in just as we got out of the truck and the temps dropped about 15 deg in 30 minutes. although he graciously encouraged me to turn my dog out with his i insisted that we let his seasoned dog go solo until my buddies had the opportunity to bag a few birds before my dog turned the afternoon into a circus. his english pointer made short work of the first ditch and we made it back to the truck with 2 roosters.
at the next stop our host told me to turn my dog out and as soon as she hit the ground, she decided to place a game of tag with the pointer. i knew it was going to be all down hill from there. to my surprise, as soon as we hit the grass and cat tails, she got to work quartering out in front of us and not interfering with the pointer as she did her thing. on the afternoon, my lab got involved with 2 or 3 flushes, including one under the steady point of the host's dog, and fetched up 3 or 4 of the three-man limit we had by 3:15.
fri. morning, we were invited to hunt with the hondurans, which put the hunting party at 8 guns, 2 guides, and 3 dogs. we hunted corn strips, grass, cattails, and cedar shelter belts and came back to the farmhouse with 24 birds.
sat. morning, we were invited to join the hondurans again. the hunting was a little more difficult and we scratched out 21 birds over 4 dogs in food plots grass, creek draws and shelterbelts.
the hondurans had to leave at 11:00 sun. morning to catch their flights in sioux falls, so the farmer's son hunted with us on a small island plot of grass and cattails in the middle of harvested bean and corn fields. we took 9 roosters in just under two hours. as soon as we got back to the farmhouse, we packed our gear and struck out for home at 1:30. we drove through the night and made it back to town at 5:30 mon. morning.
the trip was astronomically better than i expected it to be. we made it there and back with no traffic or car trouble. we had great weather, made new friends, did our part to improve international relations with honduras, created a ton of memories we will talk about for years to come, and my rookie dog got in on about 15-20 flushes and 20-25 retrieves in the 4 days we hunted. i doubt the stars will ever line up again for such a successful trip. i cant wait to go back.
after i got back to town, i kept looking at the weather and pestering my buddy about whether he had 4 or 5 days he would be able to break away for one more hunt before the season ended. i also looked into a shooting preserve in KS that is 5 hours closer to home and provides opportunities after jan 31. my dog is 15 months old and literally has 6 days of experience with pheasants, so even if we could make a trip work, he wasn't too optimistic with the prospect of success in the field.
on Jan. 18, my buddy informs me and another friend of ours that he is scheduled to be off Jan. 28, 29, 30 and suggests that we could leave after he gets off work at 7:00 on thurs. jan 27 and drive through the night to hunt the next morning, sat. and sun., and head back home sun. afternoon, drive through the night and make it back home before work monday morning.
i reached out to the shooting preserve in KS to see if they have any openings. he's booked through march.
the weather in SD looked favorable on the 10 day forecast, so i reach out to the the farmer whose place we hunt in november to see if he is able to accommodate 3 or 4 hunters those three days. he says we can use one of his places to stay, but he has friends coming from honduras that weekend, so we would be on our own without a guide. he explained that the late season with unseasonable weather would make the hunting more difficult than usual and couldn't make any guarantees about how many birds we'd find.
our efforts to include one more guy in our last-minute, impromptu road trip were unsuccessful. folks either couldn't get off on such short notice, worried about the weather, or didn't feel up to to long, overnight drive. so it was just the 3 of us planning a 2500 mile road trip in just a few days. to add to the excitement, the buddy who was able to take off on fri. found out he could also take off thurs. so the revised itinerary was to leave after work on wed., drive thru the night, arrive in SD thurs. morning, hunt thurs. afternoon, fri., sat. and sun. morning, and then drive back through the night to make it back to be at work before 9:00 mon. morning.
we were able to get out of town at 7:30 wed. night and arrived in SE SD at noon on thurs. after a brief stop for my buddies to get their licenses, we arrived at the farm house at 1:00 where the farmer's son was waiting on us. turns out, the hondurans were not arriving until midnight, so he was going to take us out that afternoon with his dog and see what we could find.
the plan was to hunt dried creek beds that ran through their harvested ag field and a few small crp patches nearby. the snow rolled in just as we got out of the truck and the temps dropped about 15 deg in 30 minutes. although he graciously encouraged me to turn my dog out with his i insisted that we let his seasoned dog go solo until my buddies had the opportunity to bag a few birds before my dog turned the afternoon into a circus. his english pointer made short work of the first ditch and we made it back to the truck with 2 roosters.
at the next stop our host told me to turn my dog out and as soon as she hit the ground, she decided to place a game of tag with the pointer. i knew it was going to be all down hill from there. to my surprise, as soon as we hit the grass and cat tails, she got to work quartering out in front of us and not interfering with the pointer as she did her thing. on the afternoon, my lab got involved with 2 or 3 flushes, including one under the steady point of the host's dog, and fetched up 3 or 4 of the three-man limit we had by 3:15.
fri. morning, we were invited to hunt with the hondurans, which put the hunting party at 8 guns, 2 guides, and 3 dogs. we hunted corn strips, grass, cattails, and cedar shelter belts and came back to the farmhouse with 24 birds.
sat. morning, we were invited to join the hondurans again. the hunting was a little more difficult and we scratched out 21 birds over 4 dogs in food plots grass, creek draws and shelterbelts.
the hondurans had to leave at 11:00 sun. morning to catch their flights in sioux falls, so the farmer's son hunted with us on a small island plot of grass and cattails in the middle of harvested bean and corn fields. we took 9 roosters in just under two hours. as soon as we got back to the farmhouse, we packed our gear and struck out for home at 1:30. we drove through the night and made it back to town at 5:30 mon. morning.
the trip was astronomically better than i expected it to be. we made it there and back with no traffic or car trouble. we had great weather, made new friends, did our part to improve international relations with honduras, created a ton of memories we will talk about for years to come, and my rookie dog got in on about 15-20 flushes and 20-25 retrieves in the 4 days we hunted. i doubt the stars will ever line up again for such a successful trip. i cant wait to go back.
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