MN report

[Limitless]

Thinking about it more, those 3 first year birds I got this past weekend could have been late hatch birds who just matured enough to get full colors by now. They may have been underdeveloped when the season opened, but since we are 4+ weeks into the season now, they've filled out. Either way, this year birds have generally seemed in low supply this season, in Minnesota, vs a typical year.

 

[BRITTMAN]

Limit this morning and did not take a shot. Both roosters pointed. Dog released off point and bird caught. Cleaning the birds there was no apparent shot in any of the four breasts. I do not typically take leg meat off caught - wounded (assumed) roosters. Did not see another hunter out and about ...

 

[Limitless]

Limit this morning and did not take a shot. Both roosters pointed. Dog released off point and bird caught. Cleaning the birds there was no apparent shot in any of the four breasts. I do not typically take leg meat off caught - wounded (assumed) roosters. Did not see another hunter out and about ...

That's one way to save on shells!

Were they spring of the year birds or 2nd year? Honey almost caught our second bird on Sunday -- a young one. Ran on the cover a little before taking flight.

 

[Bob Peters]

Limit this morning and did not take a shot. Both roosters pointed. Dog released off point and bird caught. Cleaning the birds there was no apparent shot in any of the four breasts. I do not typically take leg meat off caught - wounded (assumed) roosters. Did not see another hunter out and about ...

Aren't you supposed to walk in yourself to flush the pheasant?

 

[BRITTMAN]

I do both depending on the cover. In the cases above I was either standing next to or actually standing in front of the dog. If the cover is impenetrable or walking past the dog limits visibility of a shot to humans ... I let the dog go reposition - sometimes they end up over the bird or the bird starts to move. Once sight of the bird is made that close ... Generally speaking if the birds do not fly when I get that close or walk past my dogs, I know they have either moved or are wounded/dead.

A decade or more ago I was hunting with a group of people most of them I did not know well. My dog was 8 or 9 and experienced and it was Watonwan and Cottonwood County private land ... so gave it a try. Anyways I picked up 3 roosters walking past my dog's points. The guys I was with were getting irritated and said can't you let them fly. The third bird I threw in the air and it plummeted back down to the ground and my dog grabbed it. It was apparent that whoever hunted that land before us lost a few cripples in the grass. Two of the three birds I picked up ... I could only see part of the long tail feathers in the grass ... the bird was "buried/burrowed" into thick grass, but the tail was visible.