MN report

Got out Thursday through Sunday last week with 3 guys and figure I owe a report. I was out in the SW area and we did pretty well. Thursday the wind was tough, but still managed to get 3 birds between me and another guy. My dad did alot of posting around the truck haha

Friday, we got blanked. Saw birds, but just never came together.

Saturday in the rain we got a 3 man limit. Saw alot of birds, would have been done by 1 if we never missed but took until the last walk of the day to get our limit.

Sunday only hunted until 1130 as it was getting hot. Our group bagged one bird before leaving, should have been 3.

Overall, alot of birds. Plenty of hens. Seemed like a lot of young birds. Think only one real long tailed bird. One bird had the shortest tail I've ever seen in a fully colored out rooster. Surprisingly not a ton of hunters out. Guessing the wind, Saturday rain and Sunday heat kept some guys home. Guys were still out, but I've seen much worse over MEA weekend.
 
Bob Peters said:
It rained on me too. I was in the truck when it started. Waited for it to let up, but still got sprinkled on a little. I didn't really change my hunting strategy.
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Yeah rained for maybe an hour where I was. Heard the guy at the front desk of the hotel that morning saying it rained a bit overnight too.

Also didn't change anything for us, other than maybe helped the birds stink a bit.
 
Honey and I hunted SW MN Thursday with 2 other guys and one other dog, on public land. Extremely dry, until mid afternoon when a thunderstorm hit! Took a break during the rain from about 4 to 5, and then the grasses were cold and wet.

We ended up with 5 birds in the bag. 2 are immature, late hatchers. My gun somehow connected with 3.

Going back out again today.

Looks like there could be more rain next Wednesday

Approaching the storm...

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Long day...

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Day 2 of a 4 day hunt. SW MN, public land. Darn dry, but the storm yesterday afternoon may have helped a little. Still a lot of runners. Honey chased one 330 yards before it stopped in front of a thicket and I was able to get it.

Started the day with 5 guys. A 6th guy joined us mid day. We ended up with 5 birds. My gun somehow connected with 2. Well, 3, if you count the rooster, with the bionic butt, that trailed feathers for 50 yards and surfed the wind at Mach 3.

Birds are, on the whole, very jumpy -- even the hens. Running hens too, not just roosters.

Saw a weird, half sun dog (only colors on the right side of the sun), that was also very short:

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7 birds with the dogs (2 were from yesterday):

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One day hunting trip to SW MN ... Hunted Friday only.

> Cover is absolutely the thickest and tallest it has been in many years. No grass cut this year on emergency haying declarations and the early rains made the grass especially thick and tall. Long blue stem was easily 5+ feet tall in several fields where I do not even remember it growing. The thick cover was taxing (at times) to walk and a bit tougher on the dogs than usual.

> Birds are there but boy are they running. We had birds that we could see some moving in the grass ...

> Did not see very many hens ... very few actually

> 2 of us shot 3 birds ... the only 3 roosters that flushed close and in range ... two birds came from a new spot (new to us anyways :) )

> before 9AM we saw birds moving about ... including a group of 10 (all) roosters on a gravel road next to a large private and posted CRP field

> even though the area had rain Thursday afternoon/evening ... only the first walk had damp grass. All dry by around 10:30

> the rain did make the gravel relatively dust free

> I would say we saw more hunters than usual and two of my "spots" had vehicles on them yesterday :(

> Saw three WI trucks and one from IA ... first time (I think) I have seen nonresidents in Minnesota


Last bird of the day
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The spot in SW MN where we "saw" them running was in short brome grass out of the wind. The grass was just moving away from us like a wave. This is twice now in the last week or so I have seen birds moving in the grass ... they can get pretty low when they want to.

Agree ... most of the time the running was indicated when the dog went on point and then repositioned ... again and again. Many of the spots were not near edges where (in theory) you could heard them to a place where they felt the need to fly.
 
BRITTMAN said:
The spot in SW MN where we "saw" them running was in short brome grass out of the wind. The grass was just moving away from us like a wave. This is twice now in the last week or so I have seen birds moving in the grass ... they can get pretty low when they want to.
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Those waves are fun. You never know what might flush.

BRITTMAN said:
Agree ... most of the time the running was indicated when the dog went on point and then repositioned ... again and again. Many of the spots were not near edges where (in theory) you could heard them to a place where they felt the need to fly.
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Honey will go on point and wait for me. Then stalk. If she takes off running, it is because she somehow knows the bird has taken off too. Sometimes they flush out of range, but often she gets them up within range, if I have started running when I see her take off.

The 330 yard bird yesterday was a point, stalk, run, with her out running me. Then me catching up to her on point. Repeat. Repeat again. Then stalked him 50 yards to the edge of a thicket. Final point. Flush right, turned left, head shot, dead bird in thicket, flapping. I may have been a little out of breath.
 
Day 3 of a 4 day hunt in SW MN, on public land. Group of 10 got 5 birds, but a couple guys were duck hunting in some cattails on a Wma part of the time (and got 9 ducks in the morning and 2 ducks in the evening). My gun somehow brought down one long spurred 3rd year bird. Honey had a great find and retrieve on another bird, that another guy downed, that ended up 100+ yards from where it touched down, in a clump at the base of some dogwood.

Find cut corn, or even tilled corn, and you will find birds.

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Hunted SW Saturday and Sunday. Both days were easy limits for the two of us. We lost count after 60, but I’d guess we’re closing in on 80 flushes for the two days. We will do one good walk in the morning before heading home. The dog is tired and beat up.
 

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After a relatively easy miss on a fantastic point to start the day, a lot of walking on a new spot that was devoid of birds, and a cripple lost in the thick cattails, managed to take one down in the final hour in SC MN today, on public land.

He is one of the only spring of the year, non-late hatch birds I've taken this year.

Scenting conditions have improved somewhat. Birds might be holding a little better now, but hunting pressure is probably canceling out some of that.

Saw a husband and wife swan team on a WMA pond, with 2 "yutes." (My Cousin Vinny reference)

Flushed 7 deer today too. Good luck to the firearm venison hunters tomorrow.

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Been pretty damn good so far... expessially once the moisture hit southern mn.... he's 9 .. and you could tell in the heat. Once the moisture came. It was like hunting with a 5 year old dog again
 

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Limitless said:
Honey and I hunted SW MN Thursday with 2 other guys and one other dog. Extremely dry, until mid afternoon when a thunderstorm hit! Took a break during the rain from about 4 to 5, and then the grasses were cold and wet.

We ended up with 5 birds in the bag. 2 are immature, late hatchers. My gun somehow connected with 3.

Going back out again today.

Looks like there could be more rain next Wednesday

Approaching the storm...

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Long day...

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No crate.The propper thing to do.
 
BRITTMAN said:
Six pheasants (all hens) were attempting to run back around me but when I had them pinned between me and the dog they flushed 1 or two at a time.
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I love seeing those groups of hens. I always start calculating how many roosters they might produce the following spring.
 
Honey and I had a wet start to the day, leaving the cities at 6 AM for our 3 hour trek to pheasant territory. The weather algorithms were off and the rain went further into the morning than they anticipated. It stopped between 8 and 9 AM, in SC MN, where we were hunting, but the cover was too wet for the birds. We hunted for about 2 hours at the first WMA, mostly wetland cover, but the birds weren't to be had.

We got to the next WMA about 11:30, and waited half an hour to give the wind more time to dry out things. The cover there is more field grasses. We made about a half mile loop where I thought there would be birds, and Honey was able to pin down a mover after picking up the scent about 100 yards prior. I brought down the young rooster (on the 3rd shot), and had another that flushed wild with a hen, that I missed. We made a 2 mile loop next, and had a couple roosters flush out of range and a good hen point. Honey got birdy halfway through the loop in some slough grasses 30 yards from the cattails. She readjusted a couple times and was just going back on point, when the bird made a move on the ground, above the cover. She almost had it, and I assumed it was a hen. It ended up being another spring of the year rooster, and I connected on the second shot. That was about 1 PM, and we were driving out by 2:30. A little mist picked up again as we were leaving, so it was good timing, and a nice, albeit overcast, end to the weekend.

These 2 are the 2nd and 3rd spring of the year, non-late hatch roosters we've harvested from that spot, and the only spring of the year birds we've taken in Minnesota this year, I think. All the others have been 2nd or 3rd year birds, or late hatch, underdeveloped birds (2 of those). This location has a lot of thickets, so maybe they were able to survive the wet spring by hiding in that cover.

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