MN report

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.
 
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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 ...
 
BRITTMAN said:
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 ...
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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.
 
BRITTMAN said:
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 ...
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Aren't you supposed to walk in yourself to flush the pheasant?
 
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.
 
My young dog had a nice point on a rooster. I dropped it but did not hit it hard enough. I marked the spot where it landed and we headed on over. Dog was already looking. I stood my ground and let him work and work the immediate area. He would start to branch out a bit and I would get him back where I thought it was going to be. We did this for what seemed like 10 or more minutes, but I am guessing it was 5 minutes tops.

Well then I noticed he was about 20 yards out in front of me. He pointed and then the rooster hopped in the air (I suppose trying to take flight) and he caught it when it landed. I said "Well done my young man (dog)."
 
Had a great hunt today in SW.My shooting started off pretty poor but eventually I warmed up and managed an easy limit. Made the long trek back and even beat the family home.

Roosters held nice and tight and gave perfect shot opportunities. Couldn’t have asked for anything more
 
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I stopped counting at 200 pheasants when I was deer hunting last week by day 4. The amount of deer, wild turkeys, and pheasants I saw was like I've never seen before in 25 years hunting in Central MN. The wildlife is 100% flourishing. One morning I thought a flock of mallards had landed on the field and as it became brighter I realized they were pheasants numbering near 50.

It had to be the fake winter we had. There's no other logical explanation for this explosion in wildlife.
 
Did you wake up shortly after? :p I bet that was a sight, great stuff!
gimruis said:
I stopped counting at 200 pheasants when I was deer hunting last week by day 4. The amount of deer, wild turkeys, and pheasants I saw was like I've never seen before in 25 years hunting in Central MN. The wildlife is 100% flourishing. One morning I thought a flock of mallards had landed on the field and as it became brighter I realized they were pheasants numbering near 50.

It had to be the fake winter we had. There's no other logical explanation for this explosion in wildlife.
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Just ignore goose, he hits every state thread to stir the pot. Not sure why he is even on here, contributes nothing of value just offers up opinions that are juvenile takes. I have access to alot of acres in western Mn and if you have the habitat you have birds.
 
Munster927 said:
I've had days in MN on public land that were just as good as my best day ever in SD on public. That's all I'll say about MN vs SD.
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Same is true with ND.

The best part about SD is it keeps the overall hunting population in MN down to a manageable level. The issue in MN is not the bird count it is the total number of hunters ...
 
We picked up 2 nice roosters today in middle MN. Saw three roosters in range on three walks between 9:30 - 2:00. It had been quite a while since I had hunted this area, but we had no time to run far out west. Gorgeous weather. Wish we had all day.

Cover was incredibly thick and, in many places, quite tall. Snow had knocked down the lighter grasses but was mostly gone. Most fields in this area had been turned over - twice with not much food available to them closer to the cover.

Older Brittany was absolutely dialed in ... pointing and holding roosters ... finding the dead birds in crazy thick cover.

Roosters held tight ... hens were flushing incredibly wild are far away ... go figure.
 
I got out once this week. Had to drive a bit to pick up my venison so I decided to bring the dog and maybe try some new spots along the way.

First spot was very wet and windy, so that was short lived. Wasn’t really feeling it anymore but stumbled across some state land and had a good feeling about a piece of cover I saw. Pup flushed a big ole rooster and nothing… not sure if I fumbled the safety or my gun malfunctioned, but couldn’t get a shot off. Oh well, hopefully get out farther west next week for a day trip.
 
Same happened to me yesterday. Dog had a big rooster pointed and pinned. It took us about a minute (maybe a bit more) to reach the dog. Rooster flushes and my gun gets "tangled" in the tall, sweet clover stems. None of the three roosters cackled. They all had been in this rodeo before.
 
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