Might provide more details later.
December 19th, public land hunt, SW MN.
1 rooster in the bag. Knocked down at sunset at quite a distance, on my 3rd shot. I assumed he was winged by the way he went down. When I got up there, Honey wanted to keep going. She finally caught up to him, but he did a flip and disappeared. We searched for over 10 minutes. I stepped down all the snow around there. Nothing. Finally, she came back and caught his scent a mere 3-4 feet from where he was last seen and marked by the feathers Honey knocked off him. I had stepped down on the spot where he was hiding. He must have been right on the ground and tried to wait us out. Another rodeo ensued, but she hog tied him this time.
The first rooster of the day, hit on the 2nd shot, through thicket branches, went down on the other side of the thicket. I finally found my way through to find Honey on point at a clump at the base of some thicket plants. I coaxed Honey and she went around counter clockwise to about the 11 position. Rooster popped out at 3. I could see it, but not her. I called her over, and she tracked down along the thicket. Another bird flushed. It is possible it was the same one.
Had one I tickled at the first spot and another, right before the bagged bird, that I missed.
12 hens, 3 roosters seen at first spot. 6 hens and 3 roosters at the 2nd spot in the last 1.5 hours of the dsy. 3 roosters flushed relatively close by and 3 were further flushes.
It took an hour longer than usual to drive through the cities in the snowstorm in the morning. Didn't start hunting until 10:30 or so, I think. It snowed off and on during the hunt. Sometimes wet and causing issues with my glasses. 3-4 inches on the ground when we arrived and a little more when we left. 23-25 deg, 10-15 mph wind out of the NW, and then N. Fresh snow made for wet pants.
We had a mixture of jumpy birds and birds that held until we were closer. Birds were around thickets at the first spot, and thicket and snow clogged wetland grasses at the 2nd spot.
