Nebraska Opening Weekend Results

N

NOPLCLKNEB

Banned
I know I'm starting this thread a little early, but damit, I'm getting excited! I know its going to be another challenging season throughout Nebraska but I bet there are some hot spots.

Please put as a minimum:

....# of birds harvested/Pheasant/Quail/Prairie Chickens

.... general area of hunt...Southwest/Northeast ect.

.....number of hours spent hunting.


Good Luck to all! Hope there are some birds somewhere in Nebraska this year.:thumbsup:
 
0 birds harvested, 0 birds flushed

Southwest NE, west of McCook

7.9 miles walked (tracked using endomondo), 2.15 of this in a field that I flushed 6 hens last december

There was 1 bird shot in a field next to me but that was the only one he flushed. The game and parks were driving around tracking collars and doing interviews. One of the girls had seen 2 birds harvested, the other 0.

Not sure what to think of this...
 
Opener Report

7 hours in the field Saturday (SW NE, east of McCook). 2 guys with 3 experienced dogs.

12 birds flushed, 2 Roosters harvested
8 quail harvested


Pheasant numbers are way down. Compared to 3 years ago, I would estimate down 90-95%. 2 years of drought and heat, 2 years of emergency haying (killing any second nesting attempts) and destruction of habitat is taking its toll.

Quail number were OK. Moved multiple coveys.
 
SW Nebraska (NW of McCook)

Sat
6 hunters for 7 hours hunting time 4 roosters harvested, pushed +- 25 birds

Sun
6 hunters for 4 hours hunting time 1 rooster harvested, pushed +- 25 birds

5 roosters in 11 hours of hunting with 6 guys

66 hunter hours

13.2 hunter hours per rooster harvested


Last year (2012) opening weekend same area....57 hunter hours / 26 roosters harvested = 2.19 hunter hours per rooster harvested

603% more time per harvested rooster 2013

2013 = .83 harvested roosters per hunter opening weekend

2012 = 4.33 harvested roosters per hunter opening weekend
 
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i never hunted NE so i dont know how to judge the success rates but seems kinda low??? are the crops still standing in that part of the world??? they are full bore harvesting in my neck of the woods...

anybody see or move any quail or prairie grouse??? i seen loads of quail & herd 7-10 roosters daily this spring in south western south central NE along with turkeys wonder whats going on in NE & if its worth heading that way say late DEC or early JAN??? looking for quail pheasant & prairie grouse... no prairie grouse harvested even??? whats up??? damn that drought!!!

well there goes NOPLCLKNEB guess he ruffled to many feather with a certain fellow UPH member thats a shame lol better stay on your Ps & QS boys
 
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Southern Panhandle

Hunted the opener solo with my young lab. Hunted mostly private land North of Dix/Potter. Didn't make it out until afternoon on Saturday. Got one rooster up in the first 10 min of hunting (missed it BTW). That was the last rooster I saw all weekend. Hunted all day on Sunday with no success. I did hear one rooster just as legal shooting hours started on Sunday, but I couldn't find it.

Lots of corn still standing. Millet mostly cut, but still in wind-rows. Hot & dry weather for this time of year.
 
yes here in MN the trees were a must hunt any trees with a little grass & or cattail near water held birds crops also helped big time cut or not...

good luck guys hope its just the standing crops & birds being spread out is why the birds are not being seen???
 
SW Nebraska

Hunted Saturday and Sunday - all public land. Saturday my buddy and I put up ten birds (6 roosters and 4 hens) with three making it into the bag. Sunday, just me, put up five birds (4 roosters and 1 hen) with just one making it in the bag.

Gotta work on that whole shooting thing! On the flip-side the dogs did great!

Overall I actually found the cover to be better than expected, though I was expecting it to be pretty terrible. Hunted all CRP that hadn't been grazed. CRP adjacent to corn seemed to work best for us.
 
South Central

Not all doom and gloom
My hunting partner and I hunted sat. and sun. on public land with our two dogs.
Saturday - 6 birds in the bag by 11a.m. with 4 missed birds. Put up well over 30 birds.
Sunday - 6 birds in bag by 10 a.m. with one missed bird. Put up only about 20 birds but probably 3/4 were roosters.
not alot of hunters out this year we actually had this piece of public land to ourselves both days. Never thought I would see that in my lifetime. Last weekend we took a couple kids out for youth weekend and saw more hunters then which is a good thing if you ask me.
 
Saturday
I walked 5.5 miles. Had one shot at a rooster and missed. Saw another wild one that flew out a 1/4 mile a head of me. It was hot and dry but had a good point on two hens by the girls. Zero birds harvested but we saw 5 roosters and 3 hens sitting beside the road!:10sign:
I saw hunters everywhere. Sometimes several different groups in one field. Looked dangerous to me!

Sunday
Got out a little late but I still walked 3.15 miles before it got too hot for the dogs. Saw two roosters and one hen. Zero birds harvested.

Monday
Weather changed to cool and damp. 34*F with W/C of 29*F. My young dog pointed about 1/2 mile into a public field and a rooster flushed that I shot. A few seconds later another flushed and I killed that one too. Then two more flushed as I stood there with my empty SxS.
I went to another field and killed my third for my limit.

Today, by my Astro I hunted for one hour and four minutes and walked 2.73 miles so today was excellent.

On Saturday and Sunday I walked 8.65 miles in 3 hours and 46 minutes.

I think the population is definitely down!
 
hunted on private land in SE Nebraska on Saturday, a buddy should of had one. Saw 5 total, only one in range. Came across a big covey, about time! I was tempted to shoot but chose not to.
 
Southwest of Holdrege

My new best friend, who I met thru this forum, and I started out with no dog trying the WPA's and WMA's south & east of Holdrege. Those places needed crowd control! So, we tried some private land he had permission on 2 years ago. Permission still good! So, we walked & walked & walked. Stripped out about half a square mile of tall grass surrounded by harvested corn fields. Half Saturday, half Sunday. Shot a beautiful old rooster on Saturday. Had spurs that could have come from a Turkey! Then a youngster on Sunday just as we were about to call it quits 25 yards from the truck. Not exactly wholesale slaughter, but we were happy. It was so dry not sure a dog would have helped. Kudos to the forum for hooking me up with a new like-minded friend.
 
A Gentleman and a Scholar too !

Rem1196 and I had a very nice time hunting together this past weekend. We didn't see many birds but we sure had some wonderful exercise. One thing for sure, he is a "Cracker of a Shot" and that is just about as good as it gets. Heck, I would hate to be a pheasant out there and see rem heading my way.

I am looking forward to our next hunt together. The good folks of Nebraska were very friendly to us. Still a bunch of standing corn in the area we hunted but the combines were running full bore. I don't know if the hunting will improve much once the corn is all cut.

All the best to the hunters on this forum and especially to rem1196, also my new best friend. Thanks very much.:)
 
Hunted in the pain handle area on some Federal land. Not exactly typical pheasant cover as it seems to be no where near cropland but it was good. The group of four of us killed nine roosters and 11 sharpies in four days. I'd like to say because the population is down but I don't think that is the case. Saw and heard plenty of birds just there was no field edge, windrow, or road to stop them once they started running. Might have been able to cover those field if we had thirty or forty folks that all had dogs. Busted one good covey of sharpies in the thickest grass I have seen in three years. Hunted a Walk in on the way home another huge field plenty of pheasant sign put up two roosters and one hen. No shots on the roosters, so young had to take a double look to see any color on them, tails looked like grouse fans instead of pheasant butts. The folks in Oshkosh were wonderful and the dinner their has chicken gizzards that made this southerners toes curl.

Will be make a trip back to Nebraska later in the year a little to the southeast to hit our prairie chicken honey hole and chase some roosters.

Have a Good 'Urn,
bones
 
Hunted SW Nebraska during the weekday, cover looks similar to last season some better, some worse. Flushed 20 plus hens and only 6 roosters. Ended up with a few for the day.
 
opener

Hunted last weekend for the opener. Very marginal cover again this year in SW NE and probably the worst I have seen it in the last 20 years. Heard around 6 or 8 shots all morning Saturday. Several CRP fields have been plowed under and are now corn. Hunting was tough, walked a bunch and saw few roosters and hens. Managed to bag 3, hot conditions had several birds running in front of me at times. Seemed like I was hunting in CO as poor as things went. Tough going again this year out there looks like.
 
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