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BirddogGSP

Active member
Just moved here from IL and looking for some advice to save some time and gas $.
Went for a quick hunt on Friday. Tons of public land to hunt but the quality varies greatly.
For my quick jaunt I hit a WmA and some WIA. The WPA seemed more likely for duck hunting and not pheasant. I hit two WIA one with good cover but no adjoining crops and another with cut corn adjacent. Is that the norm?
 
I'm assuming that the crop land is private property. So the land owner can do what they want with it.

Public land gets hammered and even more so this year because of the covid crowd and mild weather.
 
My experience with WIA's is - "meh". There are some quality WIA's and WPA's but overall the WMA's rule. There are tons of WMA's with surrounding crop land. We hunt that stuff the most. Most of the dumb birds are dead, and like Gimruis said, the public land has gotten pounded this year. You'll have to hunt harder for less, and hope for some hard freezing weather, then some snow to even things up a bit in the WMA sloughs. Overall we had a great year, buy things have gotten way tougher the past few weeks - at least for us.

On a more happy note - my buddy and I only fell through the ice three times last weekend :)
 
Yellowdawg said:
My experience with WIA's is - "meh". There are some quality WIA's and WPA's but overall the WMA's rule.
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I'd agree with you there in the WIAs being so-so. I've found a couple honey holes spots, however they seem very dependent on the crops next door (beans being better than corn, or if the corn is cut, then it's the same as if it's beans).

You definitely need to do your research on the WIAs. Don't expect to show up to one blind and be impressed.
 
BirddogGSP said:
Just moved here from IL and looking for some advice to save some time and gas $.
Went for a quick hunt on Friday. Tons of public land to hunt but the quality varies greatly.
For my quick jaunt I hit a WmA and some WIA. The WPA seemed more likely for duck hunting and not pheasant. I hit two WIA one with good cover but no adjoining crops and another with cut corn adjacent. Is that the norm?
Click to expand...
Where abouts were you if I may ask? Just generally, the county is fine. I don't need the address if you found any honey holes haha I'm pretty familiar with the western part of the state so I can try and point you to some areas to focus.

And your question about WIAs, I'll say, sometimes. Like I said in my other comment, you really have to do your research on WIAs. One thing with MNs WIAs, is it's basically garbage farm land or the farmer/land owner would farm it or lease it to a farmer. So there won't be any management done on it, it's just whatevers there. And since it's garbage farm land, what I've found is the grasses that grow there don't seem to be the grasses pheasants prefer. Granted, I am generalizing for WIAs I've scouted/hunted, but in the area I hunt, I've looked at most of them. Which is why I don't focus on WIAs at all other than the couple honey holes I've found that I can pick up a bird or 2.
 
Last Saturday I decided to try hunting WIA only. Went to 5 different locations. Two of them had the grass as short as my lawn. Two others had better grass but as mentioned nothing that really supported birds. The last one had everything needed to support birds but gauging from how the grass looked by the driveway, I’m guessing I was about the 500th person to walk it
 
I have the opposite opinion. Areas that I go to in MN ... WIA out perform WMAs ... by a significant margin ... unless there is a foot of snow on the ground. Then yes ... the WMAs with their winter cover are the place to focus on.

Pheasants can hide well in grass that is barely knee high, my Brittanys do amazingly well in that type of cover ... pinning birds that I suppose run around others.

WMA management is best in SW and WC MN ... if you get further away from those area ... the management can be sketchy or inconsistent too.

WPAs used to be the best in both ND and MN, but I have found their management to have decreased significantly (either ignored, farmed or over grazed). I could see farming a portion of a WPA once every 10 years or so with a legume, but some places have been farmed nearly fence line to fence line for multiple years ... in areas where grass is quite rare.
 
Interesting debate going on.
So if I'm hearing this correctly...
WIA might be good early season before the grounds get pounded by people and weather.
WMA are better once the cold, snow hit.
So the real secret is finding good cover by food source and water..

On another note, any recommendations for hunt clubs that don't cost an arm and leg? I'm willing to drive an 1 hour from the metro area. I'm most concerned about quality of birds(flyers) and cover.
 
BirddogGSP said:
Interesting debate going on.
So if I'm hearing this correctly...
WIA might be good early season before the grounds get pounded by people and weather.
WMA are better once the cold, snow hit.
So the real secret is finding good cover by food source and water..

On another note, any recommendations for hunt clubs that don't cost an arm and leg? I'm willing to drive an 1 hour from the metro area. I'm most concerned about quality of birds(flyers) and cover.
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I've been to just 2 hunt clubs nearby. One is called Orlando Game Farm. It's down by Welch. You don't need to be a member and the bird prices seem reasonable. I've been there twice when I was training my dog but seems like a decent enough place.

The other is called Caribou Gun Club. Same thing, don't need to be a member to hunt there. They're down in Le Sueur.
 
BirddogGSP said:
On another note, any recommendations for hunt clubs that don't cost an arm and leg?
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The horse and hunt club in Shakopee has an awesome sporting clays course. You don't need to be a member to use it.

You do, however, need to be a paying member to shoot their pen raised birds which will cost you an arm and a leg.
 
I would second Caribou gun club. Prices are reasonable and you don’t have to be a member.
 
BirddogGSP said:
Interesting debate going on.
So if I'm hearing this correctly...
WIA might be good early season before the grounds get pounded by people and weather.
WMA are better once the cold, snow hit.
So the real secret is finding good cover by food source and water..

On another note, any recommendations for hunt clubs that don't cost an arm and leg? I'm willing to drive an 1 hour from the metro area. I'm most concerned about quality of birds(flyers) and cover.
Click to expand...
WMA's are good all year long, not just late season. You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you save them for late season.
 
If you're in the north metro, sand pine pheasants has really good fliers. It's up by St. Cloud. Good cover up there too. Orlando is a nice place, but I've been out there before where the birds didn't fly very well. It's cheap and close so I like that. If there is a good snow, the game farms cover can start to become really thin.
 
Preserves are having a banner year this year undoubtedly due to Covid. I'm betting many if not most will be running low or out of birds before long.
 
BirddogGSP said:
Gimruis and super90.
public or private birds?
I want to have some hope for remainder of season:)
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Them came off the only private spot I can hunt. And only a few times. After deer season.... was on public today... seen a bunch. Real flighty. Only 1 close enough to take home
 
I went again today for about 2.5 hours and bagged 3 more roosters. After that snow this past week, I had a hunch on where they would be grouped up, and I was right. The area I hunt northwest of the Twin Cities didn’t get as much snow so it wasn’t too bad walking yet. I found birds in cattails and a small standing cornfield today. Easy to see the amount of bird activity around with a few inches of fresh snow on the ground. I intend to go one more time before the season closes. I hope we don’t get too much snow this week. It makes for some very tough walking.
 

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