Opener

jeffstally said:
I have to sit this opener out. We are on our way home from a 5 day hunt in north dakota. I don't think the wife would be too happymif I peeled out in the morning. I will probably head west for a day mid week.
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Well Jeff we dont all have a slacker job like yours were you get to leave when you want to!:) J/K ill let you know how it all when.
 
Seriously folks, some of us are stuck working. Get those smart phones clicking tomorrow morning so we can at least have a little taste of the action. Remember distinguishing landmarks, water towers, GPS coordinates are also keys to sharing your opening morning glory. ;)

I'll be standing by to give a whoop-whoop to the first to post of the season. I'll buy the virtual beer... :D

Daisybuck
 
Tbear said:
Well Jeff we dont all have a slacker job like yours were you get to leave when you want to!:) J/K ill let you know how it all when.
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Ha! I usually have a 2 year old and 6 month old home with me during the day. I need a break or two or I would go crazy.

I just got an offer to hunt with a friend of a friend next week in SD. They have 4 guys hunting private leased ground and staying in a lodge. They said I can hunt and stay for free because they are short on dog power.

Time to start buttering up the wife...
 
Anyone see any young birds

I have been hereing from farmers picking that they are seeing really young birds barely able to even fly. :rolleyes:
 
I hunted yesterday on familar ground that I have hunted for many years and it was the worst opener I can ever remember. Our group of 4 saw about 10 birds the entire day on land that in the past we would typically see 50 to 100+ birds per day. Very discouraging, I guess we take for granted how good the past 6-7 years have been.
 
I hunted the same (public) ground I've hunted on the opener since 2007. Although it started slow (we flushed almost as many deer as pheasants in the first hour or so) I had my limit by 11, my buddy had shot at his by the same time. After lunch, we had his birds by 1:30. One bird was older, 1 indeterminate (I didn't care that much to try any aging technique), and 2 young of the year birds. We flushed several other young roosters. As a bonus, we were serenaded by goose music all morning.

I definitely saw more boards than I did last when two of us failed to bag a bird, and walked many, many miles with few flushes. I believe there were probably as many as 2008 and more than 2009 (the wet, snowy opener when no crops were out). There were not as many birds as 2007. We were surprised by the number of birds. The hen to rooster ratio was concerning. I usually see more hens, but overall, considering the abysmal winters and nesting seasons the past two years and the the dour reports, I was pleased with what we saw. The one unaccounted for variable was hunting pressure. It was very light leaving much public ground unhunted late into the morning and giving us first crack at unhunted birds. Any one who sat the opener out really missed a prime opportunity for solitude on public land.
 
Our group did good. Our group of 7 got 12 birds Saturday. Sunday we all split up and me and my buddy got our limit by about 2pm.:D Like some others had said I didnt think the hunting presure was all that bad. Lots of Roosters not as many hens.
 
I like my feild as first pick Tbear and stop pissing on my shoes !:mad:
Im just happy My dog pointed a Rooster for the lady in are group so she was able to bag her first wild bird :D Happy Hunting and Stay off my feilds TBEAR
:cheers:
 
:coolpics: I was more than happy to be in our group as everbody with the long tail dogs are great bird dogs even if they are mini labs :D
 
Hunted Public on Saturday.. last year saw 50+ birds, saw 2 this year. Got the one young rooster off of public.

Sunday hunted my place and limited out in the first 20 minutes with two old football birds. Looks like my winter cover helped, but birds are WAY, WAY down. Off to SD this weekend for a week.:)
 
Got a report from some friends that hunted SW of Canby. They hunted land that we normally do quite well on for 3 hours on Sunday and saw 1 hen. No one had hunted it on Saturday. The landowner and his neighbors say they are not seeing any birds and haven't seen any all summer. So some areas got hit quite hard apparently.
 
We hunted west central MN today. There were not a ton of birds, but enough to keep us interested. We ended up limiting out (2 guys) by 1:00.

There were for sure less birds than last year in the areas I was familiar with but it is definitely not a total wash out.
 
jeffstally said:
We hunted west central MN today. There were not a ton of birds, but enough to keep us interested. We ended up limiting out (2 guys) by 1:00.

There were for sure less birds than last year in the areas I was familiar with but it is definitely not a total wash out.
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Nice job:D
 
Yes I did. New to me. Bought it used figured I would not feel so bad if I put a couple scatches in it. I like it a lot and shot prety well with it last weekend.
 
Went out yesterday for about a 15 minute walk and put up 2 roosters and wiffed both of them.:D It was so dang windy I could not hear them flush. And both times I was not watching what was going on for just the right couple seconds. Roosters 2 Me 0.
 
FCSpringer said:
Went out yesterday for about a 15 minute walk and put up 2 roosters and wiffed both of them.:D It was so dang windy I could not hear them flush. And both times I was not watching what was going on for just the right couple seconds. Roosters 2 Me 0.
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Thanks for the report and your honesty:D

I'm looking forward to getting out and wiffing a couple myself:cheers:
 
I'm interviewing for my MN job over the next couple days. The thought of leaving the state I've come to know and love so much puts my stomach in knots. However, Minnesota sounds like a great place for a family like mine (everything outdoors), at least until those MN winters come around. Not sure how the wife is going to adjust to ice-fishing/snowmobiling, but with a good heater I'm sure she'll enjoy the solitude. Well, I guess I should rest easy for now b/c I don't have the job yet:rolleyes:
 
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