Opening day results

tuna

tuna

New member
Yesterday was opening day here in MA. Here's what happened.

Saw one rooster on the road in the morning on my way to work - no shot since I was driving.
Left work and got into the field around 1200.
Saw one hen about 15 yards ahead of me, chased her for a while, couldn't get her to fly - No shot.
Saw one rooster fly past (not flushed, heading to roost I'm guessing) - about 60 - 70 yards and high - no shot.
Had a rooster pop out onto the trail about 20 yards ahead of me. Chased it into cover, couldn't get it to flush - no shot.

Nothing in the bag, no shots fired, but I'm in the right place anyway since I saw 3 "shootable" birds (not counting the one on the road). I've got to get my head right for sneaking I guess.
I'm calling it a successful day hunting - 3 birds is a pretty good day. I used to think seeing 3 birds was a good SEASON. Heading out again Monday, hope you've all fared better than me.
 
Opened up this past weekend in MN I didn't get out until Sunday around 2 pm. Got 2 just me and the dog working some pretty big patches of CRP that, I found out later, had been hunted pretty hard. On Monday 3 of us were out and had our 6 birds in a couple of hours. Lots of corn still in the fields and lots of hunting pressure over the weekend ensured that we had to work a little bit to find the birds.
 
S.D. Opener

It was a wild opening day in S.D. Everyone that I spoke to had their limits early in the afternoon. Our group did great...started a little slow, but got much better later in the day. We had 13 people and had our limit by 6 pm.

I spoke to some friends in the are who had 18 guys and limited out in the first field they hunted. We could hear them shooting from where we hunted....they must have shot for 10 minutes straight. Sounded like a small army over there.

After getting back into town and sharing stories...most everyone had the same story....limited out early....was a little cold....done early, migrate to the lounge(s).
 
A group of 18-20 of us hunted Sat & Sun in the Gettysburg area on private land. We would have hit our limit if some people could shoot in the group! I saw 3 birds get up and I swear i heard 20 shots go off. I couldn't believe it when I saw them all fly away!

The Birds were wild as hell and did a lot of running. We could have used more dogs. Had a great time.
 
Location

We hunted up around the Huron, Yale and Iroquois areas. Lots of birds....lots of people too. It will be better in three weeks when all of the corn is out.
 
Charles Mix County Opener

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Wow - I guess you guys really are faring better than me! I've been out 3 days now, and I've seen a total of 4 birds! As much as I love New England, I would love to get out your way about this time of year. I don't know what it is, but we can't seem to keep a holdover population going, and we rely on stocking. One of these days I'll get out that way.
 
I hear ya Tuna. I was in New England last weekend with some work buddies of mine that are white tail deer hunters but swore that we would see lots of birds while scouting for their hunt in a few weeks. Two days of scouting and we got 1 bird (grouse) and one of the guys says he didnt see a phesant at all last year. Come out west (I live in Colorado and hunt Nebraska), completely different. My kids and I are headed to eastern Colorado on the 11th of Nov for opening day, they are both first year shooters and they both will limit out.
 
Keeps Getting Better

I went back hunting last weekend, didn't work real hard and still got four birds for the weekend. When I say didn't work hard, I mean lazy hunting....we walked one ditch and got three, then got one more on the way into town before dark beside the old farmhouse driveway.

I would have to say that when the corn is out and the temp drops, it's going to pothole hunting madness.
 
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