The opener was pretty tough for our group. We had some great points in our first pass through wheat stubble Saturday morning, but no birds were harmed in the process. We went to milo next, a field that I expected to be loaded, but we couldn't seem to get the birds to quit running and start flying. We tried a variation of things, but just weren't getting a lot of great shot opportunities and missed some birds we should've killed. Saw 7 coveys of quail Saturday, but didn't get a chance at many singles. There are good numbers of pheasants out there this year.....the weather Saturday just didn't help us to harvest many. We ended up w/ 5 in the bag at the end of the day, which is about 20 short of our usual opening day harvest. Several of us had the opportunity to get our limits and have nobody to blame but ourselves. We had 11 quail by the end of the day, 3 of which someone outside of our group shot, but my dogs found em' for the guy so he gave em' to me and I'm counting those as part of our day.
Sunday morning there were only 3 of us (me, my 14/yo cousin, and my dad). We started on CRP WIHA that had many hunters in it the day before. It was loaded with birds. We had a hard time distinguishing hens from roosters at first light b/c of the mist, so we let a couple of roosters fly away not wanting to take the chance of shooting a hen. We got a couple of real nice points in better light and took both of the roosters w/ one shot each. We finished the day at 9am with a final walk of a tree patch. 2 roosters flushed wild and a third was pointed. My dad and I shot at the exact same time and the bird came crashing down w/ 2 busted wings.
All in all it ended up being a great weekend. We didn't fill the tailgate full of birds for a bragging picture, but that doesn't seem to matter so much anymore. I had a great time with the exception of my house dog poking a hole in my friend's GSP puppy. Now I'm watching it snow outside wishing I could be out west instead of in this office. I know the guys are doing well out there today.
Best of luck to all! It's going to be a good season:thumbsup: