If you have a piece of public land that is 130 acres, or whatever size, it's really not easy to know if you should hunt or not if someone else has gotten their spot to hunt. What's the minimal distance from them, where are they going, compared to where your going? It's why I don't really like to hunt public land because you do run into these situations. I will be going opening weekend in MN also. But, it's tough........ I definitely try to respect others out there.
opening weekend
- Thread starter Hoster05
- Start date
Well just two weeks out and I just lost my opening weekend trip. My hunting partner's company is slow (as usual) and he couldn't afford to pass on a project they offered him to oversee. I'm very disappointed!! Ever happened to any of you? Your past misery might make me feel better. Kidding of course. Sorta,
happened to me last year, no one could commit, so me and my pup went solo; i actually dont mind hunting solo, i find it alot easier to hunt and to be more successful. now if your buddy is the one with the dog, then that sucks...
west central MN is on its way I've been told from a friend in Cyrus; but SW has been getting hammered with precip it sounds like; last year i beleive most was still up past deer opener?
Hoster05
Member
I am pumped to go out however I might skip out this weekend. I think once the sun shines tomorrow people are going to get excited and the crowds will be huge this weekend. Crops are still in anyways, I think the best hunting is going to be November. plus my local haunt has been giving up walleyes like crazy lately
Goodluck to all you guys going out, would love to hear your reports on the weekend especially throughout different regions. Not traveling to my normal areas this weekend, instead going just outside the metro saturday morning to see if we can bump into one or two uneducated birds. Mainly to get the dog out, and some regions of the state are dealing with flooding right now, so waiting on that to settle.
Hunt1GSP
Active member
Haven't hunted MN much since moving a few years ago( no dog) but have a young GSP so I'm going out any chance I have just to get him experience. Even if I walk ground that's been hunted I'll still go. With my last GSP, I killed lot of birds after I watched groups leave the ground I was going into. Can't kill them from the couch, I know, been doing that.....
spoonbill82
Member
Headed to Western MN for the opener with my sons.
gimruis
Well-known member
Per the Star Tribune on Wednesday, only 15% of the corn has been harvested statewide and only 37% of the beans have been taken out. And with the wet weather this week, you know they weren't doing it. I think I'll wait until there's a better chance of seeing more roosters.
Dakotazeb
Well-known member
Going to give up the South Dakota Resident Only opener tomorrow and head over to the Canby area to hunt with an old high school buddy. Hunting around Canby was really dismal last year and I'm not getting any encouraging reports thus far this year so it might be tough again. I do have private land to hunt so I won't be fighting the crowds. At least the dog and us will get some exercise. 
We went out hunting just west of Granite Falls area for opener. While sitting in our vehicles waiting at our spot from like 7:15 till 9:00, we saw lots of birds flying around in the crp areas, to/from a picked corn field, and also had a large corn field on the East and North of the WMA. We thought we may go in and have our limit in 1/2 hour or so....... But we hunted pretty hard all day and only got 2 young roosters. Really wet out there, and really thick stuff. Maybe the birds were just running on us or getting into the cattails we couldn't get into. Tough Day of hunting. Corn was being picked as hunting so that's good.
Dakotazeb
Well-known member
Two of us hunted 2 quarters of CRP and found one rooster that was buried in the weeds and held super tight for a nice point by Bree. That was it. Beans were out along one side of one quarter but other than that there was standing corn around lost of the land. I'm quite sure that if there were more birds around they were in the corn. A better strategy would be to hunt the CRP next to the corn the last hour of the day.
benelli-banger
Well-known member
If memory serves, the REALLY heavy rains from July were South of a line between Clara City and Dawson, basically...this is the rain that may have amounted to a foot or so in some cases, but at least 6" in many areas...like I said, that is the route I drive to SD, and I made note of the fact that a guy would be wise hunting North of hwy 7 on that route between Montevideo and Dawson, or even between Clara City and Dawson, but I don't know if being that far East makes sense or not...
Yellowdawg
New member
We hunted Saturday and today until 1:00 and managed 10 birds between three of us. Wet, wind and a hard snow made it an unusual opener. Thank God for Muck boots. We shot a mix of young and mature birds. I'm sure we got up some young roosters but couldn't ID them for sure so - no shot. It does suggest a late or second hatch was successful, so that's good. Lots of hunters out.
did some duck hunting friday and during the day driving around we saw a decent amount of pheasants around, most of the beans were still up but alot of corn was taken out and they were pushing to get more out. we hunted a piece next to corn, and saw quite a few birds, got our 3 man limit in a couple of hours, then sunday morning between 2 of us we managed 1 each, lost 2 in the cattails the dog couldnt find. it was pretty good, plenty of hunters out there too