PLEASE... I'm dying here!

A5 Sweet 16 said:
Yep, the 2 most important pieces of advice for hunting with a flusher. Pay at least 246% attention to said flusher, & carry your shotgun "ready". Many youtube hunting videos can teach bad habits. Depending on the situation, abiding by this advice can easily shorten your shot by 5-10 yds, or even more.
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How true this is. I spent a few years “ guiding “ some guys up in South Dakota. They had access to property and I had flushing labs. No matter how many times I would tell them to watch and follow the dogs, they wouldn’t do it. If was really obvious when they were on a bird. Sometimes I would even tell them to get ready, but inevitably when the bird flew they wouldn’t be ready or act like they didn’t even know what we were doing out there. I don’t care much about limits but it was frustrating for the dog.
 
carptom1 said:
I don’t care much about limits but it was frustrating for the dog.
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Experienced dogs DO care! They work their fool butts off to find & flush pheasants, & they deserve as much opportunity as possible to recover/retrieve them, which makes them even happier! So aside from the fact that being in tune with my dog makes ME the happiest, I owe it to my dog to shoot every rooster that gives me a chance.
 
I left my area around 7:15 am yesterday, very dewy and on the chilly side…45, 46….gravel roads near habitat were loaded with birds…hens with chicks, mainly…one road I drove I was forced to putt along at 2-3 mph…there were 75-100 birds in the 80 yards in front of me…that’s what I could see…8-10 hens and their broods, which varied drastically in size. It was like a cattle drive, but very small cattle that could fly. Fun regardless, should be real fun…??
 
benelli-banger said:
I left my area around 7:15 am yesterday, very dewy and on the chilly side…45, 46….gravel roads near habitat were loaded with birds…hens with chicks, mainly…one road I drove I was forced to putt along at 2-3 mph…there were 75-100 birds in the 80 yards in front of me…that’s what I could see…8-10 hens and their broods, which varied drastically in size. It was like a cattle drive, but very small cattle that could fly. Fun regardless, should be real fun…??
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I am hearing similar things from my area. Appears to be really good this year.
 
benelli-banger said:
Yes, June was dryer and warmer than the past several years here in NE MN…drumming count issued by DNR as of 3+ weeks ago suggest good #’s…not like ‘24, but good. Last year was super crazy good, despite wet, cool June. Last year was an anomaly, for sure. Nobody paid any attention to limits..very common.
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This is what I said, inartfully…and explained myself shortly thereafter
 
benelli-banger said:
Oh, grouse hunting last fall? I was careless with
my words…when people got their limit of 5, it was so common nobody made a big deal about it…usually it’s celebrated, kind of a big deal! I’ve never gotten a limit of ruffs, I don’t hunt them that much, I’m usually out on the prairie, but I’ll get a 90 minute walk now and again in the late afternoon on non-motorized snowmobile trails…I don’t bushwhack. The guys I know who hunt ruffs fairly seriously limited more often than not last fall…#’s were spectacular. This year is gonna be pretty good, probably not like last year, but we had a warmer, dryer June, not the case in ‘24. Over the past 50 years, our peaks for ruffs generally ended with a 9 or a 0…’79, ‘89, ‘99, ‘09…the year after those years generally were real good, too…for ‘24 to be a peak is interesting. I have a friend who keeps detailed diaries, as did his dad…going back to the ‘50’s…’79 is talked about like a super-cycle peak for ruffs…I remember ‘89 in NE MN…big #’s, but again, any of those decades ending in 9 or 0 were great…’11 was still quite good, too. ‘19 and ‘20 weren’t so much…I think ‘17 was looking like an early peak, but last year was off the charts. In the ‘09-‘10 timeframe, the norm for me was to flush a grouse about every 10 minutes, hunting trails in the afternoon, and that means I’m walking back out on the same trail….many you only hear, and can’t see, despite being 10’ away…or closer. And these are trails 15 miles from Duluth, they get hunted a lot.
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My reply
 
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