Prairie Chickens

R

RutCrazed

Member
Well, it is almost that time of the year again! I consider the dove hunt to be the "first" hunt of the year, but I enjoy following the dogs around and flushing birds over point more than just sitting and waiting, so the prairie chicken hunt is my first bird hunt of the year. I have asked several questions in the past about how, when and where to hunt these mythical birds, but I really feel like this is the year I finally put all the pieces together!
I am not excited that it will still be hot, or the opener is on a Monday, but I am very excited to get out and start watching the dogs work wild birds again.

Good luck to everyone this fall!
 
The chickens have become my favorite hunt, period. I am still a greenhorn, only at it for a couple of years so far. I chase them with a pair of labs (just one this year, unfortunately) and have had success. It takes putting in some miles, but the birds are there to be found. Chicken hunting brings you to some unique, amazing country. They are the true native game bird, and they live in wild, amazing places!
 
matto said:
I'll be out the 20th or 21st. I'm hoping for some reasonable temps that weekend and the dogs are getting their feet sprayed with tuf-foot every day. They're not excited about that, but they love chicken hunting.
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Man I’m glad you said that about the tuf-foot, I swore last year to start early so today is the day!
 
Kansan said:
The chickens have become my favorite hunt, period. I am still a greenhorn, only at it for a couple of years so far. I chase them with a pair of labs (just one this year, unfortunately) and have had success. It takes putting in some miles, but the birds are there to be found. Chicken hunting brings you to some unique, amazing country. They are the true native game bird, and they live in wild, amazing places!
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I grew up hunting the deserts of Utah for chukar, and while I love hunting pheasants, I find a lot of the same solitude hunting the wide open spaces for chickens as I did hunting chukar. The lack of sheer cliffs, vertical inclines, boulders and razor sharp talus is a bonus. 😂
 
We went out Friday , with the recent rains roads were pretty limited on what you can get to. Be careful out there or you will end up stuck. stay off of the black roads.
We did end up shooting a couple of chickens we will have try to get the other member of our group his first Saturday evening
I think we are going to let the chicken crowds do their thing Saturday morning and see if we can find a few doves.
 
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BrownDogsCan2 said:
We went out Friday , with the recent rains roads were pretty limited on what you can get to. Be careful out there or you will end up stuck. stay off of the black roads.
We did end up shooting a couple of chickens we will have try to get the other member of our group his first Saturday evening
I think we are going to let the chicken crowds do their thing Saturday morning and see if we can find a few doves.
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This morning we were socked in by the fog. We tried dove hunting but it was pretty slow. We left our dove stuff in a draw and walked up into the hills. There was a nice breeze and the chickens were in places they should have been. Patrick and I shot another chicken each today. Unfortunately Mike wasn’t able to get his. We hunted doves this evening and added 10 to the 10 that we shot this morning.
Pat has been coming up and we have hunted doves together the last 3 or 4 years. Mike is his grandpa and my first cousin and came along last year. With doves opening on a Monday I convinced them to hold off a couple of weeks and we would walk chickens.
Was some work, and my gosh it was humid yesterday. But we had fun, I think they will be back.

On another note we didn’t see or hear a single quail. But pheasants seem to have done well. We walked up pheasants both days which has never happened to me. Pheasants on the roads , young most just starting to show color along with a good number of mature older birds.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
This morning we were socked in by the fog. We tried dove hunting but it was pretty slow. We left our dove stuff in a draw and walked up into the hills. There was a nice breeze and the chickens were in places they should have been. Patrick and I shot another chicken each today. Unfortunately Mike wasn’t able to get his. We hunted doves this evening and added 10 to the 10 that we shot this morning.
Pat has been coming up and we have hunted doves together the last 3 or 4 years. Mike is his grandpa and my first cousin and came along last year. With doves opening on a Monday I convinced them to hold off a couple of weeks and we would walk chickens.
Was some work, and my gosh it was humid yesterday. But we had fun, I think they will be back.

On another note we didn’t see or hear a single quail. But pheasants seem to have done well. We walked up pheasants both days which has never happened to me. Pheasants on the roads , young most just starting to show color along with a good number of mature older birds.
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One of these days I'm gonna have to come up that way again and give it another go. Not when it's 90 degrees and definitely not sleeping in the truck again 😂
 
Dogs came down with kennel cough on 9/13. Vet recommended "no hunting" for this past weekend. I'm travelling to go to a wedding this weekend, so now I'm looking at 10/4-10/5. fingers crossed...
 
We hunted doves a little bit Sunday morning in the rain before we had to leave. We didn’t shoot many. I left them for awhile to got walk about. I ran into a small group of quail. 6or 7 little ones not very big at all. I don’t know how the made it through the recent torrential rains. It was cool watching mom and dad pretending to be hurt trying to distract Walls.
We ran into another covey about the same size and age on the road driving out.
I stand corrected, a little more hopeful for the quail.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
We hunted doves a little bit Sunday morning in the rain before we had to leave. We didn’t shoot many. I left them for awhile to got walk about. I ran into a small group of quail. 6or 7 little ones not very big at all. I don’t know how the made it through the recent torrential rains. It was cool watching mom and dad pretending to be hurt trying to distract Walls.
We ran into another covey about the same size and age on the road driving out.
I stand corrected, a little more hopeful for the quail.
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Quail are looking as good as they have in a decade in my AO. Lots of young ones, both early and late hatched. I’ve got a couple of good sized coveys living right around my house. Been an absolute joy to see them every day and watch them grow up.
 
I went out on Friday morning (9/19). The fog was thick and everything was soaking wet from the overnight rain, including me after about 100 yards. Dogs were working a hillside and went into some trees in the ravine, I heard growling and fighting, I hollered and they came running up the hill, one covered in drool, the other in blood. When the got closer I smelled the skunk!! The good news is the blood did not belong to the dogs, the bad news is we were about 15 minutes into the hunt and they had both been sprayed by a skunk. We continued hunting, found a covey of quail and had a flock of chickens flush out ahead of the dogs. I could have taken a passing shot but was hopeful we could get a point, which we did not. The Garmin said I went a little over 5 miles and dogs over 10. Luckily I had brought the kennel, as I usually just let the dogs ride in the truck. I wiped them down with Goop hand cleaner and we went back home for some baking soda, dawn soap and peroxide baths.
In summary, I got soaking wet, we didn't get a chicken and the dogs fought a skunk......it was still better than going to work that day. 😂
 
RutCrazed said:
I went out on Friday morning (9/19). The fog was thick and everything was soaking wet from the overnight rain, including me after about 100 yards. Dogs were working a hillside and went into some trees in the ravine, I heard growling and fighting, I hollered and they came running up the hill, one covered in drool, the other in blood. When the got closer I smelled the skunk!! The good news is the blood did not belong to the dogs, the bad news is we were about 15 minutes into the hunt and they had both been sprayed by a skunk. We continued hunting, found a covey of quail and had a flock of chickens flush out ahead of the dogs. I could have taken a passing shot but was hopeful we could get a point, which we did not. The Garmin said I went a little over 5 miles and dogs over 10. Luckily I had brought the kennel, as I usually just let the dogs ride in the truck. I wiped them down with Goop hand cleaner and we went back home for some baking soda, dawn soap and peroxide baths.
In summary, I got soaking wet, we didn't get a chicken and the dogs fought a skunk......it was still better than going to work that day. 😂
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Ahh nothing better than a good skunking… I have a wonderful story of a direct hit on the last day in BFE South Dakota
 
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