Mountainfarmer
New member
Been lurking around the forum this fall, after looking for some grouse hunting info.
In any case, the lady was out of town for the Holiday so I took my 7 month old GWP, Paco, out to the Holiday Motel for his second go at wild pheasants this year. We hunted opening weekend, with limited but some success.
In anycase, with the cold snowy weather on Christmas morning, we hunted all the best looking shelter belts we could find south of Julesburg. No luck on shelter belts but did see tracks here and there, so we knew there some birds around.
Just following the Walk in Atlas around during late morning, we stumbled on a double set of pivot corners that had the best looking CRP I had seen all year, would have been above average habitat on a good year. First two corners yielded nothing but a snow covered puppy, and no tracks. In the third corner, Paco got birdy and then locked up. I took a step closer and a hen exploded 20 feet in front of me. I was excited to have the dog get on even a hen at that point. Paco then started to move again, and with that 15 to twenty birds burst in to the air, all within about 40 feet of where I was. I dropped two roosters with my two shots, and then continued to watch the remaining 3-4 roosters in the flock fly off. It was great to see that many birds on public land in Colorado this late in the season. One rooster was young and the other was a second year bird.
After this, we hunted some more pivot corners, and only put up another hen.
On the way back towards home, we stopped in some high cut wheat that I have been in for a few years, it has a great shelter belt around two thirds of the field. It had stopped snowing about 2 hours previous, and man were there tons of tracks almost everywhere within 75 yards of the belt. Dog was going nuts, but with the weather nice by now, all the birds did was run around in the 2 inches of fresh snow and laugh at us. I guess I know where I am going to head with more people, and or 6 plus inches of snow.
In any case, the lady was out of town for the Holiday so I took my 7 month old GWP, Paco, out to the Holiday Motel for his second go at wild pheasants this year. We hunted opening weekend, with limited but some success.
In anycase, with the cold snowy weather on Christmas morning, we hunted all the best looking shelter belts we could find south of Julesburg. No luck on shelter belts but did see tracks here and there, so we knew there some birds around.
Just following the Walk in Atlas around during late morning, we stumbled on a double set of pivot corners that had the best looking CRP I had seen all year, would have been above average habitat on a good year. First two corners yielded nothing but a snow covered puppy, and no tracks. In the third corner, Paco got birdy and then locked up. I took a step closer and a hen exploded 20 feet in front of me. I was excited to have the dog get on even a hen at that point. Paco then started to move again, and with that 15 to twenty birds burst in to the air, all within about 40 feet of where I was. I dropped two roosters with my two shots, and then continued to watch the remaining 3-4 roosters in the flock fly off. It was great to see that many birds on public land in Colorado this late in the season. One rooster was young and the other was a second year bird.
After this, we hunted some more pivot corners, and only put up another hen.
On the way back towards home, we stopped in some high cut wheat that I have been in for a few years, it has a great shelter belt around two thirds of the field. It had stopped snowing about 2 hours previous, and man were there tons of tracks almost everywhere within 75 yards of the belt. Dog was going nuts, but with the weather nice by now, all the birds did was run around in the 2 inches of fresh snow and laugh at us. I guess I know where I am going to head with more people, and or 6 plus inches of snow.
