Maybe everyone should write their state representative and get the ethanol subsidies for corn ethanol switched to cellulose ethanol. That way we would have more switch grasses planted for ethanol and less corn. Also that would lower corn prices and make CRP programs look more enticing. I realize cellulose ethanol costs more to produce but I feel it would get a better support than just the farmers then.
Ramping Up for the 2016 SD Pheasant Season
- Thread starter UGUIDE
- Start date
UGUIDE
Active member
Conversions are EASY. I have seen many. All it takes is sheer bird numbers. Oh guess what we need more and better habitat to get higher bird numbers.
Never forget that the reason the the mild interest guys tag along is because of the one serious bird dog upland hunting junkie with the dogs.
Keep the main thing the main thing. Too many people get side tracked.
small munsterlander owner
Banned
I agree a lot of tag alongs follow guys with good dogs & land connects... I was trying to say instead of them relying on others maybe they can gain interest if they learned a lil about PF & habitat VS just show me the high bird #s they don't learn much from pheasant shoots ... If we educate some of these guys maybe they will open there pockets also??? I agree guys need to see birds...
I'm the cat herder in my group bringing guys to new states hunting new species etc. The fair weather game hog guys get old fast...
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The roadside counts are just a bonus for us if they are good. This is our groups big vacation where we all come together from 3 different states as we are all old high school buds, all approaching 50 years of age. All year long I dream of the beautiful countrysides and long dirt roads with zero traffic. The jokes, laughs, smiles and enjoying a good adult beverage together brings me back every year. Some days our group of five enjoys easy limits, others 5 or 6. I really don't care. What would we do with 75 birds for our 5 day trip anyway? The more years we go the less I want to clean 15 birds in the dark after a long day when we should be grilling steaks and sipping on a Jack and Coke. It's been 22 years since I bought my first hunting dog and have shot a lot of birds. I'm past that "shoot as fast and as many as I can stage". Some pushes I just leave my gun in the truck, throw on the GoPro, grab the video camera and video my buds. Other then 2013 I've never really seen the counts change how we do every year. Guess I'm just feeling nostalgic about SD this morning and really looking forward to November.
small munsterlander owner
Banned
Id happily clean 75 pheasants if it ever happens I like to eat pheasant VS buy chicken but we can't hit 75 pheasant I don't think we are poor shots lol... It takes about 60-90 sseconds to field dress a pheasant maybe 5-10min to do a 3 bird limit leaves plenty of time for adult beverages "crown & coke" & the grill...
This November im take n a bunch of newbie to SD pheasant guys no matter what the roadside counts say i Hope we are still going in 20 years like on another SD thread I read...
benelli-banger
Well-known member
we let them cool in a garage, lying on a piece of plywood. nothing at all is done to them. breast/thigh them when we get home. simple. have taken 1,000+ birds home myself that way. mostly nov-jan timeframe, they freeze at night and are well preserved, especially with their feathers still intact to protect the meat. i was incredulous at first..i wouldn't do it any other way.
UGUIDE
Active member
Hmmmm....Hank Shaw advocates aging pheasant fully intact for 3-7 days at 55 degrees for best flavor.
PS. Out at the farm last 4 days and seeing more and more broods. Some small and some 10 +. Locals are seeing birds too. Hot and dry for the most part but cover is thick. Some broods roosters are starting to color which is a good indicator or and early hatch.
benelli-banger
Well-known member
good to hear about bird #'s...my contacts are pretty optimistic as well. As far as bird care, even most opener's we do this...birds are all shot after noon, many in the evening, and it cools that time of year pretty well into the upper 30's or low 40's...gutting them exposes them to drying, fluids in the wrong spots, etc...full cleaning/freezing is ok, but they tend to thaw on the trip home, and then all that work to basically breast them and take some thigh meat off...much easier keeping them whole. one year a friend of mine kept his 15 from the last trip whole the whole winter, left them in his garage, and thawed them as he used them over the next few month or two..worked great, nature built them to be well protected as they are...I haven't taken that approach, but it works.
small munsterlander owner
Banned
I've never had a issue with meat drying out due to field dressing aka gutting a bird but u mite be 100% correct... If u rince birds out after u gut them then put on ice drain water as needed add ice daily or as needed I do that & birds are stiff cold & need to thaw a Lil b4 I cut or rip birds apart... Try some dry ice that will keep birds frozen also way better then just ice alone.. A quality cooler is a must also..
People never be leave me when I say guys really leave the guts in birds a hole trip plus age them that way I honestly never herd of such a thing till I started on this forum everybody has there own techniques on food preparation & bird care...
I'd much rather hear about the wild pheasants & the great looking cover thank you for the good news uguide...
benelli-banger
Well-known member
If I found this technique to cause spoilage even in small #'s I would quit using it, period. It does seem strange, I will admit, which was my initial thought as well when a buddy of mine shared it with me. Now, after doing it this way after many years, I have shared it with a dozen or more of my hunting buddies and they do it this way as well.
UGUIDE
Active member
I have good news. Speaking with one of our camp owners recently this individual states that he is currently seeing more birds than he has ever seen in his 30 years on the farm.
This is a very conservative individual and so coming from him this is a bold statement.
Usually it is difficult if not impossible to predict pre season bird numbers (as is the case at my own farm).
Nonetheless this is some of the most encouraging news I have personally heard in years. It is no surprise that some of the best habitat has produced some of the best reports.
Once again it is highly probable that the GFP forecast will NOT reflect the information I am receiving.
This is a very conservative individual and so coming from him this is a bold statement.
Usually it is difficult if not impossible to predict pre season bird numbers (as is the case at my own farm).
Nonetheless this is some of the most encouraging news I have personally heard in years. It is no surprise that some of the best habitat has produced some of the best reports.
Once again it is highly probable that the GFP forecast will NOT reflect the information I am receiving.
UGUIDE
Active member
Not sure but a collective assembly of intelligent people is usually the best approach.
A few things I do know is that it has been proven not to tell the whole story on pheasants and costs the state a fortune in mass marketing taxpayer $$ to counter the info coming out on report and try and keep people coming to the state. Dept of tourism will be first to tell you that.
Maybe one of the issues is you have like 30 routes between 3 east river areas and 5 for all of west river.
Another issue is pheasants home range is 1-2 miles for life and weather events are summarized at the state level for the most part. That is gross negligence when is comes to analysis.
There's plenty of opportunity for conservation reform and habitat optimization.
I can definitely agree with that. While I agree roadside surveys don't tell the whole story, it does a good interpretation with a broad stroke at the general population as a whole. When you have over 100,000 miles driven to compare year to year you should get a decent picture of the overall population. As well as the population changes. They could go with crow counts, which from my knowledge is even less accurate. I think saying that these routes are useless is a mistake though. Yes, cover may be different along these routes in a given year. It may be worse, or it may be better. That is why they take the average over 100,000 miles of road. Also to say that they are not intelligent people that are putting together these numbers and studies is undercutting the knowledge these people have gained from experience and schooling on the subject. It's easy for people to be an armchair quarterback until they are asked to do it better and cannot come up with anything.
Hey ya'll, I don't care what the reports say, I'm gonna make the trip to SD either way! I too love the numbers and the excitement they bring, but either way, you got to go out and get em. I may sound a little naive and over zealous,but this is my first trip to SD. The worst year there will be better than my best year in OH. My in-laws from SC and us make a trip to MN each year to see my wife's Grandparents, and a few of us take our bird dogs and slip over to Badgerland pheasant farm in WI. Last year we started to throw around the idea of heading over to ground and pound some public hunting. I know from what I have been reading, we are going too early (the last week of October). Grandma's birthday dictates the time each year. What my brother- in-law and I started planning as a hunters trip has now turned into a multi family sight seeing tour of South Dakota
Hopefully our old quail dogs will do OK on some wild pheasants, they do pretty darn good on the pen raised pheasants:thumbsup:
Hopefully our old quail dogs will do OK on some wild pheasants, they do pretty darn good on the pen raised pheasants:thumbsup:small munsterlander owner
Banned
Hey ya'll, I don't care what the reports say, I'm gonna make the trip to SD either way! I too love the numbers and the excitement they bring, but either way, you got to go out and get em. I may sound a little naive and over zealous,but this is my first trip to SD. The worst year there will be better than my best year in OH. My in-laws from SC and us make a trip to MN each year to see my wife's Grandparents, and a few of us take our bird dogs and slip over to Badgerland pheasant farm in WI. Last year we started to throw around the idea of heading over to ground and pound some public hunting. I know from what I have been reading, we are going too early (the last week of October). Grandma's birthday dictates the time each year. What my brother- in-law and I started planning as a hunters trip has now turned into a multi family sight seeing tour of South Dakota
Should also try MN pheasant hunting sometime u won't be dissapointed SD is king but if u come to MN already skip the canned WI hunt & try MN public we have birds trust me lol
Have fun in SD this year u sound like my type of guy go to SD regardless of the overly hyped up road side counts say...
My 1st trip was 2013 SD game & fish said bad numbers I had my best SD trip yet I been back 5 times since the 1st trip it is still a tie most birds I put in freezer on a SD trip...
SMO, funny you should bring up hunting in MN. We thought about doing both this year. But like I said this trip has turned into a sight swing tour and if I get a couple of days in I will consider it a blessing. This is supposed to be a once in a life time deal, but I'm hoping it will be be a hit with my bride and it becomes a yearly hunt. She loves to see our dog lock down and I think when she sees a covey of pheasants burst into the sky, it'll hook her. I know my kids are already to see it in person, as well as I am..
I must say, I have never cleaned or cooked a piece of paper, or had a report put game on the table. They have however got my juices flowing and my pump primed, as does this site. You guys are good group of bloggers that feed my addiction :thumbsup:
and if I get a couple of days in I will consider it a blessing. This is supposed to be a once in a life time deal, but I'm hoping it will be be a hit with my bride and it becomes a yearly hunt. She loves to see our dog lock down and I think when she sees a covey of pheasants burst into the sky, it'll hook her. I know my kids are already to see it in person, as well as I am..I must say, I have never cleaned or cooked a piece of paper, or had a report put game on the table. They have however got my juices flowing and my pump primed, as does this site. You guys are good group of bloggers that feed my addiction :thumbsup:
small munsterlander owner
Banned
SMO, funny you should bring up hunting in MN. We thought about doing both this year. But like I said this trip has turned into a sight swing tour
I must say, I have never cleaned or cooked a piece of paper, or had a report put game on the table. They have however got my juices flowing and my pump primed, as does this site. You guys are good group of bloggers that feed my addiction :thumbsup:
Them family Site seeing hunt trips can be tuff lol if u set a few days aside & are somewhat close to the MN/SD border do give me a pm I mite be out in SD the last wWK of Oct? Can maybe put a few birds in front of u etc?
What breed of dog do u run poyntem???
UGUIDE
Active member
Thats ALOT of miles to be sure. I admit I am a "recovering analyst" by trade.
The GFP biology and reports is a data point for reference and statistically accurate from a data collection point. For some reason it still has the ability to lead people astray based on how the data can be interpreted in context.
For example I noticed a new predictive model GFP is using where they measure winter snow fall and april-may rain and temps in 4 regions (all east river). The PPM has been north of all their predictions which is conservatively good.
It's the "missing" data that is the artform in determining where and when to hunt for places to hunt pheasant.
Also some cool road ditch interseeding projects going on as well (this is how we can optimize what we have in the private/public space). Read more about it on the Governors Habitat Website in the news section.