Resident Opener-any reports ?

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BirddogGSP

Active member
I think this weekend was the residents opener. Any reports out there? I've not seen any reports about the youth hunt last week. I've pushed my date out from the Oct. 15th to mid-Nov. Hopefully that will give more time for the crops to come out and the "young roosters" time to grow more.
 
We were preparing the hunting lodge for the 2nd week when we will have 10 guys hunting. Just outside of Miller we took back roads and saw 25 roosters. Most of them were in groups of 3-5 and they were all big boys. We only saw one hen. We didn't seen any roosters that were scrawny or small. Not sure what it means, but we are hoping to get shots at a few. Most of the farmers are done with Soybeans and headed into the corn soon. We saw a few fields with strips cut for hunting. I think tree rows, slews and ditches will hold a lot of birds once the corn is down. Hunting might be a lot harder after the first week when the young and dumb are thinned out.
 
I just got back from west of Redfield. A group of us have been hunting the same public area for about 5 years. In the past we limited out every year within the first hour. This year six of us took 6 birds off the same place. The number of birds we saw was way down from prior years. And we saw a lot of very young birds. I saw a couple that looked about the size of a quail. We did hit another public area and took 2 more off that.
 
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Yes, thanks Zeb - we're heading for Faulkton on the 23rd (how far west of Redfield were ya)...even if the bird numbers are down we seem to always have a great time with our group and cathing up with some old friends while we're there! :cheers:
 
JMD said:
Yes, thanks Zeb - we're heading for Faulkton on the 23rd (how far west of Redfield were ya)...even if the bird numbers are down we seem to always have a great time with our group and cathing up with some old friends while we're there! :cheers:
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We were probably closer to Faulkton than Redfield. In the Orient/Miranda area. We did see birds but not the numbers we have the past 5 years. I think everyone will be hunting a little longer and harder this year to get their birds. Good news is that the beans are nearly 100% harvested and there is a lot of corn coming out. I've heard reports that due to the warm, dry, windy weather we have had the past couple of weeks that some of the corn coming out is down to 12% moisture. That's unreal for this time of year.
 
Dakotazeb said:
We were probably closer to Faulkton than Redfield. In the Orient/Miranda area. We did see birds but not the numbers we have the past 5 years. I think everyone will be hunting a little longer and harder this year to get their birds. Good news is that the beans are nearly 100% harvested and there is a lot of corn coming out. I've heard reports that due to the warm, dry, windy weather we have had the past couple of weeks that some of the corn coming out is down to 12% moisture. That's unreal for this time of year.
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Man, 12% that's hard to believe...must be making up for the last couple of years - either uber dry or wet - sounds like here in Indy. Orient huh, we usually hit the Orient for dinner at least a couples times while we're there, if we're not at the Steak-Out in Faulkton. Most of our hunting is done in/around Faulkton on private land - you don't happen to know Bernadine Selting do ya? Seems like everyone in SD knows here whenever we're there! :laugh:
 
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JMD said:
Man, 12% that's hard to believe...must be making up for the last couple of years - either uber dry or wet - sounds like here in Indy. Orient huh, we usually hit the Orient for dinner at least a couples times while we're there, if we're not at the Steak-Out in Faulkton. Most of our hunting is done in/around Faulkton on private land - you don't happen to know Bernadine Selting do ya? Seems like everyone in SD knows here whenever we're there! :laugh:
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Sorry, don't know Bernadine.

Great food at the Orient Bar. Anyone that is in the area should be sure to stop there and eat.
 
wil be at the orient bar on the 4th of nov. got to love there ribs. we also hunt faulk and hand countys on private land.
 
I commented on a different thread, but the bird count in Bennet County was OK on the 1st day, but mostly gone by Monday.
 
Redneck, 2 hens? Is it that bad? We've been going to Arlington for years the 1st part of November then again after Thanksgiving and hunting North and a bit East around Lake Ponsett-can we expect a $1000 trip to take our gun for a 6-7 hour walk? The Hotel operator told me the locals have been seeing more young birds lately with a late hatch but now you got me concerned.:eek:
 
Hunted the southern part of the state and the bird numbers are down, obviously. There are plenty of birds out there, but not like last year. The rain did not help either. We shot our birds both days, but alot of VERY young birds. Several times this was heard "HEN......No it isn't, bang" haha. I saw more real young birds this year than ever before. Makes for easy hunting early, hard late. Good luck.
 
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