Resident season

BigRand

Active member
My father and I went out for resident season today. Pulled up to our usuall public area about 10 to ensure we had the spot we wanted. Watched groups of birds fly around the area for two hours. Three here, four there. Even had a rooster walk 15 feet in front of the truck. Noon finally rolls around and not another soul around. Found really good bird numbers and got our six in two hours. Pretty good day by all accounts. Except his 7 year old lab is limping now. On the shelf for a while at least. Get home and look my 2 1/2 year old lab over and she has a deep cur by her armpit. 12 stitches and an ER visit for her and she is out two weeks now. Bright side good bird numbers. Other side of coin, no dogs to hunt with for two weeks.
 
I went out for a while, saw one bird the whole time. It was a young rooster and I got it. I hate to say it but I did better than I thought I would. I've seen 2 hatches of pheasants around here all summer.
 
Young birds

Due to commitments to family; the dogs and I didn't get out until late afternoon. We stopped at a couple areas just west of Sioux Falls that I figured would be busy and they were. :nutz: Found a open area finally and my buddy and I got out with our three dogs to do a quick walk through. In pretty short order the dogs got a fully colored rooster up and it never got hit! Ok so we are on notice....be ready! Walked the rest of the area and got up only what we thought were hens. Wyatt did what previously he only did while hunting row crops; barked at the birds before the bird was up in the air to shoot. It is a nice habit that works for me because I have a chance to be ready. Of coarse he also howled at the flyaway. I love that dog!!! My buddy got one up and shot it fairly close. When we looked at the bird and decided that it was a young one with not with complete color yet. We moved around the section to some other walk-in areas and got up a few more birds that we thought were hens. We had enough daylight for one more walk and were joined by the landowner and son living on land adjoining the area. The landowner told me that the area had been used the weekend before by about a dozen youth hunters and had lots of people on it that day. We had birds still up before us and the son missed one, my friend got one. Even with three dogs we had trouble finding it. But my least experienced dog found it; I thought it was a hen being brought to me. Closer look proved that it had color but that was one young bird.
 
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