sjohn
Active member
Just returned yesterday. What a trip! Spent 6 days in the best place on earth. We stayed in Trip but put over 800 miles on the truck in 6 days of hunting. First three days hunting public spots and minimum maintenance roads. Last three days hunted private spots we acquired during the first three days. First public spot we hit we pulled two roosters off and then walked a minimum maintenance road between the public piece we just hunted and the next piece of public and my 6 month old lab busted a covey of quail. Knocked one down on initial covey rise and then connected on a single. They were the first bobbies I ever saw in SD.
Hunting public was fun but it was evident they had been well hammered with plenty of tracks in the parking lots, bird carcasses (not happy about) laying in parking lot, and fresh empty shells. We scouted a few public areas at sunset and watched plenty of birds funnel back into some public areas. Never made it back to hunt them but it was great watching birds returning to public land at the end of the day. They weren't all hens either. Plenty of roosters were returning too.
The last three days we hunted private farms. What a difference. We had grass slews and cattail slews in the middle of corn fields. Not sure if they had been hunted already in the year or not but it didn't seem like it. Talk about the bird numbers, they were unreal. Unfortunately, we didn't recover all the birds as the cattail slews were so thick and matted down it was damn near impossible to find the birds. My 6 month old dog found most but not all. She held a solid point a few times and we had to dig down into the canes to recover several of the birds that absolutely burried themselves under a foot or more of matted canes.
Last three days were a little cold! We ended the trip with a Friday afternoon hunt right as it started to sleet. It was 27 when we started with winds sustained at about 30 with gust 40-50mph. When we got back to the truck it was 21 and the sleet had changed to snow. It was now blizzard conditions. But we got'er done. First flush of three roosters and a hen. three roosters hit the ground and three roosters hit the game vests. We continued and missed another single and then right before we were about to turn around a nice group of about 8-12 birds erupted just out of range. I was in the creek ditch and could hardly move with the thick canes and my buddy was just a little to slow and didn't get any shots. But all and all it was a great hunt and a great end to a fabulous week.
The two of us went home with 29 birds. We left number 30 in the field as it had been wounded at some point and the entire breast was green and one wing was swollen pretty good. Not sure how it was still alive and flying. Like the rest of you, I am counting the days until my return next year.
Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Best, john
Hunting public was fun but it was evident they had been well hammered with plenty of tracks in the parking lots, bird carcasses (not happy about) laying in parking lot, and fresh empty shells. We scouted a few public areas at sunset and watched plenty of birds funnel back into some public areas. Never made it back to hunt them but it was great watching birds returning to public land at the end of the day. They weren't all hens either. Plenty of roosters were returning too.
The last three days we hunted private farms. What a difference. We had grass slews and cattail slews in the middle of corn fields. Not sure if they had been hunted already in the year or not but it didn't seem like it. Talk about the bird numbers, they were unreal. Unfortunately, we didn't recover all the birds as the cattail slews were so thick and matted down it was damn near impossible to find the birds. My 6 month old dog found most but not all. She held a solid point a few times and we had to dig down into the canes to recover several of the birds that absolutely burried themselves under a foot or more of matted canes.
Last three days were a little cold! We ended the trip with a Friday afternoon hunt right as it started to sleet. It was 27 when we started with winds sustained at about 30 with gust 40-50mph. When we got back to the truck it was 21 and the sleet had changed to snow. It was now blizzard conditions. But we got'er done. First flush of three roosters and a hen. three roosters hit the ground and three roosters hit the game vests. We continued and missed another single and then right before we were about to turn around a nice group of about 8-12 birds erupted just out of range. I was in the creek ditch and could hardly move with the thick canes and my buddy was just a little to slow and didn't get any shots. But all and all it was a great hunt and a great end to a fabulous week.
The two of us went home with 29 birds. We left number 30 in the field as it had been wounded at some point and the entire breast was green and one wing was swollen pretty good. Not sure how it was still alive and flying. Like the rest of you, I am counting the days until my return next year.
Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Best, john
