SD season thus far….

B

benelli-banger

Well-known member
Bird#’s are good, lots of corn up yet. Just cleaned 9, 8 were this years birds, probably hatched May/early June…good sign. Season will be fun, probably really good. 9 month old lab has had 3 sharpy trips and now a pheasant trip…about 16 hunting days, really hunting well and finding downed birds like a champ. Very exciting! We have lots of CREP that is 2 years old within a few miles of our core area, a great thing but birds in those CREP acres aren’t at all bunched up, very dispersed…about 19 quarters of land, some corn mixed in on those CREP acres. All in all, healthy dogs, and nothing on me hurts…knock on wood! Thank you God, away we go again in a week! Oh, the #5 lead at 1200-1300 fps, 1.25 oz 12 gauge 2 3/4” out of IC really works well….for me. Good luck! Last thing, letting birds cool overnite in garage, then putting in cooler with ice packs worked great, as it always does…no issues, birds were shot sat-mon, cleaned wed am…no gutting, nothing…I breast them, will take thigh medallions on bigger birds as well….
 
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Good Stuff! I keep all the thighs but the legs with feet are frozen for dog treats. I've never aged the bird before but may try that. You left them up to four days?
 
chad.vis said:
Good Stuff! I keep all the thighs but the legs with feet are frozen for dog treats. I've never aged the bird before but may try that. You left them up to four days?
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Yes, they were Saturday’s birds, plus Sunday and Monday…got down to about 40 Saturday nite/Sunday morning…put them in a cooler with ice packs…all the birds were perfect. As others have said, never put warm birds in a frig/cooler if they’re touching each other…they’ll still go bad. I leave mine in a garage or back of the truck under the topper for 12-18 hours, then in the frig or a cooler with ice packs…a little later in the season they stay on plywood 4’ off the ground til we depart on Sunday am, some birds are shot wed afternoon…did that with sharpy’s in ND earlier…let them cool off for several hours and put them loosely in the frig…just fine for up to 5, 6, 7 days…nice and tender. The pheasants I breasted earlier were super tender, but of course they were young….
 
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benelli-banger said:
Bird#’s are good, lots of corn up yet. Just cleaned 9, 8 were this years birds, probably hatched May/early June…good sign. Season will be fun, probably really good. 9 month old lab has had 3 sharpy trips and now a pheasant trip…about 16 hunting days, really hunting well and finding downed birds like a champ. Very exciting! We have lots of CREP that is 2 years old within a few miles of our core area, a great thing but birds in those CREP acres aren’t at all bunched up, very dispersed…about 19 quarters of land, some corn mixed in on those CREP acres. All in all, healthy dogs, and nothing on me hurts…knock on wood! Thank you God, away we go again in a week! Oh, the #5 lead at 1200-1300 fps, 1.25 oz 12 gauge 2 3/4” out of IC really works well….for me. Good luck! Last thing, letting birds cool overnite in garage, then putting in cooler with ice packs worked great, as it always does…no issues, birds were shot sat-mon, cleaned wed am…no gutting, nothing…I breast them, will take thigh medallions on bigger birds as well….
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Glad to hear that the cover is finally coming in on those pieces. I remember driving around them the first year they were enrolled in CREP and the cover was only about shin high. Really glad that the farmer decided to put some of that land in CREP as he has tons of land in the area and recently passed away so hopefully his family will honor his wishes and keep it going!!!
 
I believe the contract is the contract…either 10 or 15 years…he basically had no family…one son who he didn’t acknowledge, got nothing, basically. A family in the area took him in during his last few years…kinda got the whole shooting match…a bit more complexity than that, but more or less that’s the story. Lots of hunters are benefiting…pretty cool.
 
Sure would be nice if the rest of his land got put into CREP, I know there is probably still a couple thousand acres that are farmland that could be transitioned over. I never met him while I hunted that area years ago when I had family living out there but when we did hunt out there, he was buying up huge chunks of land and ripping out all the shelterbelts that were on them and burning them. We can always hope some more of that land finds it's way into the CREP program!!
 
waterdog09 said:
Sure would be nice if the rest of his land got put into CREP, I know there is probably still a couple thousand acres that are farmland that could be transitioned over. I never met him while I hunted that area years ago when I had family living out there but when we did hunt out there, he was buying up huge chunks of land and ripping out all the shelterbelts that were on them and burning them. We can always hope some more of that land finds it's way into the CREP program!!
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Him and lots of other farmers! But, lots of acres got put back in to habitat. No more of his land will be put into conservation, but very fortunate for us hunters that so much did…a year or two ago I googled his name, and found an ad he put in the Mitchell paper in the early ‘70’s…”farm help wanted…call John Doe after 10 pm or before 5 am”….he worked a full time job for years as well…I’m a sugar-tit, and have no idea what real $ fear is, or what hard work is….that guy didn’t even have a toilet at his farming base of operations, basically lived in a metal shed…his significant other was in SF in a condo, he’d spend time there when not farming. He drove around in tiny cheap cars…last time I chatted with him he had a bungee holding the trunk closed….worth close to 9 figures. He bot a quarter or two about 3 miles south of me for 13k/acre a few years ago at an auction…came down to him and another bidder…$2,000,000 per quarter section…farmland.
 
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Hunting public kingsbury county. Impressed with bird numbers. Lots of corn still standing but they’re working on it. Showed up to a spot and combine had 3 passes to go and ran a mess of em out. We had a ball. Never seen another hunter out in the field all day. 1 shy of 3 man limit. Beautiful weather lil to warm. Every body dog tired.
 
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