Second Weekend Results

[Shorthair Hunters]

Started Saturday morning at a WIA 13 degrees, blue sky's, and the morning sunrise. flushed a rooster and hen at the end of the field with the rooster flying directly at a farmers house resulting in no shot. Headed to a farmers property and after talking to him for a bit myself and Orley my GSP headed for his corrals and wheat fields. As i passed the end of the tree row i was met with a blast of bitter cold wind that i had for the rest of the day. Orley and i hunted the fields putting up a few hens until we walked a weedy corral where she pointed three roosters allowing me to put one down as the other two flew towards the farmers house. We then went to his property corner and walked his retaining pond flushing 3 more roosters which i missed the first one allowing the closer ones to flush just feet from me. We headed down the ditch by the road not being able to hear anything over the wind. Out of the corner of my eye i caught a rooster flushing and then falling to the ground form my gun shot. 2 down one to go so we pushed towards the end flushing another but just out of reach. Took pictures and had an early lunch before heading to our next farmers fields where we struggled getting thru the shoulder high weeds flushing 5 hens and a rooster that dropped at the first shot then like last time two more roosters flushed closer to me. knowing that i had my limit i watched them fly and headed towards the downed bird. 20 minutes later i was wishing those two were still here since we were unable to locate the downed bird. It was so thick so dry and dusty Orley just couldn't get a scent and it was all i could do to even see my legs let alone a bird that either ran off or is buried.

With the weather moving in and an earlier text from a friend of road conditions i decided to call it a day and head home. With a smile on my face and a very tied 9 year old hunting buddy we thanked the Pheasant gods and started looking forward to the next weekend.

 

[Stel67]

I headed out on Saturday as well. Wow was it windy and Cold. I hunted hard hitting only WIA and managed to put one Rooster in the bag. Saw only 4 birds all day. I hunt solo with no dog and with the wind I could not hear a damn thing. I should have had at least one more but I only caught it out of the corner of my eye and by that time it was out of range. I will say this the birds I have got this year sure have been pretty, real long tail feathers and nice size they all have been mature birds.

 

[Thunderstick]

Nice reports, guys. Thanks for posting.

Shorthair: good job of getting permission to hunt private and then refraining from shooting towards your host's house. Nice to hear that you saw so many birds. conditions sounded brutal though.

Also, a good job on getting a bird solo and no dog - that will be me this year - and I can only imagine how tough a hunt that will be. BTW, that is one of the longest rooster tails I've ever seen !,, bar none. I'm heading out Friday for the first time this year as a tune-up hunt.

 

[smdmz]

Hunted some WIA land a bit west of Holyoke on Saturday - holy crap it was cold and windy.. felt like I was back in NW Iowa. Got out late with my buddy & our dogs b/c my boy was limping from 4pm-bedtime the night before and I thought he'd be on the Injured Reserve for the weekend. Lo and behold, he was miraculously healed when we woke up Saturday morning! Drama queen..

That led to us getting boots on the ground around noon. Only walked around a few hours before the cold got to us and the pups, but we did manage to kick up a 3 hens and a rooster. Unfortunately the ruckus of two hens flushing at once blew the rooster out of his hiding spot about 100yds down the edge we were walking, and we could not find him after he finally landed. All the birds were in pretty heavy cover hiding from the blistering wind/cold.

 

[CO_Weimar]

Good job - thanks for posting.

We went up on Saturday night, hunting on Sunday.

Started out at -2F, but "warmed-up" quickly. The wind kicked up just as quickly as the temperature. Julesburg had a peak wind gust of 46MPH and sustained winds in the 25 - 35 mph range. It was a tough day for us and the dogs. I took our 3 year old, Blitz, and every time he would get birdy, he would get distracted by the tumbleweed rolling by. We saw 3 roosters and 5 hens. The roosters were out of range ... except one, and it was too close to irrigation equipment for me to take a shot, as it flew out of the WIA property.

We didn't bag any birds yesterday, but I am encouraged. Cover looked good all over and saw birds - a big improvement over the last couple of years.

:cheers: