Snow and pheasants?

Whoa, somebody hacked into my account back in 2020 and posted a very whiny, gripey post about hunting in the snow. Got to do better with the security web guys.

But I could see myself being very disappointed by my first hunt in the snow. I make it out to SD just for opener so snow in mid Oct that sticks around is rare. I was told they would be all over the roads, fences, hay bales and tree branches. But apparently this is the case on the second day after they come out of the cattails. That year it melted by afternoon which was probably for the best since I wasn't going down into ditches with a foot of wet show and road hunting in that mess was slow going with many spots out of commission that we couldn't drive through. Locals did say it might be a week before anything other than the oil gets plowed so you likely can get there but don't expect to zip around the gravel roads or make it through to some ground unless it is level and you have a good truck/tires to make it.
 
Anything from a dusting to 4-5 inches not much changed. However, if they're predicting a real storm, I didn't go out. I would stop hunting at least two hrs. before it was due to start. I did not like to blow the birds out of good cover, they weren't always able to get back to the good cover. I was very fortunate, in that I was able to hunt every day of the season, so missing a couple of hrs. was no big deal.
 
gimruis said:
I prefer hunting in the snow. As long as its not really deep snow. Walking in anything deeper than about 6 inches sucks. I've done it many times and it really saps a guy's energy quickly. Then you get to a drifted up area and its knee or waist deep. Ugh. An inch or two, here or there, is perfectly fine by me. All this October snow sucks but it looks like it'll melt in a week. I'll tell you what really sucks: when you get some snow, and then it starts to melt, and then it re-freezes. Its super loud every time you take a step and they can hear you coming a mile away.
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Deep, drifted in crusty snow is very difficult to get around in!!
 
Lefty76 said:
I live in northwest Iowa and my dogs have only hunted in more than 2" of snow one time in the last 2 years. It was a glorious morning though!
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That stat alone is an indication of how warm and dry things have been there.
 
The easiest hunting I ever had was after a 3 day storm near Kaylor sd, wearing snowshoes. We pushed standing corn that was like walking thigh hi stubble. The only problem was that every so often a dog would have to be helped out when it floundered in the snow.
 
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