Take-aways from this season

As a grouse hunter in NW WI, you have to wear glasses and gloves. Actually I always wear glasses and gloves while hunting. Scratched my cornea chasing late day quail in Kansas one year. Pain equivalent to male childbirth. Never take the glasses off while hunting ever again. That ended that trip.
 
I used to hunt ruffs 20 days a year (maybe a bit more if December was mild and relatively snow free). I probably should have worn glasses and gloves, but never did.
 
remy3424 said:
I sure wouldn't want to take-on cattails until Decemeber...would want a few weekends under my belt for conditioning. Maybe you get an Iowa license and will introduce you to my world. Easier to navigate through but hard to recover in. Would love to have Sage give it a go! My dog needs work, I just got so lucky on my last dog, still miss him.
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In my neck of the woods early season cattails could mean a grizzly bear, so I wait until December and hope they are mostly denned for the winter.
I always have bear spray that I can implement in seconds.
 
AKSkeeter said:
so I wait until December
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I usually wait until then before going in them too. Not because of bears, but because I aint going in there until they are froze. Usually by the second weekend of December, they are. This year they literally never froze solid. Plus it was never really cold or snowy enough for birds to be in there either.
 
They’re not super warm but pilot gloves take the bite off a little and have good feel for safety and trigger. All I use anymore.
 
My take aways are my pup knows what she’s doing and she loves to hunt. Towards the end I remembered this is exactly what I wanted out of a dog.

I need to get access to private land, pounding public in my area all the time expecting big results is not where it’s at. Set us up for success. It’s amazing how much more confident and relaxed I am as a whole ( for variety of reasons) when I hunt private pieces.

My body would benefit from a lighter gun. The ole Winchester super X is a bit heavy.

The last hunt I used an ammo belt I usually use for waterfowl. I actually liked that a lot more than keeping them in my vest.

Sure was fun being back in the upland game after awhile.
 
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Bring 2 pair of gloves. Wear a pair and stick the other in the front of yer pants. Switch as needed. With kids, start a fire and make hot tea. My Pop would do this and it was my favorite thing. Really hooked me into going hunting…and an occasional ride back to the truck on his shoulders. Glory days
 
AKSkeeter said:
Areas I've been hunting in eastern MT since the 1990s way too crowded with out of state hunters, dog trailers, etc.

I'm moving on to some new MT locations that are not as popular and broadcast all over social media.
It was a good season, got to hunt my lab pup 46 times and hunted the older lab 16 times. No lost birds.
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For some reason, this year montana is saturated with out of state hunters.I ran into 2 Gucci California guys in a very remote spot.
 
It was another good season for me, no major injuries to my pups or me! Started in Michigan chasing woodcock and grouse and two trips to SD one mid November the other mid December with my son and his buddy. It was his buddies first time pheasant hunting and that trip was a huge success.
  • Learning there are several variables that contribute to lost birds, many are hunter issues, not fully on the bird, poor marking, some are weather/climate dependent warm dry high occurrence, vegetation type and lastly dogs.
    • All my dogs located crippled birds and they were all on the ground when we lost birds too.
    • Cripple in habitat with alot of birds is nearly impossible to recover, least for me and my current dogs.
    • I seem to cripple more birds flying straight away from me and I believe it is do to my reluctance to cover up the bird i'm tend to offset my lead point.
  • When I'm in the woods I run my dogs individually and the take turns at different covers, I don't do that in the pheasant field and need to start doing that to give my dogs a break as the get older.
    • Bella my oldest Britt (9 yrs) is still a machine and I need to do a better job of working my other two independent of her, they tend to follow her lead.
    • River, 7 yr setter, has really figured thing out and is a good hunter, she located many of our cripples she just need more time on her own.
    • Remi, 1.5 yr Britt, really started to figure things out, she started slowing her pace when tracking and has located many downed birds, goals for this off-season is retrieving.
  • As I age I need to do a better job of conditioning prior to the season.
  • Shooting is streaky/cyclic first SD trip i was on a hot streak for the first 4 days only missing 2 shootable birds, 5 day shot a box of shells before downing first bird, then killed 3 birds on 4 shots with a pointed double to end my trip.
  • Both trips to SD this year the ratio of shootable birds was heavily in favor of roosters, I'm guessing this was just the luck of the draw, not complaining but very nice.
  • This year I/we shot more roosters over points then the past several years. Again I don't really have an explanation as i'm not a quite hunter, we talk to one another and I talk to my dogs constantly, in thick cover I use beepers to locate, but most of the time use a tone/vibrate to recall.
  • Got to spend time in the field with DakotaZeb and Bree, always a highlight for me.
  • Greatest joy was the December trip watching my son and his buddy hunting and our dog(s) on point they walk in for flush and make the shot, dog makes a great retrieve. Don't have them all on film but they ingrained in my memory for life.
As I state 2023 was a great year for many reasons and each season i learn a little more, if nothing else being patient with my dogs and just enjoying the time we spend in the woods/fields pursuing birds together.
 
AKSkeeter said:
In my neck of the woods early season cattails could mean a grizzly bear, so I wait until December and hope they are mostly denned for the winter.
I always have bear spray that I can implement in seconds.
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There was this in 2019:

A Minot man who was hunting pheasants in the Custer Mine area near Garrison Thursday shot and killed a mountain lion that had emerged from tall grass and charged at him. Gary Gorney says he expected to see a rooster pheasant after his German shorthaired dog had pointed to the area. Instead he was greeted by a female lion that weighed more than 100 pounds. Gorney said he doesn’t remember dropping his dad’s 100-year double-barrel shotgun and reaching for his 9 millimeter handgun underneath his jacket. “My instincts as a military law enforcement officer took over,” Gorney said. “There was no thought process. It was self-defense.”

The lion came within 10 feet of Gorney before she was shot. Both of his dogs sprang into action and jumped on the lion. Gorney said he wanted to pull them off but “wasn’t going anywhere near that lion.” Gorney, who has a picture of himself holding the big cat, said it was the first mountain lion he had seen in 31 years of hunting. He said the grass perfectly matched the mountain lion’s coat. “I felt like I was in Africa hunting,” he said.
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remy3424 said:
I read that the heat on the wrist trick was debunked as myth. Ever try it? Anyone have luck with this? I know you can't believe everything you read...here or elsewhere on the interweb.
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Things that sound to good to be true usually are! I've tried this trick and my wrist was warm in a small area...But my fingers were still cold, it was damn cold that day so maybe it works on warmish days.
 
BRITTMAN said:
There was this in 2019:
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Crazy.

Saw one as a kid pheasant hunting in southern MN. It was up in a tree, climbed down and it and my springer passed each other in heavy brush less than 10 yards.

Cattails can be a crazy though. Never know what’s in there. And I don’t even hunt where there is serious stuff like bears or lions.
 
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BRITTMAN said:
There was this in 2019:
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BRITTMAN said:
Gorney said he doesn’t remember dropping his dad’s 100-year double-barrel shotgun and reaching for his 9 millimeter handgun underneath his jacket. “My instincts as a military law enforcement officer took over,”
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There would be no way I would lower my shotgun (12 gauge) in favor of a 9mm in the company of a mountain lion....unless I was concerned with pelt damage.
 
One traveled from NW Nebraska and was hanging around the Kenwood area of Mpls back in November, then hit by a car on 394 at 2 am a day or 2 later…it was confirmed to be from Nebraska, near the Black Hills
 
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