That was Coooooold

D

Deadbird

Member
Hunted new private ground today by Mound City.

It was -2 when we started, that was brutal!

Not great but we did find some birds.

Got 3 phez and 7 quail. Not bad, but there was 5 of us and 6 dogs.

I do not understand how I can see 100's of birds in avg cover in South Dakota

and in Mo see 10 phez in great cover. He hunted a couple hundred acres of 5ft tall bluestem. Great cover surrounded by crops.

Less birds, but shorter drive home.
 
we hunted in the snow yesterday NW of St Joe and 3 small covies and one hen. Did not shoot any quail due to less than 15 birds in any of the covies. The cover was perfect just no birds. Looks like its going to take a lot of good hatches to improve things.

zeepo
 
is there any sloughs? cattails? willow trees wind breaks ETC.? or woody type cover close to grasses & crops & creeks/rivers ponds lakes sloughs ETC??? thats winter cover in pheasants country they do not just live in grasses all year long... got to be edge habitat not just a sea of CRP grass to produce birds late season in any state...

anybody seeing any turkeys up there in that NW part of MO i was thinking of heading that way this spring???
 
Don't understand not shooting at covies with less than
15 birds
Most covies have 12 to 15 to start with
 
SMO

I did not say we hunted only a sea of grass. There is plenty of woody cover every where in Missouri. I said there was grass because that is what we usaually do not have.

I know what type of cover to hunt. I have been doing this for 20 years.

I did not see any turkeys, so need to come to MO.
 
DEC 7th was ur post & mentioned hunting a couple hundred acres of 5 FT bluestem near crops... with 20 yrs experience i would of thought you would know the birds were not going to be in that grass??? swamps/sloughs/cattails water near wind breaks & crops is wear i find birds from MN/SD/KS/IA never hunted IA pheasants just seen birds there... same with KS...

got to have cover all season for the pheasants to thrive & a decent size area for there core home range... winter cover & food... brooding cover & water... & u have pheasants dont know what the surrounding cover is like near the area u hunted??? if its not pheasant friendly the area can only hold so many birds???

yeah im sure them turkeys were some place maybe near the pheasants??? MO does harvest loads of turkeys & has for years & years but you know that they are traditionally in the top 5 in the country harvest wise... herd good things about NW... sorry to ask deadbird...

good luck out there in that bluestem the weather is warmer down your way so maybe the birds use it longer down in that country...???
 
SMO

Did you read my last post that said I did not hunt just the grasss.

We hunted all the available cover which we could hunt. (alot of woody cover)

Thanks for enlighting me on where to find the birds. Maybe next time I go hunt, I will send you a google map of the property and you can tell me where to hunt.

Why did you not shoot alot of birds in South Dakota, did you not hunt the right cover.
 
did you see my 1st trip to SD post??? did you read 12 birds 4 days limited everyday in SD 1st trip all public lands???

2nd trip seen birds daily had my 62 yr old father with who cant go all day still got him shots hunted prime winter cover no blue stem at all... seen 30-40 birds in 1 slough i was in the correct cover i think SD receives a little more hunter pressure then MO for pheasants at least??? maybe the hunter pressure was both our probs??? my prob was not hunting in the wrong cover it was educated birds flushing 80-100 yards ahead of my old man on public lands i would of killed birds if it was just me & the dog hunting but i had done that already it was time for my dad to try his hand at the SD pheasants...

id be happy to view a aerial pic of you hunting spot & direct you to the edge habitat wear all the pheasants needs are meet??? thats all i did prior to my 1st SD trip looked at aerial pics of all the public lands & ruled out all the so so cover & tracts of land & only hunted prime pheasant cover aka winter cove worked like a charm has for years... viewing on-line aerial pics thats a must when you hunt new states & terrain each season for pheasants & turkeys... other wise your wasting alot of time in shitty non productive cover...

you can have the best habitat in the world if the pheasants are dead & gone like they are in many parts of MO they will never reproduce like they do in SD??? states like WI,MT & a few others have programs wear private land owners & the state can & will release pheasants back into certain propertys & areas if the habitat requirements are met to hold pheasants i think MO would thrive with a program like that in place... im not talking about releasing adult birds each year B4 the season for guys to hunt/kill im talking about re-introducing pheasants back into areas they once thrived prior to the season & doing so for a few years that would help out loads in MO i think...

only prob with that program is the private land owners have to let the public hunt there lands i doubt that would be a big hit in MO...

not trying to fight with you deadbird or throw stones just asked if there was sloughs/cattails woody cover ETC. near crops & water thats wear birds are for me in ur post it seemed like you were hunting 5ft bluestem near crops & expecting to see SD numbers of birds i was not aware u hunted winter cover didnt see it in ur post...
 
Thank you once again SMO for letting everyone know you are a Master Hunter and know more about birds, dogs and habitat than anybody else.

To quote UGUIDE.

Please stop replying to my posts.

Thank you.
 
back at you brother id appreciate the same if you must act like a hard ass on every comment you make in response to 1 of my posts???

look at UGUIDES comment on my SD part 2 thread i think it is... its really not that big of a beef...

you can have you thread man sorry to have commented on it at all... maybe somebody whos feelings were not hurt by my birds are not in CRP grass comment will talk about the other comment i posted about bringing back pheasants to MO thats more important then trying to prove you were hunting the write cover or not...???

im probably wrong again though... have fun DEADBIRD...
 
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setterbud said:
Don't understand not shooting at covies with less than
15 birds
Most covies have 12 to 15 to start with
Click to expand...

Sutterbud,

Two of the covies had less than 8 birds and one 14. I just wanted to leave them alone for now. I was more interested in running into a pheasant or two but no roosters were seen. Seen no roosts either.

Zeepo
 
setterbud said:
Don't understand not shooting at covies with less than
15 birds
Most covies have 12 to 15 to start with
Click to expand...

Then you don't know about how quail survive winters. They need to huddle up to not freeze to death. A good hunter passes on small coveys to save the ones for seed and breeding the next year. Most winter coveys have a lot more than 15 birds in the covey. down here this time of year when its cold its not unusual to see and run into 50 to 250 bird coveys. We don't shoot at lease than 20 bird coveys. Less than that they will not survive.:)
 
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I will look to see if I can find the artical about covey size.
But as I remember they are in good shape in coveys of something like 8 or more.
 
Jmc. I know more about quail covey size than you if you think 15 is a very small covey


I will repeat the average size of quail in a covey in 12 to 15
You think it is more then I know you don't hunt here
Sorry when you question me and I have been. Quail hunting for 50 years

70% of a covey will not survive one year
Predators will take that many
 
This was not the article I remember, but it is from OSU.

They don't give an exact number, but if you have 10+ birds, let lead fly.
But the birds break up big coveys and consolidate small coveys to keep the covey size correct.

But keep in mind, there has to be other coveys around for small coveys to consolidate, so I don't shoot coveys that are low in numbers.

Keep in mind with a good dog in good conditions, you could kill every bird in a covey if you kept after them. Just use common sense.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...74DgBg&usg=AFQjCNHKi2F7ZHhfcZlq0kl002iyOhQ2pA
 
We all have our opinions and all are welcome. Has anyone been out hunting lately and has anyone done any good? We went back up NE of St. Joe and saw the 2 small covies and 2 hens. Hard crusty snow on the ground made it hard to walk.

Zeepo
 
Went last Friday to a
Ca area same result only saw zero birds
Hunting either. tues are wed for my last time thus season, then going unde the knife, surgery
On Thursday the 2nd
 
As far as hunting goes: When the weather has been good the hunting has been decent, 2-3 coveys per afternoon has been average. The ice kind of hurt a little last week. 20 degrees yesterday with 20 mph winds made the birds jumpy/dogs couldn't scent very well. Got up 3 coveys but didn't shoot many. They'll be there another day
 
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