reddog
Well-known member
To begin this journey, I booked an hours worth of work in Pierre for Thursday morning at 9am......5 days of hunting and an hours worth of work. Ill take that ratio every day. As a bonus, the person I was working for invited me for a hunt on Friday, so I figured I would buy a state license on top my seasonal Brule license.
West river deer and Lower Brule opened up on Saturday, so it was a scouting venture also for a friend of mine.
I activated my license for Wednesday, as that would get me thru Sunday on the state license.
I wanted to check out of the office about 8:30 on Wed, and get a couple hours in on the Brule license. Instead, I worked till 11:30, which was going to make it tough to get any kind of quality time in on the Brule.
I opted to stop at Mt Vernon, and hunt a small 25 acre abandoned farm site with a pond. The wind was blowing hard, and I figured the birds would be there. I parked on the Northwest corner of the acreage (wind out of west). I figured that the combination of my vehicle and my pup barking and yelping, it would almost be as good as a blocker. I headed down the road to the east edge of the acreage and headed south. Immediately, Ellie got a snoot full of scent and went into caution mode. (I call Ellie the Meat Hog.... if theres birds around, she makes it easy. All I gotta do is my part) She got down to the southeast corner and locked up tight. I walked up and a rooster jumped up. After clearing the buildings, I touched the first barrel of the Beretta and he folded. At the same time as the shot, 7 more pheasants got up in the corner and headed for cover. If Ellie has any shortfall, it is her retrieving skills, so I have made it a habit that I will only shoot 1 bird at a time when she is on the ground. We moved onward to the pond on the south, where she promptly stuck another point.... but just for a split second before the rooster busted out. The double barrel barked twice, and the bird showed no sign of even being scared.
We moved around to the southwest corner of the acreage, where Ellie locked again for a split second, before the bird busted out. He caught the heavy west wind and came right back at me. I instinctively started to shoulder the gun, but it quickly became evident that I wasnt going to have a chance at him coming back at me, so I abruptly spun around and hit him hard as he was going away. He went down in a bean field and quickly ran into a small piece of cover with Ellie on his tail. He had nowhere to go, and after a short hunt, she pinned him down in the weeds, and we moved onward towards the truck.. Halfway to the truck (with Breez loudly protesting under the topper) Ellie points again. This rooster takes off directly north towards my truck, which is 40 yds away. Yea, its my truck..... but I let it go. Now, Ive been around the perimeter of the acreage, so I started inwards and made two passes thru the middle, then reversed my initial path. She started getting birdy again on the east side, but nothing showed. Were walking back down the road to the truck, and she goes back behind me. I keep walking and she doesnt show up. I hit the locator, and she should be right there. I turn around and start walking back, hit the locate button again.. hmm why cant I see her... the only thing she could be behind is that log. Ooops, there she is. locked up tight. I walk up and kick a branch and a big old rooster jumps up and flies north across the road. I hit him with a load of 6s thru the skeet tube and he folds up hard. 47 minutes from start to stop. The meat hog comes thru again.. She aint real purdy or even very stylish, but she just plain gets the job done..
Thursday morning found me out of bed about 5ish and headed towards Pierre. I stopped in the northwest part of the Brule reservation to watch the sun come up, and look for deer for my buddy, all the while keeping a keen eye on pheasant and prairie chicken activity. About 8:30 I headed to Pierre to work. What shouldve taken 20 minutes, took 2 1/2 hours but its all good. Now that the work is out of the way for the rest of the week. its time to get serious..
I went back to the reservation and decided to put both dogs on the ground.. To make a long story short, there were quite a few birds, but they werent very cooperative. The dogs seemed like they were in a competion to see who could get out the furthest and it was a constant struggle for me to reign them in. I ended up with 1 rooster and two misses for the day. I mentally told myself that if I ever let both dogs out again, just shoot yourself... Ive had one prior miserable hunt with both dogs down, and after this second hunt, I vowed not to do it again this year. When they are alone, they hunt nicely, but when theyre together... Uggh. Maybe someday. FYI: Breez is 18 months and in her first year hunting, Ellie is a 8 year of dog that I got from a classmate when he needed money for a divorce.
Friday I hunted around Presho for the morning. I put the "meat hog" out but we couldnt produce any roosters on the walk in ground we hunted (with the customer and his father in law), We split up about 2ish and I headed to the Grasslands with it being Breezs turn to run.
This is where it gets ugly. Breez is working great, but for some odd ball reason, I cannot hit shat today. She puts up 3 different roosters and 3 prairie chickens, and I got zip on the first rooster,nothing on the second, nodda on the third and zilch on the chickens. If youve ever had one of those days, its actually quite funny. I was just glad there werent any witnesses. I think the cocktails that night even tasted better though for some reason.
Saturday, we hunted deer till 2ish on the Brule with no luck. I head to a walk in area, and get out of the truck at 3:47. Its the meat hogs turn again.. We walk for 45 minutes, with no reaction from Ellie and then she hits a scent. Shes working her way thru some iron weeds, and exits out on the end about 100 yds away, and locks up. I pick up the pace and head down to her. Two roosters jump up, almost like in slow motion. I feel the gun come up and the safety slide off simultaneously the barrel touches the first bird as the trigger snaps. I watch the shot column reach out, grab the rooster and drag him to the ground. Ellie goes over and shows me where hes at, and moves onward. We work a small patch of grass on the prairie and she points in the middle of it, which turns out to be a hen. She presses onward and sticks a point on the edge. Another rooster jumps up. The first shot thru the skeet bbl rocks him so I let him have it again with the IC and he drops. We make our way to a pivot corner and she working a bird again. This bird gets antsy when hes running out of cover and breks, but hes too close and I drop him out in the stubble. The sun is not quite on the horizon yet, so we head to another pivot corner. I havent even crossed the fence and she locked up. I get across the fence and this rooster jumps up and I fold him with the first shot. I get back to the truck, and its 5:05.
Today, it was Breezs turn again. I started out at sunrise on a quarter section of prairie pasture hoping for a chicken, but mainly just run some energy out of her for later. She pops one chicken, that sails a ways and then falls.. She makes a great retrieve. There are aprox 25 other chickens on this pasture, but none of them wanted to play with us.
I drove around to a few WIAs, and found each of them occupied with either bird hunters or deer hunters.
I gained permission on a private 160a picked sunflower field , with a 20 acre patch of mixed weeds and cattails and water about 8 inches deep. I wondered why the farmer grinned at me when he asked how many guys I had with and I told him I was alone. You cannot believe how many birds 20a can hold and how wild they are under these conditions. I walked out of there with a goose egg, but I enjoyed every second of it.
West river deer and Lower Brule opened up on Saturday, so it was a scouting venture also for a friend of mine.
I activated my license for Wednesday, as that would get me thru Sunday on the state license.
I wanted to check out of the office about 8:30 on Wed, and get a couple hours in on the Brule license. Instead, I worked till 11:30, which was going to make it tough to get any kind of quality time in on the Brule.
I opted to stop at Mt Vernon, and hunt a small 25 acre abandoned farm site with a pond. The wind was blowing hard, and I figured the birds would be there. I parked on the Northwest corner of the acreage (wind out of west). I figured that the combination of my vehicle and my pup barking and yelping, it would almost be as good as a blocker. I headed down the road to the east edge of the acreage and headed south. Immediately, Ellie got a snoot full of scent and went into caution mode. (I call Ellie the Meat Hog.... if theres birds around, she makes it easy. All I gotta do is my part) She got down to the southeast corner and locked up tight. I walked up and a rooster jumped up. After clearing the buildings, I touched the first barrel of the Beretta and he folded. At the same time as the shot, 7 more pheasants got up in the corner and headed for cover. If Ellie has any shortfall, it is her retrieving skills, so I have made it a habit that I will only shoot 1 bird at a time when she is on the ground. We moved onward to the pond on the south, where she promptly stuck another point.... but just for a split second before the rooster busted out. The double barrel barked twice, and the bird showed no sign of even being scared.
We moved around to the southwest corner of the acreage, where Ellie locked again for a split second, before the bird busted out. He caught the heavy west wind and came right back at me. I instinctively started to shoulder the gun, but it quickly became evident that I wasnt going to have a chance at him coming back at me, so I abruptly spun around and hit him hard as he was going away. He went down in a bean field and quickly ran into a small piece of cover with Ellie on his tail. He had nowhere to go, and after a short hunt, she pinned him down in the weeds, and we moved onward towards the truck.. Halfway to the truck (with Breez loudly protesting under the topper) Ellie points again. This rooster takes off directly north towards my truck, which is 40 yds away. Yea, its my truck..... but I let it go. Now, Ive been around the perimeter of the acreage, so I started inwards and made two passes thru the middle, then reversed my initial path. She started getting birdy again on the east side, but nothing showed. Were walking back down the road to the truck, and she goes back behind me. I keep walking and she doesnt show up. I hit the locator, and she should be right there. I turn around and start walking back, hit the locate button again.. hmm why cant I see her... the only thing she could be behind is that log. Ooops, there she is. locked up tight. I walk up and kick a branch and a big old rooster jumps up and flies north across the road. I hit him with a load of 6s thru the skeet tube and he folds up hard. 47 minutes from start to stop. The meat hog comes thru again.. She aint real purdy or even very stylish, but she just plain gets the job done..
Thursday morning found me out of bed about 5ish and headed towards Pierre. I stopped in the northwest part of the Brule reservation to watch the sun come up, and look for deer for my buddy, all the while keeping a keen eye on pheasant and prairie chicken activity. About 8:30 I headed to Pierre to work. What shouldve taken 20 minutes, took 2 1/2 hours but its all good. Now that the work is out of the way for the rest of the week. its time to get serious..
I went back to the reservation and decided to put both dogs on the ground.. To make a long story short, there were quite a few birds, but they werent very cooperative. The dogs seemed like they were in a competion to see who could get out the furthest and it was a constant struggle for me to reign them in. I ended up with 1 rooster and two misses for the day. I mentally told myself that if I ever let both dogs out again, just shoot yourself... Ive had one prior miserable hunt with both dogs down, and after this second hunt, I vowed not to do it again this year. When they are alone, they hunt nicely, but when theyre together... Uggh. Maybe someday. FYI: Breez is 18 months and in her first year hunting, Ellie is a 8 year of dog that I got from a classmate when he needed money for a divorce.
Friday I hunted around Presho for the morning. I put the "meat hog" out but we couldnt produce any roosters on the walk in ground we hunted (with the customer and his father in law), We split up about 2ish and I headed to the Grasslands with it being Breezs turn to run.
This is where it gets ugly. Breez is working great, but for some odd ball reason, I cannot hit shat today. She puts up 3 different roosters and 3 prairie chickens, and I got zip on the first rooster,nothing on the second, nodda on the third and zilch on the chickens. If youve ever had one of those days, its actually quite funny. I was just glad there werent any witnesses. I think the cocktails that night even tasted better though for some reason.
Saturday, we hunted deer till 2ish on the Brule with no luck. I head to a walk in area, and get out of the truck at 3:47. Its the meat hogs turn again.. We walk for 45 minutes, with no reaction from Ellie and then she hits a scent. Shes working her way thru some iron weeds, and exits out on the end about 100 yds away, and locks up. I pick up the pace and head down to her. Two roosters jump up, almost like in slow motion. I feel the gun come up and the safety slide off simultaneously the barrel touches the first bird as the trigger snaps. I watch the shot column reach out, grab the rooster and drag him to the ground. Ellie goes over and shows me where hes at, and moves onward. We work a small patch of grass on the prairie and she points in the middle of it, which turns out to be a hen. She presses onward and sticks a point on the edge. Another rooster jumps up. The first shot thru the skeet bbl rocks him so I let him have it again with the IC and he drops. We make our way to a pivot corner and she working a bird again. This bird gets antsy when hes running out of cover and breks, but hes too close and I drop him out in the stubble. The sun is not quite on the horizon yet, so we head to another pivot corner. I havent even crossed the fence and she locked up. I get across the fence and this rooster jumps up and I fold him with the first shot. I get back to the truck, and its 5:05.
Today, it was Breezs turn again. I started out at sunrise on a quarter section of prairie pasture hoping for a chicken, but mainly just run some energy out of her for later. She pops one chicken, that sails a ways and then falls.. She makes a great retrieve. There are aprox 25 other chickens on this pasture, but none of them wanted to play with us.
I drove around to a few WIAs, and found each of them occupied with either bird hunters or deer hunters.
I gained permission on a private 160a picked sunflower field , with a 20 acre patch of mixed weeds and cattails and water about 8 inches deep. I wondered why the farmer grinned at me when he asked how many guys I had with and I told him I was alone. You cannot believe how many birds 20a can hold and how wild they are under these conditions. I walked out of there with a goose egg, but I enjoyed every second of it.
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