The Grinder!

KBell

KBell

New member
I normally wait until the snow and cold hits to enter the "Grinder". Appropriately named as I planted it and it runs 2685' by 3980'. I gave it the grinder acronym because one needs three things there to be successful:

shoot extremely well
stronger than normal hip and quad muscles--hammies are needed as well!:)
very good dog work

When Sophie and I began today 5 very long tailed roosters and 3 hens flushed from the fence line into the grinder. I knew from previous experience we wouldn't see those birds again. We didn't.

The grinder



About twenty yard in Sophie had her first point. Here he is:



Another twenty yards or so yielded his twin.

You can see that these are very immature birds for this time of year! Snow in the forecast tomorrow:(

I left one bird with the landowner--he is a good friend of mine and a crappy shot to boot!:) so Sophie and I left the field with two.

Results--9 roosters--two pointed. 13 hens--7 pointed and one group of 5 huns--pointed. 3 deer--one six point and two does.

Great day for Sophie and myself. She slept on the short drive home and I am on my third crown and coke as I write--not sure I can feel my lower legs.

All in all a great day in the country I love and plenty of action to boot. I will enjoy the sweet flavor of this guy as I dine and remember the efforts it took to bring him to the table.

Ken
 
Nice Kbell, looks like a great day. Take it easy on the Crown and Coke so you can get back out there tomorrow:)

The Grinder looks awesome but I am afraid at 5'7" I dont think I would ever get a shot off in there. That stuff looks much taller than me.
 
Hello friend

No worries about tomorrow. It will take me several days just to recuperate from today. The crown makes the pain go away. You are right about the height. I am 6' 1 and often have "no shot" because of that!:)

Yesterday's wind had these guys jumpy and on the move today. When the snow hits I will even the score.
 
Awesome job! I've similar fields and very much understand the difficulty in both walking and shooting out of them!
 
Great job Kbell. Now I have a request. Can you give some of us some pointers on aging these birds? Up til now I just look at the spurs and tail length. But the one I got the other day had a short tail and I guess it could have lost some feathers from a retrieve etc.
Also, educate us on things like, I believe in a previous post you mentioned that you were discouraged in the outlook because most the kills are young birds?
I am not trying to sound like a knob, but I am of sorts. But I am not afraid to try and understand what is what.
Thanks
 
Sharing

Hello MStand,

No worries about the harvest consisting of younger birds! That is great news!:) Check out the Kansas forum--photos indicate they are harvesting older birds at a high rate--that is bad. I had posted that I would keep track of the age class of the birds harvested and asked all of you to do the same. If all we hunters harvest are older birds then it reasons that hatch reproduction was poor and that these harvested roosters may be needed for the following years' reproduction. I believe this happened in Iowa two years ago and that is one reason why some areas are void of birds. All biologic studies indicate that hunting does not eliminate roosters from year to year but that logic assumes that natural reproduction occurs. I firmly believe that we can and sometimes unintentionally do eliminate breeding stock from a certain area.

I raised pheasants commercially for years--somewhere around the 300,000 mark. The best way to age pheasants are from the lower beak--a younger bird's beak will break(bend)from the weight of its own body. The breast and primary wing feathers--a younger bird has grey to brown immature molting feathers on the breast--a mature bird is bluish to black in center chest feathers and the primary feathers are shorter than the wing tip feathers--a mature bird is the exact opposite. The spur or lack thereof and the tail are usually good indicators however the bird can have lack of spur due to genetics and a tail lost to predators, shot off etc. They will regrow their tail in time. I have a mounted hen in my office that has noticeable spurs. I also have a fully mature rooster there with no spurs. You will appreciate that no two roosters are ever similar in color and pattern. Like snowflakes, each rooster is unique in appearance. Just like in other species biology does produce the occasional variation.

Ken
 
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Thanks Kbell. I have a pretty good idea now. Visuals would work best, but I have an idea. This will make the hunt even more fun I think.
 
I hunted some similar cover a couple weeks ago during my IA hunt. 6'1" and the grass taller than me in places. One point yielded a young rooster we shot, and 4 hens flushed. We'd never have found the downed bird if not for the dog.

It was extremely windy that day, 40 mph. Brutal conditions. In that patch we lost track of the dog. He wears a beeper collar and with the wind we couldn't hear him. I finally found him only about 40 yards away. He decided he couldn't find me and sat down, waiting for me. He was happy as hell to see me and came running. They'll learn that when the collar is on point tone, I'll come find them.
 
You're right RangerRick,

It takes special dogs and training to work standing corn and tall dense cover. My lab Simba learned to hunt standing corn on the edges and became very skilled at working birds to the edge for me and the occasional shot.:)

One hunting partner was shocked and talkative about how my dog was lost or that I was a fool for allowing her to enter standing corn. 10 minutes and 3 birds later all he could do was sing her praises and to this day reminds me of her cornfield exploits. My current dog Sophie is close range and never breaks that 40 yard mark with me. I occasionally see her jumping up to check my location when we are in heavy cover like the "grinder".
 
Come closer John!

I suspect you and I are going to be fast friends. Anytime you get near the Iowa border look me up. Your invitation is always open.:)

Ken
 
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