West River report

still_steamn

New member
This is a West River SD report for Dec 29 & 30. Was at the in-laws' farm/ranch. There are always some birds around the area, some years better than others, most years I don't even hunt there. I was not expecting much this year but was very surprised. Due to late crop maturity and farmers that are trying to farm too much land, there were some corn strips still standing and a 50-acre unharvested millet field. Also a couple of brushy draws nearby. We could not hunt the millet, but could walk the corn. The corn is pitifully stunted, you can practically scan the whole thing and tell if any birds are in it. Usually, there are. The millet was absolutely loaded with pheasants. Anyway, there were literally hundreds of pheasants and hundreds of grouse in about a 1-mile radius. All wilder than heck. The grouse would always get up in flocks of 50-200 birds. Pheasants often the same. We got a few grouse road hunting and one or two on foot. The pheasants all on foot. 3 guys ended up with 14 birds in two afternoons. We would flush the pheasants and then walk the corn or draws and pick up a random bird every so often. Temps 9 degrees F and blowing, anywhere from 3" of snow on the flat to 2 feet blown into the bottoms of draws. Dog was not really necessary except for retrieves. It was hard to keep him reined in when the birds were so bunched up. A good time. Still have not shot the brand new Benelli Ultralight 12ga, saving that for 2009.
 
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