I am not sure whether it is the owls or foxes killing off all the game.

In the 70's, you would see dead pheasants lying in the road while driving south out of PA. Once you got to the MD line, it was like there was a glass wall and no more pheasant sightings.

My cousin use to raise pheasants and quail and released them on a farm behind his place for hunting. Some in the winter time would return to the pinned area behind his house looking for a hand out.

Took my pup to central SD for opening weekend of pheasant season there a couple weeks ago. We had a great hunt, plenty of birds (wild, no pen-raised birds), and limited out every day by 4pm (hunting starts at noon). Very pleased with my 14mo pup on his first pheasant hunt. Obligatory pics below...

^^^^^^
Are there any left?? I miss the old days in the field. Maybe I should take a few days off and look for some grouse.

Nice!!!

I managed to get 7 spruce grouse and 3 ptarmigans yesterday.

quote:

Originally posted by barndg00:
Took my pup to central SD for opening weekend of pheasant season there a couple weeks ago. We had a great hunt, plenty of birds

Glad to hear it. Pre season reports were not good for bird numbers in SD and ND.

Do you mind sharing where you went? Stayed? Hunted? Been thinking about putting together a similar hunt. But I've been too busy to research.

Went out again today and arrived at the parking lot with a severe storm right behind us. Had to wait that out and the lighting was epic.

Finally into the fields about an hour after sunrise. Had my 11 year old niece with us today. She's yet to take the safety course so she was just walking. My brother also brought his lab along. No training on the lab, just out for some exercise. Plus he covers more ground than we can.

In the end. We saw nothing but wet fields and some more rain at about 10 am. Three hours of working the dogs and good camaraderie. As well as sharing the tradition with the next generation.

We stayed in Chamberlain at the Arrowwood Conference Center at Cedar Shores, hunted with a guide group out of Kimball, SD, called Central Dakota Guide Services - highly recommended, this is our second year using them and both have been great.

Beautiful dog.

We skipped our usual trip to ND because the guide said the bird numbers were way down. He said a big bad hail storm had killed many of them. Guess I need to get to Kansas..sooner than later.

FINALLY a better day in the fields! Two shots, two pheasant in the bag. Flushed three more on the way back to the car. I know where I'm going tomorrow.

On point...