5 day trip for pheasant in December. Where would you go?

[OntarioHunter]

Well, today was another big kick in the nuts. Went to a super cool BMA we named “@#)(# draw” on account of all the @#)(# pheasants in there.

I shot one bird in there after a 7.4 mile jaunt up, down and around every cut there was. Saw many... many birds 200 yards away due to the dog.

I couldn’t help but wonder what I could have done out here with my old bird dog. No sense thinking too hard on it cause my old bird dog is dead and we ain’t ever gonna drift around the high plains together.

I will come back here either with a few doe tags in my pocket, or with my own bird dog. Gotta marry my girlfriend before we got a dog together tho, so I guess that means it’s time to go ring shopping.

Maybe drop by Windy Acres Kennel in Napolean, ND on your way back to MN. Got my French Britt from Phil. A great guy. He also owned my Lab's father. That little town has sure done well for me.

Doesn't the kid have an e-collar on that young dog?

Personally, though I love my little nine year-old Puppy to pieces, for hunting I prefer a "wiper" flushing dog that works close, especially this late in the year when snow is on the ground and public land roosters are spooky. A rangey pointing dog is pretty much a waste of time. Fr Britts are noted for working relatively close (for a pointing dog) but Puppy was still too far much of the time. Birds just won't hold by December. The last day we hunted she set me up beautifully for a rooster less than ten yards away between us. But that area is closed to hunting till after Dec 1st and it was clear from snow on the ground it had not been hunted by anyone this year. That was the only visual point in weeks (presumably she had several on point in thick stuff out of sight). Lab Ellie was able to give a few visual points of roosters over the last several weeks but only for a second or two before the bird flushed (though lots of hens were pointed and held ... and lots more didn't). They were usually close enough for a quick shot. She has always been a close working dog.

Sometimes I take for granted how fortunate I've been to have such remarkable dogs. When my brother was with me I took him to the "honey hole". I knew a grove of Russian olives would be full of pheasants every morning. The trick was to get close enough before they broke for the miles of cattails on the lake shore. I called Ellie in and we slowly approached the trees from the edge of the tulies. But it was hopeless. They could hear us in that damn crunchy snow and as soon as we stepped up on the dike seventy yards away the first wave of pheasants took off. Must have been a hundred or more in there. Wave after wave flushed over the next several minutes. We just stood and watched. And when I say "we" I mean the dog too. Never said a word to her and she stayed right by my side. Most other dogs would be off and running. Eventually Ellie and I got one retarded rooster working the cattail jungle. Mike never got a shot.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Well, today was another big kick in the nuts. Went to a super cool BMA we named “@#)(# draw” on account of all the @#)(# pheasants in there.

Hmmm. "@#)(# draw"? Yes, I think it's time you married that gal.

 

[BirdManMike]

Sharptail fly better and are faster than any other bird youll find on the prairie. I am saying this with experience having a falcon over them - so that said, sure, sometimes theyll fly like complete dumasses when flushed gun hunting.

Every bird is knowingly flying for its life when a falcon is in the air. 'Knowingly' being the key word here - with a flush gun hunting they often do fly with no purpose, especially in the early season.

With a falcon in the air, difficulty is thus, from most difficult to least:

1. Sharptail are the hardest. If the falcon is not at good pitch and does not hit the grouse hard in the stoop when it has the advantage, forget about it. In level flight the sharptail will absolutely make the falcon look the fool.

2. Sage grouse are difficult, as well. The odd thing with sage grouse is that they are one of the few creatures I can think of that just get tougher the further into winter one gets. A late season sage grouse, December and later, is extremely difficult with a falcon in the air. Again, if hit in the initial stoop there is no issue - easier said than done with mature winter birds who take a hit and keep on flying - but many falcons can actually fly them down - with the caveat the percentages decrease the later into winter one gets - gaining on them and binding for a kill.

3. Huns - any falcon can fly them down in level flight. They often bail and hit the dirt on their own untouched - as the falcon easily closes the gap - rather than try to outfly the falcon like grouse do.

4. Pheasants. Forget about it. Slow as dirt.

Dunno why I was compelled to respond. But I was.


Glad you at least got into a few bird, NR_Hunter.

 

[300stw]

bird hunting without a good pointer is like dating your buddies wife,,
im not having a problem shooting birds over my wirehairs points any day i go, being one guy hard to eat all the birds to stay within possesion limits,,, patience stealth and cunning helps these late season birds,,, and im not smart enough to use a 12 gauge semi auto,,,,

 

[OntarioHunter]

Sharptail fly better and are faster than any other bird youll find on the prairie. I am saying this with experience having a falcon over them - so that said, sure, sometimes theyll fly like complete dumasses when flushed gun hunting.

Every bird is knowingly flying for its life when a falcon is in the air. 'Knowingly' being the key word here - with a flush gun hunting they often do fly with no purpose, especially in the early season.

With a falcon in the air, difficulty is thus, from most difficult to least:

1. Sharptail are the hardest. If the falcon is not at good pitch and does not hit the grouse hard in the stoop when it has the advantage, forget about it. In level flight the sharptail will absolutely make the falcon look the fool.

2. Sage grouse are difficult, as well. The odd thing with sage grouse is that they are one of the few creatures I can think of that just get tougher the further into winter one gets. A late season sage grouse, December and later, is extremely difficult with a falcon in the air. Again, if hit in the initial stoop there is no issue - easier said than done with mature winter birds who take a hit and keep on flying - but many falcons can actually fly them down - with the caveat the percentages decrease the later into winter one gets - gaining on them and binding for a kill.

3. Huns - any falcon can fly them down in level flight. They often bail and hit the dirt on their own untouched - as the falcon easily closes the gap - rather than try to outfly the falcon like grouse do.

4. Pheasants. Forget about it. Slow as dirt.

Dunno why I was compelled to respond. But I was.


Glad you at least got into a few bird, NR_Hunter.

According to the science literature the average flight speed of sharpies is 43 mph. Pheasant is 38 to 48 mph. I think the size difference deceives us into thinking the bigger bird is slower. Most duck hunters also think teal are fast birds but they're really not. I imagine a large pheasant flying at the same speed as a sharptail is going to be much easier for a falcon to tackle. Bigger target.

On several occasions I have watched pheasants and ducks that I flushed eventually hit the dirt/water when pursued by raptors, the last time being the first day hunting this fall. The tactic seems to work. Only one rooster met his demise.

 

[OntarioHunter]

bird hunting without a good pointer is like dating your buddies wife,,
im not having a problem shooting birds over my wirehairs points any day i go, being one guy hard to eat all the birds to stay within possesion limits,,, patience stealth and cunning helps these late season birds,,, and im not smart enough to use a 12 gauge semi auto,,,, View attachment 166111

You would be smart enough to shoot a heavy semi auto if you had my fragile retinas ... or you might be blind. Public land birds?

 

[BirdManMike]

According to the science literature the average flight speed of sharpies is 43 mph. Pheasant is 38 to 48 mph. I think the size difference deceives us into thinking the bigger bird is slower. Most duck hunters also think teal are fast birds but they're really not. I imagine a large pheasant flying at the same speed as a sharptail is going to be much easier for a falcon to tackle. Bigger target.

On several occasions I have watched pheasants and ducks that I flushed eventually hit the dirt/water when pursued by raptors, the last time being the first day hunting this fall. The tactic seems to work. Only one rooster met his demise.

The grouse pulls away, clearly gaining distance until the falcon gives up breaks off. The pheasants panic and bail (if they are lucky) as the falcon closes the gap. Every time.

Edit: The same is true for the goshawkers who are flying birds flown from the fist that are sitting still as the gamebird flushes.

Pheasants stand little chance for a goshawk flown from a complete stop on the fist at a flushed pheasant. Easy.

Huns are often dead, too, unless they can get to cover, and even then with a goshawk cover isnt always safety as it is with a falcon in pursuit.

Sage grouse can be caught, as well, if the goshawk gets a good jump on them as they rise.

Sharptail are futile. Forget about it.

 

[300stw]

You would be smart enough to shoot a heavy semi auto if you had my fragile retinas ... or you might be blind. Public land birds?

all public land or block management,,,, 1oz #5 2.75 in 20 gauge,,, not sayin its easy but having 3 species in the bag most days is doable. planning and forethought, most people hunt the same places the same way day after day,,,,

 

[OntarioHunter]

all public land or block management,,,, 1oz #5 2.75 in 20 gauge,,, not sayin its easy but having 3 species in the bag most days is doable. planning and forethought, most people hunt the same places the same way day after day,,,,

I shoot the same load in my 12 gauge Browning A5 magnum. I had to switch the barrel spring and friction brakes to ones from 2.75" Light Twelve and add a ring adapter over the magazine tube (machined from stainless ... which added more weight). It's the only way I could get that gun to cycle light loads reliably. At the trap range I switch the ring setting to heavy 2.75" load and there's essentially no recoil. Shooting Federal 1 oz target loads I'll sometimes have to pull the empties manually which is no big deal on the trap range. For skeet or clay the ring is switched back to light 2.75" and it cycles flawlessly with minimal recoil (obviously that is important for my retinas). On the federal refuge and WPAs I have to shoot uplands with steel shot. Only thing I could find on the shelf this year was 1 oz Blind Side #4 duck loads. Definitely heavier recoil than what I usually shoot (and more $!!) but that's all there was and steel shot zones were where the birds were this year. I shot those shells through skeet tube and they worked very well (with steel shot, skeet should produce a pattern somewhere between IC and modified).

This year my usual BMA hunting spots up on the Hi Line were either crushed flat by the big blizzard or grazed to dirt by early transition of cattle off the summer range to valley winter grounds due to summer drought. So really the only birds to hunt were on large federal refuge and waterfowl management areas 1.5 hrs from my camper where there was no grazing and much less drifted snow. Those birds get hit hard but there were lots of them, lots of area to hunt, and I know how to hunt it. After the storm I rarely saw another hunter except on the weekend and only a few then. Still, it was very difficult hunting due to crusted noisy snow and spooky birds. We had to beat the heavy cover for wary pheasants. My Fr Britt just didn't work for that. She's on point somewhere in the cattails but I can't see her. Lab Ellie points them too but she's big enough to keep track of and works VERY close, especially in that stuff. Close work was essential with those birds and noisy conditions. Puppy did get some work in the Russian olive thickets. Let her find them and hope they eventually flush in my direction. Impossible to get a shot off in that crap and roosters won't hold but a few seconds. Place myself in an intercept location for anticipated escape route to neighbour's posted property or cattails, be quiet, and hope for a pass shot. Not as much fun as shooting over her points but under the circumstances it's the best we could do. And sometimes it worked. I see you had a lot less snow where you were hunting ... or it all blew away in a chinook after I left. Lucky you! This is what it looked like my last afternoon. By then after a month of freezing temps the snow was receding and finally softened up a bit for a few hours ... until the sun got low. By 3:30 it was starting to crust up again. We got the last two birds for my possession but as you can see it was a lot of work. Completely wore out two dogs who had been at it almost every day for six weeks. Too pooped to pose for a photo. This was east end of the refuge which had just opened to hunting that week. Less cover and feed (staff cut down ALL Russian olive ... see the burn piles in background) and consequently a lot fewer birds but they weren't at all spooky. Anything we found usually held well on point.

 

[NR_Hunter]

Just a few pics (ok more than just a few) from my time out there. The one pic with my gun bloody was when I had to play bird dog cause my buddies dogs don’t really find cripples. Had to find the bird and pounce it on myself.

Super cool out there tho. Can’t wait to go back tbh, just with a different dog, and hopefully one of my own. Also, our Air BnB host could not have been a nicer lady. Could have gotten the finger from every Montanan we met, but I’d still have left thinking Montana folks are cool cause of how nice she was.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Just a few pics from my time out there. The one pic with my gun bloody was when I had to play bird dog cause my buddies dogs don’t really find cripples. Had to find the bird and pounce it on myself.

Super cool out there tho. Can’t wait to go back tbh, just with a different dog, and hopefully one of my own. Also, our Air BnB could not have been a nicer lady. Could have gotten the finger from every Montanan we met, but I’d still have left thinking Montana folks are cool cause of how nice she was.

Glad you had a good time in spite of dog woes. If you pick up a pup by end of April, she should be ready to go by hunting season. All my Labs but this one were on board by age five months. The late great Opal was doing it all at three months! Barely bigger than the roosters we were hunting. This Ellie was definitely the most retarded of the lot, not really getting with it till end of her second season... but definitely was worth the wait. She is fantastic now.

This year I only got static from one person about my foreign plates. Quickly pointed out I am a Disabled American Veteran and that was the end of discussion. Many were simply curious how I got across the border, especially the border patrol officer also gassing up at the truck stop. Nice guy who took my word for it ... thankfully because my passport was an hour away in the trailer. Generally speaking, most Montanans on the east side are the friendliest folks you'll find anywhere. And then there's the McMillionaire transplants ...

 

[Huntin' Fool]

Any Moses Lake Washington reports? Season runs until January 18th. Never hunted it - has been on my bucket list for years

 

[NR_Hunter]

Well... I'm re-upping this thread because I'm making a return to the same area in MT in a few weeks.

Anyone in the area have a reports on snow depths? It doesn't look too terrible according to NOAA snow cover maps. I hope they don't get pounded right before we head out, although I always prefer going somewhere where it's cold and desolate instead of somewhere like KS or NE.