Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

No word on the elk hunt yet.

Brent,
Why do you list 8 states? And why would anyone voluntarily list WI if they had any other options?

no word on the elk, eh? I bet right now, this very minute, Ryan is looking through the scope at a big fat cow...squeezing the trigger......only to.....

Dang good win for the purple last night. Tzone, it was fun texting back and forth during the game. Webb was breath of fresh air. I'm not saying he is the long term answer but he has shown that he deserves a shot. Kid has skeeels.

What I would like to see now is for the Vikes to bring in a vet QB to compete with Webb, trade Mt. McLazyazz and get the 3 rounder back that we lost in the Moss debacle, draft a legit left tackle in the first and use the rest on best player available for offensive line and secondary.

Anyway, enuff fooootball.

So my old boss who still works here has a suitcase style portable fishhouse that fold out to 8 x 8 (like the $500.00 kind)that he's used about three times. We got to talking about fishing and I asked him if he ever gets out with that portable. He said nope, I'm at the age where I like to go out to a rented shack that is warm when I get there. So I asked how much do you want for the portable? He says come get it out of my garage and its yours.

Merry Chrissmas to me. Merry Chrissmas to me. Merry Chrissmasssss to Roooooster. Now I have to buy some schanpps.

Congrats! you gotta take advantage of them when you get these deals they dont come along that often.

with a monitor like rooster, how was the rooster hunting this year? I forgot where you were exactly...?

Do you know where Wheaton is?

Yeah, its no where near there.

J/K I live between Hawley and Rollag. (Southeast of Moorhead) The bird numbers were down this year in our area. I blame the warm day we got in, I believe Febuary. It warmed up good and there were LOTS of birds out scratchin in the fields. Then it rained and got colder than hell that night. Perfect pheasant suffocation scenario. I didn't see many after that. Me and the dogs kicked up quite a few this fall but the majority were hens. Then my new pup got hurt and I didn't make it out much after that. Sounds like you are doing alright in the cattails though!

Oh man, that was a great hunt last week. Only time I went out all year by myself and it was awesome. Just thoroughly enjoyed myself. All year it has been really good. I only went out once and got skunked, and that was a 45 minute dash out to a hot/cold spot. Dog did good. I might upgrade her to great pheasant dog. She was hovering all year at the uppper end of good, but i might up it to just barely into the great category. I doubt she will ever attain "Awesome" or the pinnacle "Once in a lifetime" designations, but she just plain got the job done this year. Her retrieving is still suspect, but she finds them and brings them partway back.

Do you hunt public or private up there? I have always wondered how far north they go.

I just put a call in to a guy who is the Clay CO Pheasants Forever President. I will ask him how the hunting was for him up there.

oh, and yeah, I know where wheaton is and where it isnt (by Moorhead)! I gotta make a trip up to DL one of these days to visit a client up there.

Those are the states in which I have bought resident hunting tags. Frankly, I rather like Wisconsin quite a lot. Beats IL all hollow and IA as well.

no real news on the Elk, hunted yesterday and today, hard. saw 4 big bulls, found a big 6 point shed horn, and saw many deer, several BIG bucks. hardly any snow so they haven't been forced down from high up. its snowing there today through friday so we'll try again friday, keeping my fingers crossed!

I live 20 minutes from DL and 20 minutes from Moorhead. Pretty much on the edge of lakes country. So do you take your dog out in the cattails? I've done this a few times in the early season and they work them but it is hard for them to get through most of the time. My baby girl dog "Rooster" will do whatever it takes to get birds up. She is 6 years old as of 12/20/10. She is a pure bred pointing lab. She points about 50% of the time. Especially if the bird doesn't run. Its a beautiful thing to witness. Picture perfect point with tail straight up and front leg cocked. She is a real sweetie. To be honest, I get more of a kick out of watching the dog(s) working a bird then I do shooting them. I have talked about her before on here and find it strange that nobody has commented on the fact that I named a female lab Rooster and the fact that in pheasant hunting circles people yell "Rooster" or "Hen" when a bird is flushed. Maybe you will be the first B man!

How long do you have to hunt Ryan?

I envy you!

til friday, the season runs the month of december, but I usually only go the last little bit, the later the better, but with little snow its gonna be cutting it close

Oh yeah, the dog goes in the cattails, through the cattails, under the cattails, whatever it takes. Although she does get a little lazy at times when there is a nice trail through them. Hunting cattails is tough. Tough walking and the birds do run some on ya, but when you get one it is really rewarding. Hunting early season cattails is much harder than late season. Dont tell many people that though, most think it is the opposite. Once in awhile you might get a wet foot though if you find a soft spot in the ice. I havent in a lonnnnnng time, but some of my hunting partners have.

Oh yeah, I love good dog work. It is like you say, over half the fun.

Yeah, naming a pheasant dog rooster kinda goes against the grain, but if you hunt alone or with the same experienced people it prolly wont matter. Usually the "ROOSTER!!" that is bellowed when a bird explodes is a quite a bit different than calling your dog. In fact, I rarely use my voice at all when hunting pheasants. I have had on a couple of occasions, a guy ask me at the end of the day what my dog's name is.

So how was the season for roosters? More/less than normal? Assuming I am done, which might not be the case, I ended up with 15 this year. A little less than average, but that was because of my elk hunt. I only shot 1 bird before deer hunting. I was happy with the bird numbers, happy with my dog work, and really happy with my shooting. I got to get out with a friend that I have been meaning to get out with and that was cool. Had a couple good hunts with Dad, that was great. All in all, a very good pheasant year for me.

Yeah, don't tell anyone about that cattail thing.

This is my Gus - More more or less the equivalent of Dave's Ben (but definitely NOT free).



He does well too

truck looks fordish, tires look bfg-ish, dog's name seems ... Gus-ish... (We have a Gus-Lab)

Birds deadish, gun seems side byside ish...

I approve of all items in these photos

Dang ole Brent gone up a notch...

I got 5 Roosters, twenny three hens and a female swan that was nesting in the CRP for some dumb reason.

I joke. I only got four Roosters this year. My pup which was showing all the promise in the world shattered his hip moving between spots one day and it kind of put a damper on my bird hunting. It was less than a two mile drive, the dogs found a mudhole to crawl in and cool down so they were caked. I didn't have anything to cover the back seat of my truck and I know better than to put a pup in the box but I thought, as long as Rooster is in there, he won't jump out. Wrong! He jumped. I think if he was all lab he would have rolled and said WTF? But he is half luellen(sp) setter and half chocolate. He has the setter hips which must be very fragile. The right rear was shattered and I had a choice of $1200.00 for surgery (that may or may not work) put him down or see how it heals on its own.

While, I couldn't put him down because he didn't put himself in the back of my truck so I thought he would be a lap dog.

Well now even though he's a "trike" he still covers ground like you wouldn't believe. I just dread the day when the arthritus sets in bad...

Glad you approve Dave, this is your thread after all. The dog is the best part.

Would it be wrong and to late to change his name to Trike?

I'm just askin...

I got some Blackberry Brandy left over from my trip to LOW last year. You want it?

I live 10 miles from DL, let me know when you are coming up.