Looks like a great trip. We were spared the weather here but the line isn't very far south of here Im told. Sorry about the dog deal, I hate to hear stuff like that. Yikes.
I had the most odd happenings this weekend pheasant hunting that I can remember. Just bizarre occurrences.
On Saturday two of us went up to Sully County. Three guys with Minnesota plates were thrashing a well worn cover but they had Munsterlanders as does my friend, so we stopped to chat with them a minute, They'd seen nothing, and we directed them toward thicker cover. I hope their weekend got better after that. They'd seen pheasants in this particular walkin area a few years back and were surprised to find none were home today. Yikes. Long ways to drive to hunt a public spot from memory.
Just after that, We were passing a cover on private property which is too hard for two guys to hunt, you just end up blowing the birds out and doing yourself no good. But as we did, I spied a rooster about 15 yards off the road. I called for a halt, and took my 20 out the door with me. The bird busted out and I dumped him, causing him to be doing the dead bird flop, and another rooster sprang up just past him. I missed with the first shot but connected firmly with the second, and now a third rooster erupts. "Click." Empty gun, no vest. At some point in the ruckus #2 who was in my eye completely wrecked, I mean he was totally messed up as far as I was concerned, composed himself and scurried off. Fifteen minutes later and with three dogs searching, no #2 could be located. Arrrrgh. WTAF.
We arrived at the cover we intended to hunt a couple minutes later, composed a plan and executed it. My dog was in the trees while I stood outside essentially doing my own blocking. A rooster flew over me and I grassed it; within seconds, a second did the same. My dog came to me, started to hunt around, found one rooster, then found a live hen and grabbed it and brought it to me, and in the process never recovered the second rooster. WTAF. Got a couple more roosters on the way back to my truck in the normal fashion whereby they're walked up, shot and retrieved without incident, and that was that.
On Sunday we went over to Harrold where its been a difficult year. There are birds around, not a lot but several hundred in the area. You just can't get up on them, the cover is too thin to make them feel secure. We put together a plan where we had minimal walkers and more blockers and downed five total. I shot none. One of my friends took the tail feathers from all the birds as his wife has a flower shop and she wanted them for arrangements.
On my way back to town, I stopped to pull some sunflower heads laying on the ground in a picked field, which I use to feed the squirrels and a rooster that lives in our neighborhood. He's fat like a turkey. Just about a mile past that, I saw a rooster sneaking into a weed patch in the ditch, and thought I could probably get him so I stopped, and got out to find one rooster is now three roosters springing from the same ditch. I wasted three shells in the surprise but a fourth late rooster busted out and I graveled him with my last shell. Fell right in the middle of the road, dead as a wedge, no movement at all. None. Zero. I picked him up and put him in my truck. No ruffling, no hours spent in a dirty vest, no lab drool, he looked perfect.
I had to stop on my way home at the flower shop to pick up some stuff for my wife and order a few wreaths for clients. I planned to take my friend's wife the plumage from the perfect bird. Got out with my pocket knife, went around the back, looked in with the dogs and the crates and the beer bottles and the sunflowers, and no pheasant. Some time in that 20 minutes, that bird came to life and decided to make a flight for freedom. Eff.
Anyway, chickamaFLASHmc-co executed a beautiful retrieve during the Sunday ruckus and I got my phone out as he was coming back with Curt's pheasant. He'll be 12 in April. Be sure to turn the sound on.
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https://i.imgur.com/e7gyAMz.mp4[/img]
