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Ever been part of a situation that when in the middle of it, you know 'this is as good as it gets'? Well, that was how my pheasant hunting has been. Friend of a friend had a friend with a landowner contact in South Dakota. Schedules got flopped around last year and a free weekend opened up, so the friend of a friend put together a group and we went, and we had a great time. Same core group this year, minus a few, added a few, same situation, we slayed birds. 6000 contiguous acres of corn and soybean fields. Full of cat tail sloughs, low marshy areas, waterways, and some corner weed patches. Dug outs in some of these bad spots for water collection. Pheasant hunting nirvana. It gets no better. 12 of us hunting. Limits Saturday, Sunday, Monday in 3-4 hours. Wild birds as best as I could tell. Long spurs. Extremely wild for the most part. Had a mix of short tailed birds that were hard to tell from hens other than seeing a flash of color or white collar, indicating a late hatch to me. Maybe they were seeded, but I don't think so. I think the habitat just couldn't be any better on this farm. Pregame meeting My buddies veternarian buddies 3 setters honoring and pointing. Guess what? Rooster. I have a cool video of this all going down, right as the rooster is almost flying at my head with shots being fired..... Buddies brittany Shady on a retrieve Lunch time regroup My shorthair Milo with a point. Of course its a hen. Pushing a field Heading into the cattails. Former major leage baseball pitcher who now is a lumberjack. True story. Cool guy. Otis got skunked. 1 quart of 3% peroxide. 1/4 cup baking soda. squirt of Dawn dish soap. mix. sponge on. rinse off 5 minutes later. Miracle elixir.
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My buddy and my dad after a push. My buddy and my dad on the outside, Mr. MLB himself in the passenger seat, and Doc (retired surgeon) driving. He loved driving the lumberjacks Mopar.... lots of smarta$$ comments about having to drive the Mopar around. Another common friend among many in the group, dad, myself after a good cattail push. Another friends high school daughter. And her ball-hog lab. She is crazy about bird and duck hunting, and her lab is going to be awesome. Saved the day more than once on wounded birds and only 11 months old as it is. My good buddy and my shorthair after retrieving one of his birds. This one is getting blown up to 16"x20" for the hunting room. Solid point. Rooster too. Just happened to be 20 yards ahead of him when he flushed. Friend of a friend on his first pheasant hunt, first out of state hunt. He had a blast. Ruined the poor guy on what pheasant hunting typically is. Walking all day and hoping for a shot or two. Ball-hog lab starting a tug of war match. He's young, so we will let it slide. Doc saved the day more than once from his blocking positions. Bird get up from the group, get rattled with some shot, and if it was within 60 yards, him and his custom stocked Perazzi would get it done. Saw it happen more than a couple times to know it wasn't a fluke.
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Joined: Jan 2004
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The ol' Ball-hog himself, hogging balls. On a retrieve he had to stop to mark another one down that went behind the line. Good group of guys to hunt with. And as typical, all good things come to an end, the friend of a friend said this was the last year he got this weekend to hunt as his original group that had 'dibs' was regrouping and he was the odd man out and lost his weekend. Said if there were spots left in their group he would let us know, but to not expect it. Keeping fingers crossed. Now, its back to Kansas public ground and hoping to get at least 1 bird up in range on the coming opening day Saturday.
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Congrats on a great hunt!
"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin.'"
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Damn! That's a trip! Very well done!! Love following my dog after roosters.
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Doc said that Perazzi had live pigeon barrels on it. Choked .028 and .042 If I remember the numbers right. Sure scattered some feathers with it.
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Enjoyed the story along with great pictures.
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I see you have the name of the place blocked out, but I as to what part of the state you were in? I'm a SD native, grew up chasing birds in the Miller area.
Selmer "Daddy, can you sometime maybe please go shoot a water buffalo so we can have that for supper? Please? And can I come along? Does it taste like deer?" - my 3-year old daughter
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I see you have the name of the place blocked out, but I as to what part of the state you were in? I'm a SD native, grew up chasing birds in the Miller area. Blocked it out of respect to the landowner (their name blocked) and the friend of friend we hunt with who arranges it. I’ll send you a PM.
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Campfire Ranger
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Missed this post as I was driving to SD when it was posted
Excellent write up and pics…Congrats on a great trip!!!!
However, if multiple large pay to play groups arrive on a weekly basis, and routinely shoot that many Birds....the fields are most likely seeded...
Last edited by battue; 11/21/21.
laissez les bons temps rouler
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Came to this late. Very nice with mild weather it looks like.
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Sounds like a good time. You mentioned pen raised birds. Usually pen raised birds have a hole all the way through their nostril (beak) if you want to determine. I was invited several years to go with friends to hunt pheasants in sodak. Had fun, lots of shooting. Birds were 100% planted. Some were smart and some dumb as a rock. I can hunt pen raised birds 40 miles from my house, so I don’t drive the 400 miles to sodak anymore.
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