Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game SD 2023 Pheasant diary

We went out for the traditional opener on Saturday. We start the 3rd Saturday at noon, no matter what the "resident opener" and 10am starting hour freak shows do or say. We're not savages. I took a M42 loaded with Federal 3" 6's and it proved to be tougher than I thought it would be to kill a rooster. I finally did so, and was glad for that. End of experiment. The company and the eats were fantastic, the dog work was enjoyable and the shooting was poor. Lots of corn left in the fields, not so many pheasants in the grass. Flash made it to his 14th opener, Im super glad for that. The Korean ribs were a huge hit.

On day 2 we went over to Harrold and found alot of crops in the fields but a few pheasants around as well. Five of us got 11. I was carrying my Magnum Twenty and in a turnaround from Saturday hit everything I shot at and killed it dead too. 3 roosters for BK using plain old #6's, imagine that. Dog work getting better. Surprisingly dry days this weekend so understandable.

Damnation, does that not look like a hoot! Well done!

We probably passed you on the roads Sunday.

Last pass of the day was fruitful with lots of good dog work for dad and I. Successful 3 day hunt, especially considering all the crops still in the field.

Cool.

Gonna try to be there before Thanksgiving

It was a great weekend and i'm hopeful for a long long season this year! Nice picture!

Nice.... How far were you trying to stretch the .410????

Old school SxS's....nice.

Like I told our friends on the hunt, double shotguns double the yield.
Mine is a 16 ga Dickinson Estate shooting homeloaded 1 1/8 oz 5s, cheesys is a new to him Model 30 Ugartechia sp? made in 1985. 20 ga shooting factory 1 oz 6s. That gun must be a pheasant magnet, by far the most pheasants got up closer to him.

While hunting the last patch of the day I looked out to the right over a large grass field and saw a flock of birds i thought were prairie chickens headed our way. I alerted the guys and waited for them to get close. Just before gun range the flock split and went on either side of me. Luckily the ones to the right were close enough to shoot and I dropped one. As I was walking to the downed bird I heard shots behind me. When I got to the bird I was surprised it wasn't a chicken. I'd never seen a sharptail before let alone shot one. Turns out a buddy behind me had dropped a chicken from the same flock. Great time out there, can't wait to go back.

BK a 3" 410 throws 11/16 of an ounce with #6 that's about 151 .11" diameter pellets . A ounce of 6's is about 223 count an ounce of #7 shot at .10" is right at 299 pellets so 11/16 oz is right at 208 pellets so moving to hard # 7 shot would increase you pellet count by a 1/3 that might give you a better bird killing ability with that 410.. More than of few folks on the fire swear by #7 shot..mb

Adult son of one of my best friends in town this week from his new home in NYC. Asked if we could go hunting, of course I said "Yes." Kind of a snotty night but one hours work produced this pile of roosters. Lola gave an A grade performance, we only lost one bird and I'll take the hit on that. I could have shot that bird alot harder and was unable to safely get another hit on it. I bagged three of the nine. Jeff shot five.

From tests done by Brister....The .410 pattern starts to fall apart much past 20 yards. 20 and in, it will be around the same size as the larger gauges.

I kind of was wondering all this Bob. I thought maybe some different shells would be interesting. I need to spend alot more time on that gun before I take it hunting again. I was keeping shots to 25 or so and less.

I am not surprised by this. My total .410 experience was doubled on Saturday. I'm not thinking of doing much more with it this fall.

I'm pretty sure I had the same eye opening experience with the 410 on grouse only it took a couple more trips and crips to come to the same conclusion. With a 1/2 oz load of 9's it's perfectly capable on the skeet range as long as YOU are on the money. And of course I was using an imp cyl briley tube in my gun, on the grouse the mod tube and 3" 6's like you used, still low pellet counts make for thin patterns. I often wondered back then that the general design usage was for pot shooting on the ground or in the tree at under 25 yds .mb

Awesome reports and pics! Keep 'em coming! I'll be in SoDak in early Dec. Green with envy until then!

Trundled over on Friday for a short hunt to get the dogs out in the field after a week in Montana. Three of us shot six, I shot one.

Back on Sunday for a really short hunt and killed one again. There's a quarter section of corn to the NE of our spot which isn't harvested yet and which is harboring birds in huge numbers. Looking for that to be cut this week and really increase our opportunities.

Out last night for a short walk. My dog forgot who she works for. Zero for the effort. Buddy shot two over his dog. Corn is out but birds still relating to it and our timing was off as a result. Some harsher weather would have been in our favor but dang it was nice out.

Hopefully conditions are prime the first week of December when we get out there. I am getting amped up and got sucked into buying a new (old) shotgun this morning just to try to shoot a rooster.