A good-sized group of us, including Campfire deplorables like Hatari and Jorge as well as other buddies from Alabama, California, Georgia and Maryland traveled west again this year for some hunting fun.

This year we went to https://rollingplainsadventures.com just SE of Bismark for a mixed pheasant and waterfowl hunt. The 11,000 acre ranch has been in the same family since it was settled in 1882. In the early 2000’s they started to diversify and did some really innovative cattle stuff (as much as I know about cattle which is nothing other than grilling them). They also got into Bison, expanded the hunting and put in some nice hunter housing, built a large commercial brewery (https://www.blacklegranch.com/operations/brewery/) and remodeled the old ranch house into the main lodge.

There’s a really interesting article about the operation @ https://www.morningagclips.com/diversity-at-black-leg-ranch/ that’s well worth a read.

This was a great trip for many reasons. The company, scenery and birds among them. With 11 folks in our group, we often split up into smaller hunts and Jeremy, the hunt manager and one of the sons, was always willing to accommodate whatever we wanted. We're already planning on going back next October.

Transport to the fields was via old school busses and they had some great dogs. This was a blind retrieve on a cripple from over the hill.





The lodge is good size and depending on the day (groups coming in and out) there were a bunch of hunters there and they handled it all with aplomb.



Did a morning of waterfowl on the Missouri which was a ton of fun.



And it came with a stunning 17 degree morning view



and a chilly ride home



While we didn’t kill a ton of pheasants, we often got a daily limit of all wild birds and saw some nice country.



And it wouldn’t be complete without a nice pic of Hatari’s retirement gift from a his wife, a very nice Fratelli Poli 20 gauge

Great pics! Thx for posting.
Any of my misses cannot be blamed on the gun😉

Cool trip, sounds and looks like y'all had a great time

Excellent!!!! Congrats on a great hunt!!!!

It was a great and FUN trip. Great bunch of guys and a great outfit. We are booked again for next year.

I grew up in Bismarck and did a fair amount of hunting on the McKenzie Slough WPA just N of them late 80's-mid-90's before I left for college. A good buddy of mine worked for one of the Doan's neighbors and we'd get to go in and thin out the yarded up rooster pheasants 2-3 times @ the end of the season. The number of birds that move into the trees and sloughs near those feedlots once the snow and cold comes has to be seen to be believed. Any number I'd throw out would get the "No F'n WAY!!" from folks, so, I just say, it's lots, and lots, and lots of season's end pheasants.

Dang gentlemen that looks like an absolute blast very nice I’m turning green here thanks for sharing!

Thanks great story! Beautiful shotgun.

Nice hunt gents. And a very nice 20 Hatari. Was the Canadian goose hunting good enough for a purely focused hunt. Any sense of that?