2019 season got off to a late start for us... A short vacation turned up no birds but some fun times... Finally got into some sage grouse hunting... Needless to say Maggie was happy.. Kate hates to get her photo taken and hopped into the truck... My old 870 and WW 3 1/4 -1 1/4 - 7 s did a fine job..

Nice start!!!! Hope you have a great season. 👍

Like wise...

great job Kate and Maggie!

Very nicely done! Sage grouse are a hoot to hunt! Got them on Hank's bucket list. Maybe next year...

We have been out a couple times after prairie grouse. A huge sunflower field is messing things up currently. Lots of grouse around, lots of hawks too and 3-4000 acres of sunflowers next to our pasture isn't helping. Things might straighten out in a few weeks.

Nice sage hen you got there, I haven't taken one in ten years. The season was open, then closed, then tags were issued and now closed again. Fun birds to hunt.

I'm in the Black Hills right now working on some projects and hoping to get out after a ruff or two this week.

Hunted about 5 times in northern michigan without a dog. Have flushed a couple woodcock but no pats. I must be in the wrong places.

I’ve killed 80 or so doves since September 1. Not enough quail around here to bother with these days so when the doves leave I’ll have to wait until December to go chase pheasants. Picking up an old friend I haven’t seen in a few years on my way to SD this year for the pheasant hunt so I’m really excited, should be a blast.

Best of luck Kid.. We only have a few doves that mostly move in with cold weather up north... Pheasants should be fun.. We usually do ok... Blue grouse have been a bust the couple times I have tried for them... Hang in there..

These were the last sage grouse of the 2019 season.. A good year..

Good stuff!

Hawk season is shaping up to be a banner year. With hawk numbers at record highs all across North America, expect many spot and stalk opportunities for riflemen shooting 22-250's and the like. Calling produces some while most hunters hunt the telephone pole lines from the F250.


<wakes up from dream>.

4 ruffed grouse and 6 woodcock from around the cabin, one ruffed from home. Feel pretty good about that as I have maybe 5 hours hunting up north and about the same at home between dodging rain storms and work. Home is much better pheasant country and am anxiously waiting for that to open. Sharptails will open then in this zone, it normally opened in September but is a month later now. I prefer chasing them in the morning before the dew dries as I only get wet to the shins rather than head to toe.

I finally caught a good night on the prairie grouse and filled a limit with two prairie chickens and one sharptail. Dogs were in heaven, it was a long time coming.

Headed to SD on the 20th for 5 days hunting pheasant. Taking all my sons and SILs. We're gonna have a blast, been looking forward to this since we did it last year.

Today was opening day for pheasants and sharptail grouse up here. Conditions were not very good, winds 15 mph, temps in the mid-30s, and snow/sleet/rain all day. The dogs never found the sharpies but we did manage to find 2 roosters and put them in the bag. The bright spot was taking 3 mallards which were sitting in the many ponds found in every low spot. It is about the only good found in the seemingly month of rain we have had.

Will give a brief run at ruffed grouse tomorrow as I swap out cards in the game cameras. Then it will be deep cleaning to make the place ready for my wife's "craft weekend" at the cabin. Hopefully, aflight of woodcock have arrived as the one dog could use the contacts. He lost the desire for birds over the summer and is just beginning to show interest. It would be nice to get him on another 47 contacts in 30 minutes like happened with a different dog.

I finally got another Blue Grouse. They are hard to find here in Kalifornia. Even then, they often give you only a glimpse. Got a nice male on my 3rd. hunt. Have an area that has produced at least sightings for many years. But, this year there were none to be found. And I still haven't seen any Mountain Quail. Maybe they just didn't get up as high as I was hunting. E

I've only been out twice for sagehen and did OK.

Owen and I took limits opening day and went out one more day the next weekend where he was deer hunting.

Rosie had a great time. She's not altogether convinced she likes the smell of gutted sagehen, however.



Last Saturday...

Also, Owen and his dad went out the end of Sept for the forest grouse opener and got three blue grouse. They were few and very high, but the two toughed it out. We forgot to take pix.

I have to go to a shooting preserve to shoot any birds around here. I do put as much fun into it as I can. Black powder muzzle loading guns help add some challenge.

Well done. A well managed shooting preserve, can return a significant profit on your investment. Especially when it comes to developing a new Dog, or finding out a Dogs future potential.

Muzzle stuffers for birds is a lot of fun, except for trying to see around the smoke at what you hit/didn't hit. LOL

As a teen I hunted mountain quail and ducks with an antique SXS 12ga. I used cardboard and felt wads, 1 oz shot, and 3drams FFFg. I actually shot a 10 bird limit of mountain quail near Doyle CA in about 1965. There were scads of valley quail there and a good mountain quail population. "Progress" has wiped them out, sadly.

That pheasant hunt looks like a HOOT! I'm jealous.

L2S

A bit of breeze helps a lot. Considering using the flintlock next time.

For the fourth time I'll try posting on this thread. The others would not go through for some reason so maybe this one from elsewhere will.

Thanks for the report on the UP. It sounded like fun. Seeing a pup putting things together is pretty exciting probably topped only by seeing your own kids do the same.

I was expecting some of those mud bats had drifted this way by now. No joy yet, only saw one woodcock here this afternoon. That one acted like a newly arrived flight bird so hopefully it is a pathfinder for the rest.

It seems a lot of the woodcock cleared out ahead of the snow, sleet, and rain we had last weekend. I only found three of them over two days at the cabin when a half dozen in a single loop is considered to be a poor showing. The high point was grouse; nine werecontacted on Sunday and eight on Monday. Three is considered good with 1-2 the norm. Unfortunately, my misbehaving dog did not point any so none were shot.

Today, the walk was more typical with only one grouse contact. The dog did show some hope in getting back to its earlier form as it did point briefly. The bird must have begun running as the dog then broke point and the bird flushed unseen.

Took part in the SD opener for the 27th straight year. I didn't count either hunters or birds but would say 12-13 of us got 15-18 before we quit for lunch and drinks. It was a gorgeous day here.

I was running too late to hook up the GoPro but decided to take some video with my phone. I grassed a bird at about 1215 which went down in brome about 30 yards away. When Flash got to the landing site, the bird was about 50 feet away and while I was getting my phone out to take some footage, the two met so I missed that part. On the way back to me the bird squirmed out of his mouth and got away from him, only to be ran over by Flash trying to catch him, and then got in the air about chest high before meeting the jaws of destiny one final time. Really fun to watch and glad to get the second act on video.

Cool I haven't done much.. Need to get a couple photos up, pheasants open the first weekend in Nov..

Quail opened 10/18 but still too hot, some of the snakes are still out. I will be ready to go by Nov.1st.

Bird hunting in Central Oregon seem's all done. second year i a row I haven't seen one wild bird. Great looking cover around but no birds! Made a number of trip's for Ruff Grouse but closest place is 100 miles, and no grouse. I was going to put in my own chukar's this year and didn't get around to it, will next year for sure! Friend in Burn's is finding some birds but not a lot. Wildlife biologist over there and no great report's coming in. I can't remember the last time I saw a wild chukar. Saw a covey of Huns a few weeks ago but private property no one can get on.

I know the pen I have will hold 50 chukar and might build another to hold another 50. Looked into buying them and only found 15 up in Vancouver Washington for $10 ea. Add the trip cost added is just to much just to much. Preserves have them, min $20 each min 10 birds, wish I could afford that, I'd give up wild bird hunting! Looks like the closest I'll get to wild birds again this year is feral pigeons I raised over the years from wild bird's. Do get the dog's out to run but get's old not being able to find wild birds.

Use to be, Clarno, on the John Day River, was super for pheasant, quail and Huns. Then about 27 yrs ago the Oregonian newspaper did an article on it and called it the best kept secret in Ore. It was but not anymore. Every body in the stat showed up to get their share! Even the dove's have marked it off their places to visit trips! Saw one pheasant down there about 5 yrs ago and a couple quail but haven't seen a thing since. I suspect the best bird hunting left in Oregon is in Idaho! Very frustrating here for hunting anything. Deer and elk and antelope are a fairly rare sight here anymore also.

Small mouth fishing still fair at Clarno but the best fishing is Crappie at Prineville Res, 75 mi one way! Wish I was younger and had less junk, think I'd move!

Spent the day out chasing pheasants in North Dakota. Third day of a four day trip. The legs are pretty worn out tonight. Smart watch says I walked 11.2 miles. I think that is a little exaggerated but not by a lot. The population is about the same as last year from what we have seen. Way down from four or five years ago, but still enough to make it interesting. Managed a three bird limit today. The wind has been relentless since Saturday out of the NW and the geese are taking advantage of it. Big flocks going over this afternoon. Heard some Sandhills going south too and saw a flock of about fifteen swans at one point. Lots of water around from all the recent rains and the snow that fell two weeks ago. Most of that has melted, but there are still remnants of drifts here and there in shaded spots.

Always interesting and fun here in ND.

Jerry

Should've gone a state south and a little closer to MN and you wouldn't have to walk so far to find birds

Just kidding of course, gotta pimp for SD..

We killed an eleven man limit yesterday...damn it was cold out for October. My dog hit a fence and was in the clinic last night for stitches. He's on the 14 day IRL...ugh.

Haven't done much grouse hunting this fall due to a number of things.. Did manage one bird with the old 97 and missed another.. The dogs loved it..
On to the rooster hunt!!!!

Well done with the 97. Looks like a nice one!!!!

B. Thanks it is one of my favorites.. One of my grandfathers shot a model 97, the other a Fox Sterlingworth.. Both 12's.. I have the Fox.. Plan on using it Sat. for the opener of pheasant season... 60 years ago, on my first ever day of hunting as a licensed 12 year old hunter, my grandfather downed a big old rooster with the Fox,, Never for get that, after all these years...

Got back from ND yesterday. The last couple days were better than the first two even with the cold and wind. Harvest is way behind compared to the typical year mostly because of all the rain and mud. Some of the beans were coming off on Tuesday, but it looked like none of the sunflowers or corn had been touched. There were even a few fields of wheat still standing. Hopefully I will be able to get back out towards the end of December for a late season hunt once it is all in the bins and the water is frozen.


Jerry

Give'em hell, Wyo. You're armed just right...Classic.

Mind if I ask what part of the state you hunted? I'm heading towards the SW corner in a bit over a week.

Got the elk hunts out of the way and now on the hunt for pheasants. Bane did much better than me but we did okay. Figured out that shooting with bifocals works with rifle but not so much with shotgun. Will switch to contacts after my shooting performance today. Going to be a good bird season I think. And no porcupines so far.

I was in the SW. Things may be a little better for you since the ground was starting to freeze and the combines rolling again. Section line roads are very rough from people driving in the mud and then drying out or freezing.

Jerry

Grouse hunted in upstate NY with limited success because of the full foliage, So my brother and I decided to go up to Vermont where the leaves were mostly down.
My brothers brit lilly is just over a year old and this was her first real hunt.
She was a little rambunctious, but we got her on birds and she shows a lot of promise.
My 13 year old Gordon Shadow was up to the task and actually pointed two birds the day after this pic. Not to bad for a deaf setter.

You hunted the “King”. Well done!!!!

Thanks for the info and I hope you are right! Excited about putting some wild birds in front of my dog.

Went out on our annual Nevada Chukar trip last week.
Slightly above average hunting. Birds were easy to locate due to the dry conditions. Came home with sore legs, a sore dog and enough Chukar. Already missing the wide open mountains and the silence they bring.

Have to tell the bad with the good. Took Merlot Turkey hunting today, the good being he flushed two. The bad being I missed.

Saw 19 Deer, 3 Bucks most would shoot, and 2 small spikes.

Better than good afternoon. With one exception. 😀

Addition: The Bucks got it made. The Does are following them.

So far I have hunted and harvested Sage Grouse, Sharptail, Pheasant, Quail, Chukar and Huns. The Ruffed Grouse woods still had to many leaves to see them zooming around when I was there.

Work, home/cabin upkeep, finances, family, and weather have played a negative role in my hunting this year. Hopefully, things change somewhat for next.

Upland hunting has been mixed, never found any sharptails (though they are few and scattered in the area) and the woodcock disappeared after the snow and cooler temps a couple weeks ago. For whatever reason, I've seen only a handful of woodcock since Oct 21. A buddy only 20 miles away was finding them up to season's close last weekend.

Ruffed grouse has been a bright spot, where a typical walk would find 3 grouse, the same walk has one contacting double that number and a couple of times tripling it. That is surprising considering the amount of rain we got. Timing must have been right and the rain began after the hatch and the chicks dumped their down for real feathers.

Pheasants will be more in play in a couple of weeks once the firearms deer season ends. The crops are being harvested now, soy beans are a month to 6 weeks late and corn has just begun. The great point is it's been cold and the swamps are freezing quickly. That will allow me to get into areas with too deep of water to walk much earlier than normal. I have a handful of roosters in the freezer already but pheasants do not really begin until late November for me.

Grouse or Partridge hunting is in full swing here in Maine. Grouse numbers appear to be down from last year though, through the month of October I harvested 22 birds and saw around 40. Limit is generous with 4 a day allowed and possession limit of 8 birds. So, you have to have a steady diet of grouse breasts throughout the month. Ain't a bad thing.

Jealous here!

Cook up the backs and legs/thighs, too. It's worth the little extra work cleaning them.

It looks like there was a good hatch. There are plenty of young birds in that harvest.

Rates a Two-Cool for sure.

Funny. My Brother that lives in Idaho spends more days killing Chukar in Oregon than anywhere else...and kill them he does...

Haven't got out nearly enough. No quail in a favorite spot on the Carson river this morning but a little cottontail didn't let me come home empty handed.

Near Jordan Valley?

You betcha...!

Will be heading out for pheasants in about 45 minutes, one can't hunt them here until after 9:00 AM. Heard 9 different roosters last Thursday while sitting on a deer stand and heard one just a few minutes ago when I put the dogs out. Having some hope of bagging a couple birds by 11:00 at the latest. Then, it's off to pick up my deer from the processor - dropped off three on Friday and all but the sausage is done.

Nearly always get some grouse during the elk hunt. This year I even brought the dogs and my drilling but no grouse.

My heeler does not yet understand the difference between a hen pheasant and a rooster. She put up 4 hens at various times last week. Each time that I did not shoot she gave me a crestfallen look. I believe she regards me as being somewhat retarded for not getting any shot off.

Sandhill Crane hunt Dec 15. Looking quite forward to it.

That sounds awesome...

Still slow for us in Nebraska. Temps hit 60 again yesterday. Finding a few birds but working hard for them.

Nice----Congrats!!!!

I went out Saturday for my second "true" hunt of the year (the others have been from home or the cabin) but was tough going as the area I was hunting still had a lot of corn still up. I saw only two roosters which were a couple hundred yards ahead of us. The high points were my young setter did point a couple of hens which has been an issue with him and my Australian Shepard/Pitbull mix put things together and flushed three hens. If we could have hunted the late afternoon we probably could have put some roosters up as they left the corn to roost.

I was out this morning with a friend who had access to a property that just had the corn harvested. There wasn't much cover but there was some. A small swale gave up a rooster to my buddy over my old setter. The dog was put up and the mix came out to work some strip cover. Three roosters were flushed of which two were bagged. The one was a cripple which the mix tracked down. He thinks my wife is a 10 in like ability, I am a 12 now.

I got home and took the younger dog out back as he hadn't had a chance to run. He slammed into a point and a rooster popped up. I was able to make the shot but the retrieve was problematic as the bird landed in an overgrown drainage ditch and broke through the ice. He finally got a whiff and found the bird. It was a good day, hopefully the snow coming in will not be too wet.

With the leaves mostly down but the snow not quite here (coming soon), thought I'd go out for a weekend grouse hunt last Saturday. Been wanting to try my Midland 20ga backpacker and luckily I was able to get into a few grouse. I've had my 410 out the last couple times and so when the first bird flushed I didn't let it get out far enough and I pretty much hammered it. Thankfully I had a spreader shot load in the chamber, otherwise it would have been inedible. A little bit later I flushed another one up and this time let it get a bit further out before shooting and that one was much less peppered. Saw another bird after that but it snuck away into some thick brush and I never could find it. But 2 is pretty successful for a dogless hunter and I count myself lucky when I get even 1! All in all the little Midland is a great shotgun for the money. Very lightweight, packs nicely into a daypack, points super quick, and although the trigger is a bit heavier than I'd like it isn't bad, and when a bird flushes I don't even notice the pull. Attached a pic of the gun and birds plus a couple of the terrain.

Finally got my pheasant photos up.. The first days were very cold with snow.. Finally some warmer weather and we managed a limit!!!!

Mostly use my old 870, but did take my Grandfather's 12 ga. Fox... Sixty years ago on my first hunt as a licensed hunter, it was raining and cold, but he managed a rooster with the old Fox 3 3/4- 1 1/4- 6s.. WW brand still have the box.. The old gun still does a good job...

Missed the photo, here goes...

Nice, Really like the Fox photo..Well done...

Thanks!!

Just got many of our fall photos up loaded... While we were pheasant hunting, the dogs and I ran into a flock of gobblers... Two shots from the 870 12 ga, brought this fellow down... It was fun to watch Kate bringing him out of the brush... She did an excellent retrieve!!!!

Nicely composed picture with the rooster and the Fox.

We took limits of roosters both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Snow during the thanksgiving weekend storm closed the road past our main spot, so the birds (and deer) were thick in there. Took longer to hike in than to shoot the birds. Hoping for a repeat next weekend. As long as the road stays closed, we'll have great shooting up to the end of the season.

The weather has conspired against me the last couple of weekends. We had 12"-18" of snow last Sunday into Tuesday which made walking difficult this weekend when I went to the cabin to blow out the driveway. An hour or so on Saturday and another on Sunday saw a half dozen hens and a covey of sharptails but no roosters.

I tried to get out this morning but snow, icy roads, and increasing winds made me turn back after 30 miles. I'll try out back if the snow lets up but that isn't really hunting to me. I might try again tomorrow though temps are predicted in the single digits for highs. If winds are light it won't be bad but if they aren't I'll probably wait for next week.

A couple of sage grouse taken this year in September with an Iver Johnson 16 gauge in Wyoming.

Nice sage grouse, thinking about a trip west for them next year. Haven't taken one in ten years, they make really fun hunts.

Working hard for birds on public grounds this year. Hiked 7 plus miles on Thurs and killed all 3 roosters that got up. Did get 2 coveys of quail up and got 3 of those too. Fri hiked 4.3 miles and had 0 flushes on public ground. Drove by some good looking private and there was a good number of pheasants visible. Guessing I need to find some private ground access to up our odds. Got lazy since we did so well on public last year. Beats working though.

My son and I took the dog and our shotguns for a little walk today. We found five roosters, but only brought home four. One got up at an odd angle, my son missed two shots, and he would have been in my line of fire, so I never even shouldered my shotgun. Good day though, we enjoyed!

Here's the good old Ithaca (SKB) 20 gauge double he uses. It came to me in 1969! Still in beautiful condition.


And, you'd think a fellow who had just made a terrific shot, bringing down this bird, would smile.


Regards, Guy

4 out of 5 sounds pretty darn good. Nice looking 20 gauge.

We took limits of roosters again both days this weekend. Saturday was in Stanley County on some new ground with some new folks. Tremendous eye for conservation on this place, have wanted to hunt it for years. Lots of birds bunched up out there and it was a great day. On Sunday we went to Hyde County to a place we hunt annually. Lots of birds on this place but they are well educated by now and we had to work harder for them. The people with cover have unbelievable shooting this year. Taking the day off from hunting today to work at my real job but then back out tomorrow for the annual Christmas Eve trip to Sully County. Good luck to all, be safe and shoot straight.

You are living the dream! Have fun. Gotta get back out soon.

I think the bird hunting is over for the year. This last snowstorm will have closed all the rural roads, filled in the tree belts and generally made the land unhuntable for the rest of the season. Bummer. Things were getting good.

The season is just about over for me too, but not because of the weather. My late season hunt in SW ND is just about done and it is time to go home. The birds were great and the weather was wonderful this year. The big storm that hit further east completely missed this part of the state. We filled out almost every day. The birds were in fairly large flocks already and the key was breaking up a flock and then poking around to flush the singles. When a big bunch are in a large heavy cover they won't stick around until you are within range.

It was a little different this year compared to normal in that there were still some standing crops around. Luckily, not so much near where we hunted, but we saw some huge standing corn fields, a couple sunflower fields and even a little wheat that didn't get combined. The deer and pheasants are going to have plenty of food this winter unless it snows an unbelievable amount.

The rooster to hen ratio seemed higher this year than normal too. I suspect that may have also been a result of the delayed harvest. It was difficult hunting earlier with all the standing crops so a lot more roosters survived.

Jerry

Last September grouse hunt