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Well tonight we were out scouting for waterfowl. we turned on a road and Vincenzia spotted a group of Hungarian partridge. Had about 15 minutes left of shooting time so I told her if she wanted to go after them she could. Hard to tell in the video, but when they went up, she thought they were too far away, and she started to turn to walk back. I tell her to get them. She shoots one time and a bird goes down. About two seconds later, I notice another bird goes down. my truck was kind of blocking the road and there was a car coming so I had to move it. I told her where the second bird went down, but she doesn’t follow directions very well. So I had to go out there and showed her where to bring Reaper. As soon as he got downwind of it, he found it. Two Huns with one shot. She was using steel number threes.

While most uplanders are associating the Dakotas with pheasants, for me it's Huns. Once planed a next move to ND largely for them, and your posts often have me "What iffing?" that.

Very cool, and "Great Shot" Vinnie Quack

She’s been trying to get this one for a while. We’ve been hunting a ton and I don’t know if I’m coming or going. Cranes are about gone. Snows have been flying over like crazy Specklebelly‘s too.

Also saw as low as 16° this morning on my truck

Brrrr! I shivered in my chair reading that.

PorkChop wrote:Also saw as low as 16° this morning on my truck

Thanks for the boots-on-ground report! We're counting on your cool temps, down here. Nice birds !

I shot this rooster yesterday afternoon before scouting for ducks. Just thought it was pretty cool the way he went up after being shot. It was a nice headshot and I could tell that by the way he reacted, but he was still able to run around for a bit. Definitely gave Reaper a good test. When I got him from Reaper, the rooster flapped its wings a few times and died. Blood pouring out of his head.

Here is the seven day temperature forecast for my area. In the big scheme of things not very favorable for a big push out of here. Snowgeese really showed up yesterday. Couldn’t get permission to hunt where they were going this morning. First time in a long time that I’ve been turned down for permission, especially from a landowner that has told me to go out there and kill them all in the past. Somebody got to him before me, but he said to stay in contact. I’m still pouting a little bit. Haha

This picture is from a few days ago. Pheasants seem to be everywhere and they’re already in decent size groups. I typically like to just shoot one bird from a group and then move on to a different area but one of my daughters had a basketball game so my last two birds I took from the same group. Pretty nice double if I say so myself.

The only mistake I made was I didn’t pay attention to Reaper and I thought he picked up my third bird first and he had actually picked up the second bird. So almost two hours of walking in circles crawling around, wondering why his nose wasn’t working Just to find the other bird, dead 50 yards away to the west. I should’ve known when he gave up and was just following me and refused to go into the patch of cattails where I thought the third bird was. And thankfully after a lot of praying, I came to my senses and went back to where I shot, and Sent him to the area where the third bird fell. Sure as shish kebabs that is where it was.

Finally got out for roosters again yesterday afternoon. Only had about 40 minutes of shooting time left. Decided to hit the spot where I shot the first limit over reaper. Saw three different groups of Hungarian partridge coming out of the field going back into the cover. Then pheasants were taking off left and right about 200 yards away. I don’t think we were spooking them. They were just getting up to move closer to where they were feeding. Finally when we got down close to them reaper started doing his job. Shot my first two roosters. Hunting thick cattails with snow, Makes it hard to find birds but Reaper made quick work out of it. About five minutes later had another rooster come from 10 miles high. Hit it with my first shot and then finished it off with the second shot. That one gave Reaper a little more trouble to find. Still had like 15 minutes left of shooting time. To think I almost didn’t go. Vincenzia didn’t have too many shooting opportunities but when she did, she did not make the most out of them, So she got to take the picture ha ha.

What a stack of yotes!!!

I see Reaper still hates pictures haha

Yep he is definitely a grumpy boy! There are 33 coyotes and one fox in that pile. We warmed up a little bit and they kind of flattened out. Typically I would hang them but since there’s really no money in them, I’ve been stacking them in the truck so it makes it a lot easier to get permission to hunt land. Dead coyotes, open up a lot of doors for bird hunting.

PorkChop wrote:Yep he is definitely a grumpy boy! There are 33 coyotes and one fox in that pile. We warmed up a little bit and they kind of flattened out. Typically I would hang them but since there’s really no money in them, I’ve been stacking them in the truck so it makes it a lot easier to get permission to hunt land. Dead coyotes, open up a lot of doors for bird hunting.

Smart!

"Dead coyotes, open up a lot of doors for bird hunting"
Like your approach PC, and congrats on the roosters!

Well, our upland season ended yesterday. Even with me putting notes on the calendar at the end of last season to hunt more upland this season we failed to do it. I actually think we hunted upland less. I told Vincenzia that I don’t think I’m gonna buy a duck stamp next season and just hunt pheasants. She told me that was fine if I want to do that, but she would still be hunting ducks and geese. Haha

There are literally pheasants everywhere. A little worried about the rooster to hen ratio as them roosters are going to do a number on each other this spring. Safe to say, there are more pheasants around right now at the end of this season, then we typically see at the beginning of our season.

Hungarian Partridge numbers are phenomenal. Once again, a lot of wasted opportunity not pursuing all these birds.

Last retrieve of the season





13° below zero will give you presents like this on your stash

Snotcicles.