Pheasants

[james_bond_007]

SAT. 09NOV13

Hunted Yuma and Holyoke
Saw about 6 hens...no roosters.
Hunted from dawn to dusk.

Many of the "prime" fields from previous years were grazed or mowed for hay etc. presumably due to the past few dry years.

[SamuraiCO]

Went out leisurely Sat am. Hooked up with another gentleman from Fountain at my first field and we hunted until the early afternoon. We were just west of Burlington out I-70 on walk in property. We had only seen one hen until the last field in the early afternoon. His dog was finished because of the heat and he was nursing an injury. My setter managed to push a bird in front of my new friend. He shot at a going away bird and dropped a leg. I finished as it flew left to right. My dog was right on the retrieve. I gave him the hard fought bird. My pup got birdy again but we did not see anything moving into the wind and guessed the runners circled out to our right upwind. Sure enough we turned and worked the grass closer to the road. Kicked out one rooster too far to shoot. I saw a runner in the grass not 10 feet from me. Dog goes on point then starts chasing. I stayed put just in case only to have that bird bust out 20 yards in front of my dog. Made a hail Mary shot but it was too far out.

Not bad for 5 hours of hunting and talking to others they had not even seen a rooster. We also had a real nice farmer stop and ask how our hunting was going on property that was another family member enrolled in the walk in program. He gave us his name if we wanted to hunt his property in the future. He had some others on his property that day but it would give me some more opportunity in the future. Love farmers like this such a nice guy.

I was mainly out as a training session for my 6 month old. He followed his uncle through the fields, reinforced casting and the whistle command for turn and come. As we worked the fields I would shoot away from him just to get him use to the shotgun. By the time we got to our last field he didn't even flinch and raced with my older dog for the retrieve when that pheasant went down.

[sniper7]

I'm glad I took the ar with me. Repaying my debt of prairie dogs to the farmer. Got about 15 of the 120+ I owe the guy. He charges me 3 and 1/2 PDogs for every pheasant I kill on his property! Over the years I've accumulated quite the debt!
had the yhm can on my 16" build. Took several easy one shot kills at 100-150 yards. Then the long range at 300-450 were fun with the bit of wind we had so I walked a few of them in on those guys. One took me 4 shots since he kept going between holes.

Shot of the day was a jackrabbit my dog scared up when we first headed over to the PDogs field. Got my dog safely at my side and the rabbit was full sprint running from left to right toward some cover at 130 yards (we walked it off later). Dropped him on the run with one shot. 40 grain ballistic tips loaded to the brim with varget. My buddies were blown away that I made the shot!
ill post pics of what that round does. I should have taken some pictures of the PDogs but we wanted to get after some more pheasants. Now I think we should have just stayed and shot PDogs all day.

[SamuraiCO]

Blast and blast kind of day lol. Would still love to hook up with you Sniper this year and watch a field worked by our setters.

[sniper7]

Pretty amazing what that ballistic tip can do.

Yeah samurai that would definitely be a blast. I love watching dogs work, even when there isn't any birds!

[hatidua]

I don't hunt pheasant but there are enough of them around Byers that two of them were turned into road kill within 200 yards of the CRC gate yesterday afternoon (they weren't there when I arrived, and they were rather fresh in the road when I left). I contemplated harvesting some fly tying materials off of them but left them for the coyotes.

[SamuraiCO]

Thank you for the tip.

[thebolt]

It's bad in central Kansas this year. The cover is OK but most of the birds did not survive the dry and intense heat from the last couple years.

[SamuraiCO]

Kansas has been tuff for the last couple of years. Between the drought, some bad spring storms and the continued loss of CRP lands our pheasant hunting will be taking a hit for some time. My buddies and I use to go to N Dakota every year but it got so good in Kansas it was hard to justify the drive.

Last few years we have stuck with Nebraska.

I wish the ethanol subsidy would go away. I also with those states getting rrevenue from oil and gas would shore up local support for CRP but I am being selfish with that thought.

[02ducky]

Went out today with my nephew and two labs. Hunted north if Snyder and Brush, the walk in access areas over there are pretty lame. Think I will stick with the areas Northeast by Sterling.