Nebraska Pheasant Hunt

[SamuraiCO]

Numbers up there as well. Went over the holiday weekend with two buddies and their kids. Weather cold and some snow on and off. We got there Friday morning and found birds in every field. They were skittish and have been shot at quite a bit since opening weekend. Cold weather had them holding but the older birds were running and ducking out of fields. We should have been blocking and pinching more with the numbers we had but I am just one person. Cover was much deeper than last year and it was evident that the areas got more moisture than last year.

I wanted to accomplish two things. One is to get the young kids in the best position for shooting birds. The other was to get my younger pup on more wild birds and finish the loop of finding. pointing and retrieving. First was accomplished. All the kids had shots and birds harvested Friday and Saturday. No one limited but great fun all around. My younger dog did great finding and pointing birds. He pointed two wounded roosters and ran them down. Proud daddy here. He had great points for me on hens so I did not get a shot on those. On Friday we hit one of our favorite fields. We did not block as well as we should. My pup and I were working a wind block down to the others. They were late in getting to the end of the block. Logan (my younger pup) got over excited and went after the running birds. Great explosion at the end that I have not seen in NE but only in ND. I had to wait for the flock to open a bit to try and shoot at one of the roosters but they were all too far out. Shot anyway hoping for lucky pellet but to no avail. No one else hit anything else and they were all closer than I was.

Still a lot of crops being harvested. They are late this year so the pheasants had a lot of areas of cover and feed we could not get to. I am hopeful the farmers get some more crops knocked down and push the birds out of the standing crop fields and into cover next to harvested fields.

If you have ever seen the Benelli commercial on one of the outdoor channels where the couple is hunting in a field and towards the end the husband opens his gun to reload and a rooster pops up right next to him that happened to me. Logan was real birdy and it was obvious he was trailing a runner. A mature rooster jumped way out and I went ahead and let both barrels go. When I broke my action to reload another rooster jumped five feet from me. Only thing worse is having them pop up when you take a pee break.

My older dog Luke is limping and the vet can not figure out why. Not the foot, knee or hip. Maybe muscle pull? He hunted only one field on Friday, rested Saturday and couple of fields Sunday morning. Hoping he heals I have a friend coming in next week for a hunt in the same area.

Hope the birds get some rest between now ant then and transition back to some of the deeper cover fields after they feed.

As always is fun getting another generation in the field and to enjoy as long as we have access.

Logan in the field





Resting after a long day hunting