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

[stenz]

Awesome. Sounds like a blast.

[TheSparkens]

What is up with the late Corn harvest all over, this was the case in South Dakota, Kansas and eastern Colorado. WOW great looking dogs, it's fun watching them work and they love it. Bring them out for Quail if they are young, the quail have a larger scent cone and are easier to teach the young dog. We did the same thing with not blocking and pinching down at the end of the field but it makes it more of a challenge and many of the farmers if you don't know them have a hard time letting you run a truck to the end of the field to allow blockers to set up. We will be heading to Kansas every week end.

[killianak9]

That's great when the young one get a hand at the experience 🏻Makes me miss the hell out my old GSP. As Sparkens said, it's awesome watching and working the dogs! I always enjoyed introducing folks (young and old) to the sport.

[SamuraiCO]

I think there was some end of summer rain so the farmers are waiting until the corn dries out a bit. Cheaper in the field versus harvesting and having to pay for coop to dry out for them before selling.

Vet confirmed my older dog Luke (without face mask) tore his cruciate ligament causing the limp. Was there to get Logan (face mask) some quick stitches from his first run in...so to speak...with some barbed wire. Will have to have surgery to repair. It is not the first dog that I have had that happen to just bad timing for hunting season this yea

I am heading out to NE Thursday-Sunday. I have a buddy of mine that I fished salmon and steelhead with in Oregon and Alaska coming with his father in law. His family was gracious enough to have me at their fish camp for two summers after high school. I was hoping his father would come but he decided to not come. The snow and cold scared him off even though it will be in the 50's this week.

It will be all on Logan's young shoulders. Hopefully I am able to get some good points on roosters and get his circle of learning completed. Luke's nose is better just from hunting more but Logan will do just fine. It is a reason to have two dogs.

I will have my video recorder going. Hopefully we get some good footage. Was too cold on the last trip.

[SamuraiCO]

Headed out with my buddy and his father in law. His father decided not to come.

We had a blast and walked between 9-10 miles per day. Saw lots of birds but with only three of us and no blockers we had a tough time getting close enough to any pheasants to shoot. I pulled up on a lot of shots to give him and his father in law shots. They both missed shots but that is hunting. I had a shot on the first day and bagged my bird.

On the second day we decided to get away from towns and headed south. We were very lucky in one field. We had the wind at our backs and my younger pup working downwind and coming back to us. The hunting gods intervened and Logan came around and went on hard point. Most of his points have been hens because the roosters have been flying early or blowing out the end of the fields. I had my buddy move up to take point. We were surprised by a nice rooster and he quickly dispatched with an easy shot. Logan got the point and chased his prize down. That was a successful closing of the loop I was looking for on this trip. I couldn't be more pleased with my young dog. And my buddy shoots his first wild bird in over 20 years. This land owner was having a oil well being drilled on adjacent property and we heard many roosters cackling at us from an adjacent field that was not posted able to hunt. Late in the day we were unable to find who the land owner was. We hunted a field just SE and I missed my bird of the day. It was going away and slightly down hill. I needed to start my point low and pull through and I shot over both times. Need to practice that shot a bit. While walking back some birds were coming in to the field. I knew they were not hen pheasants when they flew off but I hesitated on my shot not being sure what they were. I later realized they were prairie chickens.

The third day I was hoping the weather system would come in but it slowed down and was coming in later in the day (Saturday). I saved one of our favorite fields hoping it would be holding some birds. Most blew out early. By buddy and his father in law had shots on a couple of roosters. But most exciting was seeing my first covey of prairie chickens. I had seen them the year before flying over the highway and not sure what they were. I knew they were not pigeons, pheasants or quail. Luke and Logan were working in front of me and Luke cast his head up and starting stalking something. Before he got close enough for a point the whole covey came up and I got off a shot. I harvested my first ever prairie chicken. Luke found my downed bird.




We ended up leaving early on Saturday. We were tired and both of my dogs were spent. Luke did well for morning fields but his injury would catch up with him in the afternoon. For a younger dog Logan did very well and I am pleased on how hard of a hunter he is becoming. I hope after Luke is healed I will have two strong dogs for the fields and can rest one or another in the later parts of the hunts.