Good Day In The Field

Nov 1 2009 - Springfield MN

 Tina - Marge - Fergie (hiding )

 

Mark H and Diesel

Stone - His First Hunt Of The Season

We we hunting by Springfield MN

Nearly a perect day to hunt

We did lose one hit bird that made and escape

Hunt Private Land In MN and 10 Other States

Even Blind Dogs Can Hunt

Saturday October 24th

Back down to Springfield MN on this brisk morning.  As I drove through town the bank thermometers were saying 25 degrees.  I unloaded Marge and Tina to start the hunt.  I put on a full coat and heavier gloves and was hoping that would be warm enough. Our first rooster got up pretty soon, too soon actually.  We were working the tailwind along a batch of willows and the bird burst out of the far side before I was really ready.  I should have been able to make the shot as I had connected on a few similar ones at the skeet range a few evenings before. I didn’t connect.   We moved on. This unit has a lot of cover and a lot of birds. Sometimes the going is slow because there is so much scent.  We made to the end of the field moving just one more hen, as we hit the end we moved south along the fence line and then west along another fence.  I was expecting to see a bird or two along the fence as it has heavy cover and bordered a field of cut corn.  About 1/4 of the way down the field a small draw goes from the cornfield to the upper parts of the CRP field we were hunting.  Both sides of the draw have heavier cover and the dogs start to work the area. The dogs were showing a lot of interest in the are so I moved out a little ways to give them some room and to hopefully cut off any pheasant on the run.  The dogs started moving quicker and then stopping quickly. After about three lockups they held and I moved in and started to kick the clumps of grass and nice sized rooster came up.  Remembering that I was behind on the first bird I shot at I tried to lead this one a bit more and when I shot I could see that it was a wing shot and the bird was on the move as soon as it hit the ground.   Fortunately Tina saw him go down and was working the cover and finally got him after a few missed lunges.

After putting the bird in the game bag continued down the field. As we came over a small rise I could see a number of roosters and hens jumping from the grass into the standing corn that was at the end of the field.  I was hoping a few lazy / inexperienced birds would be left in the grass.  There were a few but unfortunately they were all hens. After crisscrossing the field a bit more I decided to give these two dogs and myself a break.

I changed into a dry shirt and switched to a vest instead of the jacket.  I also changed out the Beretta 391 Ultra Light for a 16 gauge Browning Lightening Feather.  The 16 ga runs about 6 lbs and is a joy to carry.  I’ve also found that since I am hunting over pointing dogs that most of my shots are coming off of a point and flush that I don’t need to take a lot of longer shots and the 16 ga provides plenty of power.  It was Fergie’s turn to hunt.  She gets shortchanged as she is always the last one out for a hunt and sometimes we get our two bird limit before her turn comes.  We went to a section of over that is about 50 yards wide is bordered by a gravel road on one side and a fence on the other.  We had a nice head wind and she was working pretty well, as well as a blind 11+ yr old dog can hunt.   We made it through the first area with just a wild hen being moved.  Shortly after moving into the second are she started to work harder and get a lot more birdy. After two short soft points she was getting serious about it all so I started to kick around and a smaller rooster came up and I was able to drop it cleanly.  She was so excited to hear the sound of the shot after her work and then to get to smell her harvest topped it all off.

It was a day that I hope for whenever I head out.  Great dog work and no lost birds.

Limit But Still Disappointment

Sunday October 18th 2009
An early rise to head down to Springfield MN. We got a little bit of a late start as I was still dragging from all of the driving the day before. This farm has a number of different areas to hunt and I decided to start us out on a large area of CRP. We worked a couple of the spots that I had luck with the previous year but no luck so we worked the fence line by some cut corn and the dogs started to get birdy, they locked on an area of extra thick cover so I started kicking to get the bird up if in fact there was one. There was one, unfortunately it took off over the heads of some cattle that were feeding in the cut corn. I had to wait quite a while before he cleared the cows and I ended up passing on the shot. As we pushed the field I could see birds getting up quite a ways out and heading into uncut corn on the West end of the field. We continued to work the area and got a number of good points but all were on hens. After about 2 hours I put Marge and Tina ( the two english setters ) into their kennels and let Fergie ( Blind 11 1/2 yrs old Pointer ) have a chance. A second area of this farm is a stretch of cover that that runs about 1/4 of a mile and borders the dirt road. The cover is pretty good but not so thick as to cause problems for her walking. On the trip out she got a little bit birdy but nothing as we turned back she was working a bit more seriously. She did a soft point and I put up a hen off of her. A little ways later she started to get serious again and I thought it might have just been the hen scent from earlier. I was half asleep when a rooster got up from just to the side of me and I took a couple of poor shots and totally blew a good chance to get her a bird. How many chances does an old blind dog get?? I was plenty pissed at myself. We made to the end of the strip and worked our way back but no more birds.

After a Mountain Dew and some mini Snickers to get me a little extra energy Tina and I took off to try a new area of the farm. We went to the back side that had a creek and drainage running through it. Tina went through a fence line towards the marshy area and went on point about 10 yards into the thick stuff. I had to put my gun across the fence, crawl through the fence, get myself unstuck from the fence, get my gun, and walk over to her. As I was walking over I thought to myself “either the bird is gone or it is a young one too dumb to run for it.? It was a young one and it made it into my game bag. We worked the swampy area for quite a bit longer and found a few more hens but no roosters. As we made it back to the crp area we reworked the fence line by the corn but to no avail. I was ready to call it a weekend so we started the walk back to the truck. Tina wasn’t ready to give up and kept working the cover. When we got about 50 yards from the turn to the path to the truck she locked up hard. I moved in and a pair of roosters got up and I was able to bring it down with one shot.

All in all a good hunt. I just still feel bad that I couldn’t connect for Fergie....

2009 MN Pheasant Opener

This year’s MN pheasant opener was certainly different in some respects but the results were the same...

Last year I was worried about keeping the dogs cooled down and this year I was planning on to keep the warm after the hunt.

Saturday snow on the ground greeted us as we loaded up to head out. We started at a farm west of Hutchinson, MN. I had a feeling it would be a tough hunt when we pulled up and I could see that all of the corn was still up. I started with Tina and Marge, the two setters, and worked the crp for 2 1/2 hours. We got a number of good points on hens but no roosters. We switched to a farm south of town. Last year I could walk almost all of the property and not worry about getting wet. This year there was standing water on a lot of the low areas that have been dry the past few years. I started Tina by herself at this farm. We hit all of the usual hot spots and only put up 3 hens. I took out Fergie, the pointer, to give her a chance to stretch her legs and and to give Tina a break. We ran the edges of the cattails and a couple of other areas that were a little bit thicker but still no luck. After a little lunch and chance to rest the legs we made our way back to our first farm. We were able to take a rooster off of a nice point at about 4 pm. We had been working the edge of the corn hoping to catch some birds on their way to rest for the night. About 20 minutes later I hit one from a little ways away. I thought it was a good hit but after looking for quite a while we didn’t find it. We continued to work the field and continued to find hens on a regular basis but it took a while longer before the next rooster point. I saw feathers fly with each of my three shots but he didn’t go down. I watched for where he did land. After walking the area for a little while we got another point. This time he didn’t get up quite as quickly and ended up in the game bag. As we were heading back to the truck the snow flurries were starting up again and the sun was setting. A long day of hunting especially compare to last year when we filled out in under 1 hr.

Sunday we slept in a bit and didn’t start to hunt until the afternoon. I thought this strategy might pay off since we hadn’t seen any roosters until the afternoon the day before. It was a bit of a nicer day but my strategy did not pay off as we only saw a few hens and no roosters at all. It was still an enjoyable afternoon and the dogs had a good time.