NoDak Bound - pheasants on the brain
 

I'm almost outta my office. :kt: I finish packing tomorrow, and then it's off to Bismarck, ND for early season pheasants. I've had an open invite from a friend for many years, and I was finally able to put the pieces together.

It's a family hunt, they've done for nearly 20yrs. First we'll hit a Scheel's for stuff, and run down to Linton for the fun to begin. This will be my first time in NoDak. Hopefully I'll have some pix to share in a few days.

You'll have the time of your life. SD is simply the best pheasant state there is.

I'm back from one of the best hunting trips I've ever been on. Hunting wily, wild pheasants is almost as fun as spring turkey. Maybe the same, and you get to pull the trigger a bit more. I hunted around Linton and Strasburg, ND.

Here's a few pix...I'm already thinking of next year. One of the sights that's burned in my brain was a big, mature rooster blasting out of a tree line 10-12yds in front of me. I missed 2X, he won. I can still see the sunlight reflecting off his head in that split second I recognized him as a rooster.

Images #1-2: a full day's results from 4 guys.
Image #3: a rooster from another treeline.
Image #4: Ruby, a red pointing lab. She's from Kellogg's Kennel.

Another thing I learned...3" Prairie Storms at 10-15yds are overkill.

Yeah, hunting over a pointing dog doesn't require heavy loads. Looks like a great time, I really miss the hay days of wild pheasant hunting in PA, I lived in the heart of it. You are a luck man to have friends who live where there pheasants and share with their friends.

Headed to South Dakota on Thursday-can't wait. My chocolate lab knows somethings up. H won't leave me out of his site. I grew up in PA and remember many days hunting pheasants/rabbits. It's a shame there's not not many pheasants there anymore.

Great pics by the way. Dog looks tired but happy.

Just got back from our yearly road trip to SD. Birds were supposed to be up 40% but to be honest it was one of our poorest years. Last year 14 of us got 70 roosters in 2 1/2 days. This year we only totaled 37. Always fun but big time disappointed-the dogs were almost loosing interest. Anyway, thinking of maybe going to ND in the future. SD seems to be loosing their edge which is sad.

Sorry to hear it was slow. The ND count this year was up 25% from 2014. But the other guys told me that the overall numbers were still way down from 8-10 yrs ago. They pretty much blame loss of CRP to higher corn prices.

Also, changing farming practices have had an effect. Many of the farms bulldozed tree rows & brush rows.

Getting permission in south-central ND to hunt pheasants is getting harder. If you hit PLOTS land early, you can scratch out a few limits. Ask cattle producers about coyotes, and they'll make you breakfast.