Colorado pheasant opener
 

Being a transplant from the midwest the thing that I have always missed about living in Colorado is the bird hunting. We have some real hit and miss years for pheasant hunting. Last year was a total bust. Drought, bad hailstorms in the summers will knock down the pheasant poplulation to barely huntable numbers. So what would this year be like? I was pleasently surprised to see more roosters just driving to our hunting spot (3) than I saw in the entire opening weekend of last year. So how was this year you might ask, friggen awesome!

We had a great group of 14 guys, and in the very first field we pushed, we got atleast 100 roosters up. The shooting was fast and often, I went through a box of shells in the first 30 minutes of our hunt, and was limited out before I hit the blockers. What a difference a year makes. We hunted hard all day and ended up with 32 roosters in the end. The best opener I have ever been a part of. What was even better is that we had 3 kids with us (2- 12y/o and a 13 y/o) and they all got birds and had a great safe hunt to inductrinat them into pheasant hunting. As a group we figured that converatively we had atleast 200 roosters up in the day, my guess would be around 250 though. Man, what a blast!

If I ever figure out how to upload a picture small enough for this web site I will post the end result of our hunt.

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Sounds like you guys had a great day. We are thinking about going next weekend. Did you guys hunt private or public land? We are going to try some of the Walk-In Access land I think.

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

We hunted both private and walk-in. The walk in field was the one that we got 100 roosters up. Walk in up in Yuma where we hunted is great, but you have to have lots of guys. Those fields are huge up there in the program.

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Thanks for the intel, I really appreciate it.

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Sounds like a good start Jorgy. I was chasing ducks this weekend again, going for pheasants next. Gonna hit some of the SWA' s up toward Sterling. Any pointers?

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Bigbore, you really have me confused, do you live in Cally, or Colorado?

I' ve hunted a few of the SWA up in that area (closer to Brush though). I' ve always had ok luck. I' ve seen more rabbits than pheasant though on them.

If you don' t have a decent group of guys, then cut little corners where the pheasant can' t run off to cover. If your by yourself, stop often and any pheasant who was thinking of running will freak out and fly. If you see a runner, take off after them if the ground is level enough were you won' t take a header.

You would also be surprised at the number of landowners who will let you hunt thier land if you ask. Up in Yuma, the common thing I' ve heard is " there are pheasants on my land, I didn' t know that, go ahead"

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Jorgy,

Glad to hear you guys had some success. What was the cover like up that way? I am down here in Lamar, and it seems either there is very little cover or so much that you can' t get anything out of there. Were you guys seeing many hens? Reason I ask, is cause I like to see near the same number of hens or more than we do roosters. That way I know that there will be some reproduction. You should put up some pictures of your hunt.

Schemy

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Schemy,

Most of the cover was pretty good. Nothing too terrible to walk through, but good ground cover. The field that I said we got so many roosters out of was a cane field. Most of it was about knee high, some patches were over your head. The overgrown corn patches we drove weren' t bad either. Some years the thorn patches you have to get through are 5' -6' tall and tear you up, this year it was all about knee level. The red grass we hunt was also about shin level. Hunt the red grass, they love that stuff. The cut corn fields were great. The stalks were dry enough that you could just walk them right over and they didn' t trip you or anything.

I would guess we saw about a 9-1 ratio of roosters to hens. In all of the birds we got, there was only one of them that was more than a year old also. spurs were all short. The youngest kid got the oldest bird, if he would have been " of age" he would have won a case of beer. He is going to have to wait 9 years to collect it.

I would post some picture, but I can' t figure out how to get them under the limit for " k" Right now they are in my digital camera (not really any great photo' s anyway) but they are all over 1 mb. I' m going to have to read my manual at some point.

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Schemy,

Hunted around Holly CO. Sunday and Monday, between two guys we got 2 young roosters but we only ran into 6 birds the whole time we were down there. Talked to a couple of landowners that said there' s virtually no birds in that area at all. I did walk some huge weed fields probably near the kansas line and did notice plenty of roosts but, would have to have 10 guys to get any up. Do you know how it has been around Springfield or Walsh?

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Didn' t do as good as Jorgy but, had good success considering the last couple of years. The fields are way too big for 1 guy and 2 dogs. Just hunted the draws and corners of fields. 1 rooster 1st day, limited out 2nd. Going out again next weekend for another round. Had to let the dogs rest, so I decided to go back to work for a couple of days. See you out there, maybe!!!!

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Bobby,

Well I don' t know for sure how it is around Springfied and Walsh. I was down at a customers property yesterday and he said that all he has seen were a couple of hens. They got a little more moisture down that way over the summer so I thought the habitat would be good, but doesn' t seem to be the case. I am planning on hitting up some of the walk-in stuff north of Holly over the weekend. I know that there are birds down there just don' t know if we will be able to get them up. Sounds like the weather could be favorable.

Where abouts did you hunt down by Holly?

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Jorgy,

Well it sounds like the cover is pretty good up that way. I walked through some weeds over the weekend that were at 12 ft tall. I am 6' 5" and they were at least twice my height. Some of the stuff we walked was just way to thick to get any birds out of. Even though I know that there were some there.

Can' t help you with the picture deal. I am just plain ignorant when it comes to that stuff.

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Schemy,

I' m planning a trip to the Springfield, Walsh area early next week so we' ll have to fill each other in on how we do. As far as Holly is conserned we were also hunting north of town. We hit some of the walk-in access areas north of town near the boarder were its very rural and they look great. And after walking a couple of miles of it I did notice a lot of roosts or sign but we didn' t get a bird up out of it because its to big. You would either have to have a couple of dogs or an army to get anything out of there, so there are some birds around those very heavily weeded areas, but from what the landowners have told me there are considerably less birds around the immediate faming areas.

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Bobby,

Sounds good. Just send me an email about it and I will try to let you know some of the better places around Lamar. I don' t know about around Springfield, I just haven' t hunted that much down there.

RE: Colorado pheasant opener
 

Schemy, I just sent you an e-mail, let me know if you get it.