Connor M
11-13-2008, 03:47 PM
Each year around early November my father makes his annual trip to eastern South Dakota to pheasant hunt. This yearly trip is what convinced me to move to this part of the country. I've always looked forward to this trip growing up for the hunting aspect of the outing. But now my time to hunt and see my father is very limited. 1500 miles separated us and other than this particular week and Christmas break is the only time I get to hunt with the Papa. Now my Dad, Uncle and family friend are here to shoot Roosters and we are serious about it but its spending time with with them is what I look forward too.
They got into SoDak this past Friday, just in time to pick me up and meet the first snow storm of the year. After the unpacking in the rental house in the little town of Carthage we set out to see the land we will be hunting for the next few days. Instead of hitting up out private land right away we opted to try some public CRP since we figured the birds would be holding tight in the high wind and snow, because anyone that hunts these birds regularly knows they'll run around you those big grass sections. Ended up killing 3 longtails in short order with about 1 hour of shooting time before sundown. The next day proved to be a great one. Our group of 4 had our limits by early afternoon. With most the corn out around this part of the country the birds hung in the small protected sloughs and swales. I don't mind hunting pheasants early in the year but hunting small pockets with tight sitting birds is a much more enjoyable than the big groups in the standing corn. We killed half the limit the 2nd day by standing in a 2 acre piece of slough grass and allowing the dogs to work around us, while we didn't even move for the most part. The rest of week wasn't what people write home about but we did manage to scratch out a few short of a limit each day.
Above all else the best part of the trip was each afternoon walking to the truck talking to my Dad with a few longtails sticking out of our vest.
The only day we remembered a camera Jim, my Dad Steve and Uncle Brian, I was taking the picture. We actually left this place and got our last two just down the road.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDak08008.jpg
They got into SoDak this past Friday, just in time to pick me up and meet the first snow storm of the year. After the unpacking in the rental house in the little town of Carthage we set out to see the land we will be hunting for the next few days. Instead of hitting up out private land right away we opted to try some public CRP since we figured the birds would be holding tight in the high wind and snow, because anyone that hunts these birds regularly knows they'll run around you those big grass sections. Ended up killing 3 longtails in short order with about 1 hour of shooting time before sundown. The next day proved to be a great one. Our group of 4 had our limits by early afternoon. With most the corn out around this part of the country the birds hung in the small protected sloughs and swales. I don't mind hunting pheasants early in the year but hunting small pockets with tight sitting birds is a much more enjoyable than the big groups in the standing corn. We killed half the limit the 2nd day by standing in a 2 acre piece of slough grass and allowing the dogs to work around us, while we didn't even move for the most part. The rest of week wasn't what people write home about but we did manage to scratch out a few short of a limit each day.
Above all else the best part of the trip was each afternoon walking to the truck talking to my Dad with a few longtails sticking out of our vest.
The only day we remembered a camera Jim, my Dad Steve and Uncle Brian, I was taking the picture. We actually left this place and got our last two just down the road.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDak08008.jpg