ND Sharptails

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:37 pm

I recently moved to North Dakota and am looking to hunt some sharptail grouse in a couple weeks. I've hunted lots of pheasants down in Iowa, but I have never hunted sharpies before. I'm NOT looking for anyone's hotspots, but would like some tips on how looking for sharptail specific cover is different from pheasants. Also, does a person have to go WAY out west in ND to get into birds? I'm planning on doing some scouting over the next couple of weekends to hopefully find some birds and have some places ready to go. BTW, I'm in Fargo.

Thanks in advance!

ohmymy111 · Post by **ohmymy111** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 3:49 pm

What part of ND are you in? I live in the Carrington area, and Sharpies are the main bird we have here. We have pheasants and Huns too, but i shoot mainly Sharptail.

nikegundog · Post by **nikegundog** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 3:50 pm

ohmymy111 wrote:What part of ND are you in? I live in the Carrington area, and Sharpies are the main bird we have here. We have pheasants and Huns too, but i shoot mainly Sharptail.

He's in Fargo

ohmymy111 · Post by **ohmymy111** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 3:53 pm

DOH!! I saw that and it just blew right by me. Not a a lot Sharptail by Fargo. Head out towards Jamestown, and then go north. You should find some Sharpies. If you want, some day you could come out, and I can see if I can get you into Sharptails, but you would have to hunt alongside those evil French Brittanys! LOL

GWPtyler · Post by **GWPtyler** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:09 am

I live in Fargo myself. Not a lot of sharptails around here, although I have bumped a couple on accident while walking CRP. That's quite a rarity, however, and you have to be sure you're not in the "no sharptail hunting zone." If you don't know where that is, visit the Game and Fish website and check out their small game proclimation. Don't want to get caught shooting sharpies in a prairie chicken area!

Going West is your friend when it comes to upland. I've found a few pockets of birds here and there further east, but to really up your chances you'll want to travel west. Plus you'll have a better chance of getting a mixed bag of both sharpies AND huns.

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 2:30 pm

Thanks! I'll be heading west quite a bit. I've heard there are sharptails around the Wishek area and I may poke around up by Carrington too. I'll be hunting all PLOTS or unposted ground as I haven't been here very long and don't have any relationships to landowners. If either of you from the area ever want to get out, please feel free to call me 701 552 2 zero six 6. I've got two setters that are comfortable foot hunting dogs. I'll be hunting most weekends from the sharp/hun opener on through the fall. Take care!

If anyone else has any advice, I'm trying to learn as much as possible about a new bird. Please chime in!

GWPtyler · Post by **GWPtyler** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:27 am

Setters, eh? You ever think about using them on some Minnesota ruffs this fall? With the mediocre numbers projected for Nodak's upland, I may be hitting the aspen stands a bit harder this year. And really, it's about the same distance to find good Minnesota grouse cover as it so to find decent sharpie or hun cover in Nodak.

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:29 pm

I'll try about anything once. I came from Iowa - the bird numbers in my area were about 30% of the bird numbers in the SE quadrant of ND. I'm sure that I'll be pleasantly surprised by bird numbers here. That being said I've wanted to try ruffed grouse hunting for a while. I may try it, but with upland hunting for sharpies/huns/pheasants and muskie fishing my fall will be pretty busy! Have you ever been over to MN to ruffed grouse hunt?

GWPtyler · Post by **GWPtyler** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:38 pm

iowajonnyboy wrote:I'll try about anything once. I came from Iowa - the bird numbers in my area were about 30% of the bird numbers in the SE quadrant of ND. I'm sure that I'll be pleasantly surprised by bird numbers here. That being said I've wanted to try ruffed grouse hunting for a while. I may try it, but with upland hunting for sharpies/huns/pheasants and muskie fishing my fall will be pretty busy! Have you ever been over to MN to ruffed grouse hunt?

Understandable! Tough to fit all this fun stuff into a few (couple) short months. Prioritization I guess...

Yes, I hunt ruffs every fall at least for one weekend at my grandparent's place in northeastern Minnesota. I was born and raised on partridge, so it's a tough addiction to shake. I'd love to make it out more than that one weekend a fall, but living in Nodak I get pulled between friends wanting to chase ducks, geese, pheasants, sharpies -- and then there's that whole deer opener, too.

There's that prioritization thing again...

But what I wouldn't give for a solid week...no MONTH...of hunting ruffed grouse. Maybe once I win the lottery (guess I better start picking up some Powerball tickets!)

GWPtyler · Post by **GWPtyler** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:52 pm

iowajonnyboy wrote:I recently moved to North Dakota and am looking to hunt some sharptail grouse in a couple weeks. I've hunted lots of pheasants down in Iowa, but I have never hunted sharpies before. I'm NOT looking for anyone's hotspots, but would like some tips on how looking for sharptail specific cover is different from pheasants. Also, does a person have to go WAY out west in ND to get into birds? I'm planning on doing some scouting over the next couple of weekends to hopefully find some birds and have some places ready to go. BTW, I'm in Fargo.

Thanks in advance!

Just realized I don't think anyone actually answered your post about cover.

Sharptails are very different from pheasants. While you might find Chinese chickens thick in cattails or CRP lowlands, sharpies prefer to SEE their predators coming. Best places to find them are on the tops of hills or ridges and their immediate sides. Lowlands, as well as large swaths of flat area, typically make finding sharpies tough. If your faced with a large chunk of CRP, break it apart. I look for anything obvious that could act as cover. Lone trees, Russian olives, buckbrush, etc. They like to be UP, so they can see what's coming. Oftentimes (and this happens a lot more after they've been hunted) you'll spot a lone sharptail sitting in a tree. That's the lookout. As soon as it takes flight, the whole covey is alerted and your best bet is to find different birds, or see where they land and make a new plan of attack.

On that note, sharpies fly FAR. They're not your typical rooster flush, that might go 100 yards and drop down. Sharpies will go and go and go. During deer season, I often have coveys of 50-75 birds flying high over my head from their roosts to open fields for feeds...and they're coming from a LONG ways off.

That's why hunting sharptailed grouse early in the year (like what you're talking about) is the best. They're still on guard, but much less wary. You have a better time getting within shooting range than later in the year. By then, I either pray for strong wind, so they can't hear me coming, or that I can put on some good sneaks, because sharpies are the pronghorns of the grasslands.

I'll tell you the characteristics of my absolute favorite place to hunt sharptailed grouse: it's a WPA that is grazed during the summer. By fall (if the cows are out) we hunt it and almost 99 percent of the time find birds. The place is basically a golf green (well, brown), and the cover that is available consists mostly of Russian olives or sparse grass. Not much, really, but you never see them until they flush. And often, especially later, they're long gone before you get there, flushing well out of gun range. Why do they like such a minimalist landscape? Because they can SEE!

So that's my $.02. Yes, CRP is good, but it's not my go-to. If I have to, I go right to the highest point or any noticeable outcroppings/idiosyncrasies/cover. Otherwise, find yourself some sparse areas with bushes or whatnot and try that. If you walk enough "grousy" spots, you're going to find some eventually!

Good luck

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:14 pm

I ended up heading to south central ND on my scouting trip - I loved it! I was able to find lots of PLOTS that seemed to be very high quality (we'll see when the season rolls around). Also, I noticed some very good looking spots that were not posted, I marked up my map and hope they won't be posted when I return for the sharptail opener. I honestly found more ground than I can probably hunt in a season. It is a different ballgame from Iowa!

We drove a lot and saws lots of countryside! We saw several broods of pheasants, some of the cock birds were just barely starting to show color on their heads. We also saw one covey of sharptails - 5 birds. They were crossing a section road, I had to get out to flush them just to experience it. I've never heard the sound they make or watched one take off. It was awesome!

My internet at home is down, but I'll put some pics when I get a chance.

Thanks for all the help/advice. I'm still somewhat unsure of hunting such sparse cover (hay fields, cut wheat, grazed grass), but I'm anxious to give it a try and see what this Iowa boy can do out on the prairies.

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:26 pm

Success! Although the temps were VERY warm this weekend, I started as early as legally possible. It looks like I got very lucky and stumbed into some good bird numbers. I shot my limit about a quarter mile away from the truck. We also saw a large covey of huns, but no shots. They flushed wild about 70-80 yards out. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped me try to figure this out. I'll call my success beginner's luck because it seems other people have had spotty success on opening weekend. Hopefully with the cool down this week, I will get a little more actual hunting time next weekend.

One question I still have is - the birds that I found were in very sparse cover and feeding on berries that were growing on the ground cover (red). What type of movement cycle do these birds follow throughout the day? For instance, do they stay in that low cover on high ground all day, or will they eventually move to hay/wheat fields? Any thoughts?

laxhcky4 · Post by **laxhcky4** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:40 pm

Congrats on the good hunt! I'm heading out to ND for sharptail this weekend, what shot were you using?

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:28 pm

I used a 12 gauge because my wife was shooting my 20 gauge. I used 6 shot, all my shots were on pointed birds and all folded very easily. Good luck, what area of the state are you heading to?

laxhcky4 · Post by **laxhcky4** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:32 am

Northwest of Devils Lake.

GWPtyler · Post by **GWPtyler** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:45 am

Good to hear you had success! I haven't heard many good reports, so consider yourself lucky! I myself did not make it out for sharpies, and this weekend I'll be heading east for Minnesota's ruffed grouse opener. Next weekend, though, I'll be after them once our morning duck hunt is complete. I got a few spots that ought to produce...even in the lean years.

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 9:32 am

I'm going back out to the same area this weekend for an extended hunting/camping trip. I will be hunting Saturday through Tuesday - I'm really excited! We saw about 20 sharptails at the one place, I may go back and see if I can at least find them again. I don't want to shoot too many from the same covey/land because I want to leave some to live and reproduce. However, I'm hoping to find that covey of huns again and maybe shoot my first one of them. It will be MUCH cooler this weekend and we should be able to hunt most of the day if we manage the dog power correctly.
Good luck to everyone who makes it out!

GWPtyler · Post by **GWPtyler** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:35 am

How was your trip? Get your first hun yet?

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:20 am

We had a great trip, the weather was great on Saturday. My brother-in-law came up from Iowa for this trip and was anxious to hunt some prairie birds. He was able to harvest his first sharptail about an hour into the morning when the dogs pointed a single. He made a nice shot on an adult bird that had been feeding in the hayfields (according to its gullet content).
My setter pointed a nice covey of huns (~ 20 birds) on our way back to the pickup. I shot my first double ever on the covey rise - what an awesome moment! My dog retrieved one and my BILs dog retrieved one. We followed the covey a little bit because my BIL didn't get very good shots based on the birds position to me and the other dog. His dog pointed a single and he had a user error moment and didn't get his safety off...My dog pointed a single and I downed it with one shell for my limit of huns.
We were headed back to the truck walking the lower-lying prairie grass (thicker cover) when my dog started to get birdy. I told my BIL probably a pheasant in here and commented on how it would be fun to get into a whole covey of sharps. We followed the dog around and she finally pointed near a fence in thick cover. I made another comment about how I'll go flush that pheasant

As we walked up I fully expected a pheasant to flush, but when we were about 5 yards from the dogs the sharps starting laughing at us as they flew off, I shot my second-ever double on the sharps. Quite a morning for me!!! My BIL missed 2 easy shots and wasn't too pleased with himself...
We went back to the truck and got a fresh dog and moved down the road about a mile to another area that had cattle in it, but I thought should be holding some birds. I had my 1.5yo setter out and he is full of piss and vinegar. He was really lighting the grass on fire, but not really hunting until we came over a little hill and he busted a covey of sharps. We held our shots because I don't want to be shooting birds over this dog that he doesn't point. We followed them up and over a little saddle and he started to slow down and get birdy. He crept off to my left and pointed the covey of sharps like a champ. Sidebar: I tend to miss birds when I am not confident that the dog is going to let the hunter walk in front and flush the birds, don't know why...I just don't shoot well when thikning about the dog too much... Well, the birds started flushing as we walked up and my BIL dropped one and I missed my limit bird! The dog got my BILs bird and we followed where they had gone, but didn't really know where they were. We hunted another hour or so and headed off to get camp set up.
Sunday was very windy and we hunted some other places - we found some pheasants in one of the places. My young setter pointed several. We found some sharps here and there but they were flushing very early and we didn't get any shots in the morning. The evening was a little better, the birds were still very spooky, but we got some long range shots. However, we weren't able to scratch down any birds.
Monday dawned pretty nice, but we knew it was going to get hot. We didn't see a single sharptail on Monday morning. We found another covey of huns, but they flushed wild way out there the first time we saw them. We were able to get a couple of rough shots on them the second time they went up as the dog had a long range point on them. We didn't connect on anything though. We had to quit about noon because of the heat and the dogs were getting pretty tired anyway. We went back out in the evening and we found one lone sharptail at about 6:30PM. My BILs dog pointed it and he killed it. I was over a ridge and didn't get to see it, but he was pleased as pie to get a bird down with his dog. We looked the rest of the evening the general area for the rest of the birds but didn't find any. On our way back to camp we checked the weather and there were going to be sustained 40MPH winds with gusts to 60MPH and heavy rain. Not good tent camping weather! My BIL had to be back to Iowa by Tuesday night so we actually called it on Monday night not wanting to have to ride out a storm with potential for not really getting to hunt on Tuesday morning. We tore down camp as fast as possible in the dark and left the campsite about 10 mins before the storm hit...Kind of an abrupt end to the trip...
We had a great time and I learned A LOT about hunting these birds and was pretty successful and LUCKY according to some of the other reports that I've been reading and hearing from others. Another group of hunters at the campground was pretty down because they hadn't seen any birds at all in the spots they typically hunt in the past. We talked to one of the landowners near where we hunted and he said that there had been many more birds at the end of last fall than he is seeing around now, but he gave us permission to hunt his place and gave us some advice on finding the birds.

Thanks again for all the help that everyone on here provided. I'll try to get a few pictures put up tonight.

GWPtyler · Post by **GWPtyler** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:17 pm

Awesome report! Sounds like you guys had a blast, and were pretty darn fortunate compared to the reports I've been hearing. Looking forward to the pics

iowahntr4 · Post by **iowahntr4** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:59 pm

Sounds like quite the hunt! Maybe I'll have to bring my dog up and see what ND hunting is all about. We can swap out some ND sharptail hunts for some Central Iowa pheasant hunts.

iowajonnyboy · Post by **iowajonnyboy** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:20 pm

Hope you all enjoy the pics!

We found the birds in stuff like this:

Saturday AM before spot #2 (my Piper on left & BIL's Gordon on right)

Camp w/ almost everything a man needs:

Total Saturday bag for both of us with me and my dogs (Piper on left & Wilson on right):

Wilson pointing a pheasant on Sunday AM:

GWPtyler · Post by **GWPtyler** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 7:55 am

Nice photos! Got some good lookin' pups, too!

laxhcky4 · Post by **laxhcky4** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:53 am

Great Report, Great Pictures!

CowboyBirdDogs · Post by **CowboyBirdDogs** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:03 am

I'm jealous! I hope one day I can get up there and do some of that.

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