Back From North Dakota

[Greg Jennings]

Just back from the yearly trip to North Dakota. Pheasant numbers were down for us. The sharptail seemed fine...we can just never get within 100 yards of them...

Here is one picture. I'll add more as I get them off the phone.

[Greg Jennings]

This is our first morning. The first day was the only one that I limited out.

[Wilber]

We just got back from ND too. Hunted two days and part of a third. Fired my shotgun three times. Came away with four birds (the dog found a cripple). It was pretty slim pickin's. Hunted the same area (SW corner/ Bowman, Regent area) two years ago and limited in under an hour each day. Saw thousands of birds. This year the birds were few and we worked hard for the shots. We only hunted PLOTS and WMA's. I'm sure it was better on the private ground. A long drive for three shots, but the dog work was still good even if nearly all the points were hens.

Wilber

[M1Tanker]

Sorry you guys didn't run into that many birds, but your post makes me feel better that I pulled the plug on my trip out there this week. I got a call from my buddy who has been out there for 2 weeks and he told me to stay home because the 20 grouse I have been moving a day are twice what he was moving in pheasants.

Here is hoping for a better winter for the birds this year.

[BigShooter]

For what we did out there, 50% reduction in total birds wouldn't mean much. Now, if the number of dumb and unlucky birds was reduced by 50%, that'd be a problem .

I tried to warn you but good to see you made the trip anyway! Great place to get the dogs some exercise! There's always next year, right?

[BigShooter]

Greg,

P.S. - As you've heard before no doubt, the best time to go for sharps in is Sept. After the first few weeks you only get close to them by accident and as soon as they start bunching up later in the year you'll see dozens, possibly hundreds in a day but the groups set up where they can see you coming and always have at least one scout. The scout birds are usually up in a tree or bush where they can more easily spot someone or something coming.

What part of the State did you try this time?

[fordman]

Was there to many crops still standing or are the birds just down that much this year? Anybody see any Huns?

[Coach529]

Still alot of crops up here in the SE part of the state. The poor farmers are still trying to take beans off!!

I have been finding birds.......but not consistantly.

[AHGSP]

You got to get out and enjoy the puppers Greg, so with that I'm sure your trip was still a success to you.
As for the Sharpies getting up waaaaayyyyyy out front, we experienced the same in SD the opening week in September. Sharpies and Chickens were bunched and we were hard pressed to get within 100 yards of any groups larger than 2-3 birds. I will say it was pretty awe inspiring to see 20-30 birds get up all at once, even if they were too far to even lift the gun. If only the "next draw" they flew too wasn't always 2-3 miles away

[alex0742]

Sweet pics. Makes me want to plan a road trip.

[Greg Jennings]

I was very pleased with the trip. Sure, numbers were down, but they were 1000% better than in SW Ohio. The boys got a lot of good work and the Gunner-Man was very pleasing to hunt with other than ranging out more than I was comfortable with in the cover....but what can you expect from a dog you've been pushing to the edges for 3+ years.

All the crops were still in including the beans. Snow, then rain, from what I understand.

Mark: we were hunting out of Linton. Thanks for the info on the sharptail, I appreciate it. I am thinking hard about going to the grasslands or MT to hunt sharpies next year. Seems like a lot of fun.

[BigShooter]

Report this postReply with quoteRe: Hunting field trial dogs
by Wagonmaster » Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:54 pm

As far as dates are concerned, you have two choices if you want a quality hunt. Choice one is to go for huns and sharptail, primarily sharptail in SD. If that is what you want, then you should plan on going out early, at the start of the sharptail season. I don't know what that is in SD, but in most states in the sharptail region it is around the 10th to the 15th of September. It is still hot and probably green that time of year. You will be hunting young of the year sharptail, they hold very well for dogs. On a warm day, a good place to hunt is a tree line, or prairie with stands of bushes. The grouse go into these in the afternoon for shade, and you will sometimes find coveys that are quite large, 10 - 20 birds is not uncommon. Another great place to hunt is pastures that have been grazed down to a golf course, but that have some stands of buffalo berry bushes. The young of the year are raised on grasshoppers, and they will be out in these areas of very little cover because the hoppers are there. They will hunker down almost anywhere, because their camoflage protects them from most aerial predators, but they will particularly use the buffalo berry bushes. This is great walking. Another place to try is alfalfa fields, especially in the a.m. and towards evening, they will be out in these foraging for greens. And last but not least, any stands of native prairie you can find would be prime candidates. Stay out of the tall CRP, it may look great, and the pheasants love it, but sharptail to no use it much in the early part of the year.

Bring lots of water for the dogs and for yourself, it can be hot.

After just a few weeks of hunting, two things happen. The sharptail get a little spooky, and the sunflowers ("seeds") and other small grains start to ripen. They will go out into the seeds and spend the entire day there because the cover and food are good. In ND where we hunt, you can't go into the seeds without permission, and the farmers don't want you in there ruining their crop. So from about Oct. 1 to mid Nov., when the seeds are harvested, the birds are basically unreachable and spooky.

Sharptail also naturally group up in the end of Oct. and Nov. We have seen groups of hundreds. But they are very hard to get close to, they have sentinels out and they are ultra spooky.

Your other choice is to hunt after the start of pheasant. Sharptail will not be very good, but SD is great for pheasant. They are just about anywhere there is heavy cover - tree lines, CRP, swamps and sloughs especially if they have cattails, all these are good.

Later yet, in December, the sharptail start to use the CRP for night roosting, so you can sometimes get close to them again if you find the right spot. Pheasants will be around as well. But the weather that time of the year is very iffy.

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Found this post by John back in March. I think it pretty much says it all.

[midwestfisherman]

Sorry you guys didn't run into that many birds, but your post makes me feel better that I pulled the plug on my trip out there this week. I got a call from my buddy who has been out there for 2 weeks and he told me to stay home because the 20 grouse I have been moving a day are twice what he was moving in pheasants.

Here is hoping for a better winter for the birds this year.

Personally I'd take 20 grouse flushes a day to any number of phez!

[midwestfisherman]

Still alot of crops up here in the SE part of the state. The poor farmers are still trying to take beans off!!

I have been finding birds.......but not consistantly.

Coach, that's a beautiful Gordon you have there!

[djswizz]

I got back last Friday and the numbers, although down, didn't prevent us from getting our limit every day. Here are some pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... ff36597217

[tdhusker]

I was just going to complement that Gordon. Beauty. Does he get too hot on warm days with that dark coloring?

[Gordon Guy]

I just got back from ND yesterday and found plenty of birds (Sharptails), I'm not a pheasant hunter. I did find plenty of pheasants while after Grouse though. I don't hunt the high pressured areas and stay away from Sharptails in their feeding areas, thinly grazed cattle pastures. This time of year I focus on roosting cover. Thicker then what I hunt in during the early part of the season. Yes I had birds flush at 50 yards in front of my dogs points and birds that flushed before the dog could even get close enough to smell, but I had found enough hold point that I was able to shoot my possesion limit in 8 hours of hunting over four days over nice points. Hunts were in between visits with my family

Most folks head to the SW Corner when there's birds spread out all over ND.

Coach, I should have looked you up...

[HotDoug]

I'm headed out to ND in two weeks. The plan was to hunt south of Mandan an hour or so but this can be flexible. I was hoping someone had some feedback on regions of the state that had decent bird numbers (pheasants, sharpies or huns).
Anyone????
I got back for eastern MT (around Sidney) a week ago and we had tough sledding. 2 guys and 1 shorthair and we got 2-5 birds a day. From the other guys I talked to out there, this was slightly better than average. Just very few birds to be found.

[Greg Jennings]

I'm headed out to ND in two weeks. The plan was to hunt south of Mandan an hour or so but this can be flexible. I was hoping someone had some feedback on regions of the state that had decent bird numbers (pheasants, sharpies or huns).
Anyone????
I got back for eastern MT (around Sidney) a week ago and we had tough sledding. 2 guys and 1 shorthair and we got 2-5 birds a day. From the other guys I talked to out there, this was slightly better than average. Just very few birds to be found.

Pheasants:
We hunted east of the river. All the crops were still in. We had some success by sticking to really premium spots, being there before daylight and getting between the birds and the crops. At that time, it was generally OK. After that, it was much harder to pick up a bird.

Sharptail:
There seemed to be plenty of sharptail where we'd seen them before. But, we couldn't get within 75 yards of them.