Gun Dog Forum

I have 3 weeks in a row off in November. I originally planned on speding all three bouncing around SE ID and SW OR. The wife had other plans and said I had to be home for Thanksgiving (crazy talk I know).

Now Im considering only spending one wk in the Owyhee area and then the other two much closer to home. That would mean Montana, probably South Central Montana. I've checked and there is enough BLM and public land to make it worth going, but what about birds????

It looks like theres supposed to be Huns, Sharptails, and the occasional Chukar in that area. Anyone have feedback on how this past season was in S/C MT? Any info would be greatly appreciated (no honey holes needed mind you, just general stuff). If you want to send a PM that works too.

We hunt E MT, ND, and Canada most years. In MT we never saw a hun untill we got to NC or NE MT. I would recomend BM areas over blm. I am a retired cattleman and can tell you the blm ground in MT is the worst cared for I have ever seen. Also be prepared for lots and lots of cactus. The hatches every place we hunted last year were terrible except for sharptail and sage chickens. I'm hoping for better hatching conditions this year. If you would like info on where we hunt and when let me know. Bill

Im used to hunting sage brush and cactus....that isnt maintained at all, by anyone....except oil field pumpers lol.

I sent you a pm

tfbirddog2 wrote:I sent you a pm

I didnt get it.

or you could wander up a little further than Montana and get into some real hunting for birds, both upland and waterfowl, and some great biggame (Alberta/Saskatchewan)

How difficult is it to get across the border with firearms, especially a semi auto?

Oh and I dont have a passport, and dont plan on getting one...

Getting dogs and guns into Canada is not a problem. The dogs need a health certificate from your vet and proof of a rabbies shot. The closer you do this before crossing the border the better. Stop on the U.S. side and have your guns checked so there is no question that you brought them in with you. You can download all the forms from the internet and they must be in triplicate. As we have passports I don't know what you do to get across and back into the U.S. without one.

mask wrote: As we have passports I don't know what you do to get across and back into the U.S. without one.

Ya its only a problem if you're a citizen....now if I was an illegal coming to get some of uncle sam's welfare I'd be sent through the express lane at the border. So i guess canada is a no go.

just a general question on the passports. Is it a big pain in the butt to get one in the U.S.? canada all it takes is 10 business days.

I would recommend you do make your way up here. Once you hunt up here you wont ever not want to hunt here again1

AlbertaChessie wrote:just a general question on the passports. Is it a big pain in the butt to get one in the U.S.? canada all it takes is 10 business days.

I would recommend you do make your way up here. Once you hunt up here you wont ever not want to hunt here again1

Last I heard it was about 3months, but that was when they decided we needed to have one to go to Mexico and Canada (which is beyond ridiculous).

Furthermore I just dont want one, they can keep their govt. issued rfid chips.

AlbertaChessie wrote:or you could wander up a little further than Montana and get into some real hunting for birds, both upland and waterfowl, and some great biggame (Alberta/Saskatchewan)

Don't kid yourself! When it's time to do serious upland bird hunting we head from Southern Alberta into Montana! Saskatchewan is better but non-residents cannot hunt pheasants there. A bad winter a couple years ago really hurt our populations in Alberta and Sask as well and we are just rebounding. On a plus side this winter hasn't been too bad and I expect to see more upland birds this year.

Now if ducks and geese are your target then yes by all means come up here!

Brett

Duckn8r wrote:

AlbertaChessie wrote:or you could wander up a little further than Montana and get into some real hunting for birds, both upland and waterfowl, and some great biggame (Alberta/Saskatchewan)

Don't kid yourself! When it's time to do serious upland bird hunting we head from Southern Alberta into Montana! Saskatchewan is better but non-residents cannot hunt pheasants there. A bad winter a couple years ago really hurt our populations in Alberta and Sask as well and we are just rebounding. On a plus side this winter hasn't been too bad and I expect to see more upland birds this year.

Now if ducks and geese are your target then yes by all means come up here!

Brett

true! Id love the opportunity to pheasant hunt south of the border. But yes....I was referring more to the waterfowling side

Speaking of which....after this past storm that slammed the province waterfowling is looking good for this coming season.

JWP58 wrote:How difficult is it to get across the border with firearms, especially a semi auto?

Oh and I dont have a passport, and dont plan on getting one...

I thought that your required to have a passport or a passport card going into Canada? I am pretty sure they stopped allowing you to cross with just regular ID's (drivers license) a few years ago, but I would check. We went to Canada for a 10 day snow goose hunting trip (800+ birds in 9 days for 4 guys) and we had no issues going into Canada and coming back. However, if we would have crossed a week later, the Feds were there and were doing complete tear downs of hunters vehicles. So either way, make sure you have your stuff together when crossing.

Enjoy the trip!


*** Just saw the reply above about Canada being a "no go". Oh well, my 2 cents anyway.

I have a friend in the Bismarck, ND area who I hunted with last year. They had good hunting of sharpies and pheasant last season.

Whats the public land situation in Nebraska? Has is all been grazed and bailed to nothing?

Not many birds in NE Nebraska. You might try SW Nebraska---they had the best pheasant numbers in the state last year(state numbers were down last year). Look around Red Willow Resivoir, Swanson Resivior, there are 2 other lakes in that area that held a few birds. Last year they had quite a few walk in areas(CRP) on private land in that area, but most were hayed because of the drought(don't know if they were hayed this year--have to talk to someone from that area). The CRP walk in area books usually come out around Sept. Good luck
PS I'm headed to ND for 2 phez trips this year to make up for the lack of birds around here this year .

Nice. I only live about 4hrs from red willow, close enough.

The drought is the wildcard in the central plains. While there might be local areas with good bird populations, I think it's safe to say overall it will be way down from past years. Friends from NW KS said it's a desert where we hunted a couple years ago with large numbers of pheasant.

Well here in the high plains, we've had plenty of rain. Had decent snow fall in the spring too.

I'm also concerned about the fires out west...