Fox Collectors

Hunting was fun but really tough hunting. A lot of snow the week before and drifting. Couldn’t hunt CRP, hunted shelter belts, sloughs, and edges. Good learning for Rosey and me both. Tons of birds but skittish as hell. Bitter cold on Friday and Sunday with ice fog on Sunday. When we left yesterday morning it was 7 above with a constant 25 mph wind and snow. All the way across MN so we dropped down to I-380 to I-80 in Iowa to get out of weather. Took 15 hours to get home. We are both beat!!

PS - Sorry for the side way pic? Can’t figure how to rotate from my phone.

foxnut,
Thanks for posting, and for all the info your helping me with in here. I am glad to be able to finally put a face to your name. Did any of the birds hold at all? I am very curious about hunting out there for pheasants. When I take my brittany to a pheasant farm, I like hunting the outskirts of where the birds are usually planted best. Those birds are skittish, cash is learning to trail running birds, if I can keep up with him I can sometimes get a good shot. Thanks again for posting and all your help in here.

Thanks for posting - good story; nice photo. I've hunted SD 3 times for phez and have always said that any trip taken after Halloween at the latest is done so at the hazard of the type of weather you describe. About 18 years ago I managed to parlay a 2-day business trip to Pierre SD with a hunt with locals the weekend before Thansgiving. We had 2 days of beautiful Great Plains weather - temps in the low '50s, little wind, lots of sunshine and lots of birds, including sharptails. When I went to bed the night before my flight home, it was 46 degrees with calm winds. When the scraping racket of a snowplow in the motel driveway woke me up at 3AM, it was 8 degrees with a 25-30 mph wind and snowing to beat the band. Seems a poorly predicted "Blue Norther" blew in early overnight, and we narrowly got out of the small municipal airport a couple of hours later through tracer-bullet snowflakes and howling wind, bound for the Twin CIties and home. Kevin

Well done Foxnut! That was a hard hunt but will do wonders for educating your Rosey. BTW, I have the same trouble with pics from my phone. But, if you click on the pic on your thread it will open up with the correct orientation on your monitor.

Nice Picture. I always like pheasant in front of old barns.

Good report, Foxnut. I like the pic in front of the old building, too. What strange windows.

SRH

Sporms, we were hunting East of Onida which is about 30 Miles North of Pierre. Our first day was cold and super windy, then Saturday (day pic was taken) was mid 30’s and light breeze. Sunday was an eerie day, 20 degrees, super foggy but a steady 15 - 20 mph wind. Monday when we pulled out at 4 a.m. was just plain nasty! Next time I won’t go out in December!!

Ed, some birds held for points, others were busting out 100 - 150 yards in front, hence the use of blockers when it was feasible even when were were working 2 or 3 dogs in the cover. The really skittish birds were gone as you were loading your gun!! Pretty typical!! What I can say is that even in that mix of weather there were birds all over the place!!!

Stan - we chose that building since it had that cool looking window. It was a perfect setting and good light. It was one of the old homesteads on the farm we were hunting. The farm was over 10K acres. Primarily Corn, Sunflowers, Wheat and a “little” soy beans. All farmed by one family and three full time employees. The agricultural production on this farm was pretty impressive!!

Very interesting. Thanks.

SRH