ND Pheasants

[Coach529]

Got a chance to sneak away from Idaho to go back to North Dakota for Thanksgiving. I had heard a lot of reports of low bird numbers, but I could not miss out on one of my favorite hunts.

Stayed at my BIL's place, and drank plenty of beer under Grandma Carlson's ND moose. Not sure exactly what year she shot it, but for a stretch it was the state record.

Weather was very non typical. Warm temps, 50's and above. Of course the wind always blows in ND....but damn did it blow hard!

Bird numbers were a lot better than I heard. They were educated and the wind did not help. A lot of birds busted early, well out of gun range. Still managed to put birds in the bag everyday! Hunted solo every day except the last, when my God Son joined me with his GSP Remmi. That last day we did great, hunted 1/2 a day and got 5 birds between the two of us. Great points from both dogs.

3rd wild bird season for Greta and she never disappoints. Despite this being the only hunt this year, she hit the ground running and never missed a beat. Not lost birds despite my crappy shooting.

ND Deer Season was also open. My nephew shot this dandy Whitetail.

 

[jaredgreen]

Hunted ND this year as well. Numbers were definitely WAY down where I was, but still resulted in limits daily in an hour or two. I’ll take a down year there over a good year most any place else!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Retterath]

Looks like you had a great time mike. The pheasants down here in sd are terrible here. I have never seen it so bad.

 

[Coach529]

Looks like you had a great time mike. The pheasants down here in sd are terrible here. I have never seen it so bad.

From what I saw SE ND seemed to be about the same as I had seen over the past couple seasons. I know guys out in Western ND said it was horrible.

It was a lot of fun. Might try and get back one more time before the season is up.

 

[NDGuy]

Glad you guys scratched out a few and enjoyed our beautiful state!

Yes bird and deer numbers are down horribly this year. Hoping for a decent winter for them!

 

[Osprey]

Anyone know how the Sharptail numbers look?

 

[Coach529]

Anyone know how the Sharptail numbers look?

I did not move any.

 

[KJH]

This year had the lowest pheasant number I can recall where I hunt in ND. I'm glad to see you found some birds. Its a special state by far...

 

[NDGuy]

This year had the lowest pheasant number I can recall where I hunt in ND. I'm glad to see you found some birds. Its a special state by far...

It was horrid overall this year. You could find birds but few and far between for sure.

 

[william schmaltz]

Bummer. I'm just getting ready to board my last flight for 10 days back in the motherland. I planned my trip so I could do tons of ice fishing and pheasant hunting. By the looks of it, I'll be going 0/2! At least I can make an attempt at pheasants. Not so much ice fishing by the looks of it

 

[BrentLaBere]

Nice work guys. It really depends where you go. Pockets of birds but for the most part they are way down. Central part of the state has been rough going for me. NW corner had good bird numbers on private.
I saw a few people out ice fishing already around the Audubon area when I was bird hunting the other weekend. Saw more moose than deer. We ended up getting two birds with most of them being on private we couldn't access.
Out west I saw a lot of sharpies. Wish I had my gun instead of my bow.

 

[BrentLaBere]

View attachment 62495

This was our October hunt in the north west corner. Great day going by this years standards. I had been out 3 teams before this without seeing a bird!