How about a change of pace

[Hombre]

We're all caught up with the politics so maybe its time to catchup on a few trips reports.

First Trip (S. Dakota Pheasant)

I've been on this trip two years in a row and it's one I really love. One, the hunting is fantastic. Two, the guides (friends) couldn't be better. and Three, the people I go with are salt of the earth, not sure how they put up with me. Day 1 is always kind of a pain. Getting from Seattle to South Dakota isn't the easiest flight in the world but I've done it the same both years. Flight leaves on Thursday morning at 12:01AM and lands in Chicago at 6ish, then lands is Sioux Falls around 10. We grab our gear and guns and there's generally a good bit a rousing as we travel from Sioux City to White Lake.

I'm not really sure how big White Lake is but if I were guessing I'd say less than a 1000 people. It's one of those towns that has a 1 block main street with a bar on one side and a cafe on the other and both serve damn good food. Every time I hit that little town I can feel the stress leaving.

Day 1 we usually only have a 1/2 day since its the day of arrival. This year was the first year we didn't get our limit, but I think we were something like 3 birds shy. That nigh we went back and Kaci cooked up some great food we sat around and ate then had drink planning out the next day. Kaci and Corey (wife / husband team) run the lodge, farming & cattle operation and Corey is sales manager for John Deer in the region (I think), they stay busy. That night we decided to sit out on the covered porch, lighting wood burning stove. Mistake - You could see 5 feet in front of you.

Day 2. You can't hunt until 10AM so we generally are up in time to have breakfast (again, the bfast is incredible) and BS a little. On day two Kaci is generally our guide. She has some fantastic Vizslas and they're always awesome to watch. On this day we limited out around 12:30. We sat around and had a few beers and again general BS'ing (lot of this goes on) and decided that the covered outdoor porch would be awesome if the outdoor stove worked. The only problem the piping was rusted. We talked Kaci into letting us run into town and getting more stove pipe and a couple hours later, a few more beers, and things were fixed.

Day 3 is another limit early so we went out and shot rifles at tannerite that's just a great time because you can tease your buddies about missing and fun to see the explosion.

I'll try and get to trip 2 tomorrow

[Thumper]

Sounds like a great time. I used to love pheasant hunting. I always hunted over a Chocolate Lab and really enjoyed watching her work. There were usually 4 or 5 of us in our group and I remember one of the funniest things that happened during one of our hunts.

We were walking a line through a stubble field and at one point, a couple of the guys wanted to stop for a smoke break, so we all walked to a mid-point to b/s a bit while they smoked. I called my lab over and she walked straight in from in front of me, stopped just short of me and went on a solid point ... right at my boot! We all got a good laugh out of it and talked about that "stupid" dog pointing at my boot. After a few seconds of ridiculing her silliness, a frigging pheasant finally got nervous and flushed from something like a FOOT in front of me. We were all so surprised and flustered, the bird was way out of range before any of us could get the safety off and go for a shot! I wish I'd have been able to get a picture of that dog looking at me. I swear, if dogs could talk, she'd have been saying something like, "Well you bunch of dumbasses, do I have to pick it up and hand it to you??"

To add insult to injury, the bird was so close, it left a big turd on the toe of my boot when it flushed! Of course, for years after that, we rehashed that story every time we got together for a pheasant hunt. I miss those hunts. What sucks is, I'm the only one of that whole group who's still alive, but the memories will be with me forever.

[Chicken Dinner]

Nice. I’ve done a fair amount of duck and dove hunting. But. Have never hunted upland birds. It sure sounds like fun though.


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[Hombre]

Photos

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[DeputyDog]

There’s not much better eating than pheasant.


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[airbud7]

that does sound like a great time!....I never ate a pheasant/ love to try one!

[Thumper]

I've eaten a ton of 'em, but always had to be careful about biting down on a piece of unseen birdshot.

[Hombre]

You don't have to worry about that if you just head shoot'em

[Bwana]

Pheasant is good...Hungarian Partridge is GREAT.

Sadly, I have had neither in my freezer for the past two years do to low bird numbers and time spent hunting deer for which my dog is dangerously close to leaving be because of.