TODAY is the day! Off with a 16 WJ Jefferey, a good dog and good friends. Breakfast at the Catholic Church, Bean and Cornbread Lunch at the senior center, and a Nut Fry at the High School supper. Maybe shoot some roosters between meals.

Similar here in Downs but I'm going to dispatch those ditch parrots w/ a Buhag.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

I guess you got tired of tacos....

Wishing you better luck than we had in Iowa for the opener. Unseasonably warm weather; still quite a bit of corn to be combined. I found none in the fencelines and a small CRP patch around my place. Found several in a ditch on a dead end road. One rooster held for a point.

Have a new place to explore today. Cooler weather, corn recently combined.

I'd guess the Mexicans are hoping we'll build the wall to keep him from going back there jOe.

Good luck out there Chuck! Sounds like it should be a banner year. Lets get together before it is all over and shoot a few together once again.

Great pic Drew.....I especially like the leather jacket and the neck tie. a very interesting choice of gear.

Looks like a great late 1930's group- sort of a stew of: Ted Kercher and Clyde Hewitt- John Hewitt's Dad and Grandather- Clyde was mentioned in John GSJ great story 1977 Fall ed. "There's Always Tomorrow" with a mix of Sun Valley Idaho with Hemingway and area farmer Tom Gooding, except for the dude in the leather jacket- Charles Starkweather hits the ields for pheasants, or perhaps back to KS-- the characters portrayed in Capote's book "In Cold Blood"-- Where are the well-worn M12's and M97's though?

Keith is a PIG...

The Catholic Ladies did their usual great job, Biskits and gravy, breakfast casserole. On the way to our intended starting spot, Shannon spotted a BUNCH of roosters in a picked sunflower field. I opened the truck door, grabbed the Jeff, and turned Flash is on point in the middle of the road. Got to the ditch, Rooster flushed, killed it. Flash grabbed it and jumped back in the truck...Special delivery. Hunted the edge and got 4 more. Cleaned those up and moved on to our intended starting spot...Uncut feed (cane) head high. Hunted west edge, and killed 3 more. 11:15, all done. Senior center beans were good. Home at 1:20...nap time... will post a pic after the camera charges....Tommorrow is a 1/2 limit day..So will start later...Happy days are here again....Steve? I'll email you..Stay well all...

Sticks and stones... Better watch out though or Drew will single you out for making personal attacks!



Sounds as if you are a road hunter. It must really work up an appetite walking all the way to the edge of the road. Very sporting!

Larry, very dry here as well. We were lucky on temperature, started out chilly 29, and was 54 when we quit. We need some moisture...My adopted boys both live and farm in Iowa...Not too excited this year..So, I Imagine I'll see them here soon..stay well.

Keith
Last Dollar is my hero to even get out of his home and move about
with his current medical situation.
Walk a mile in his shoes and you might learn something
Mike

LD; A 16 b WJ Jefferey sounds nice. Do you shoot RST's or something else? Let's see a photo of the 16. Hope you have a good pheasant season.

RST's are what it likes best....1 oz Fives in the lite load...Photo tomorrow ....I bought it from Steve Bertram.(SKB).Best deal I ever made...This season is shaping up to be a good one..Thanks

Buzz, you might remember when LD bought the Jeffrey a handful of years ago. A few of us on the forum thought the gun and price was too good to be true. I believe it was SKB who listed the gun on GB but was out of town away from the computer and couldn't answer inquiries about the gun. LD stole it. <g> Gil

(Big Grin) SKB was right here at the house when I did it...face to face robbery! It has been the BEST shooter I have ever owned..I may out of guilt leave it to him when I die...

I guess this could mean that I'm out of the will. Bummer!

OK! Last update on the opener! Nut fry at the high school was great...Served Lamb fries from New Zealand. Perfectly done and lots of em. Crowd was smaller than expected but even as a Free Will offering, costs were covered with a few bucks for the Athelitc fund. Shannon had honey do's so was hunting by myself this morning...cant get too adventurous. Slow moving today so didn't leave the house till 9:45ish...Went North about 8 miles to a Public Hunting area (WIHA). Hunted a 1/4 mile strip of weeds along a picked corn field. Had a few smart flushers but Flash locked up at the corner..The "Wee Jeff" helped me get a double.!!! Since today was half limit day, all done...Cleaned the birds, headed back to the truck..Looked a lot further away than when I went out there...Even with a side trip to get some deer hunting permissions, I was back home a tick before noon. Sauteed Pheasant breasts over rice with a cream sauce, over rice for supper...Grand weekend! Stay well all...

Nice job, LD! You beat my opener score by one . . . but my still-learning Brittany pointed that one, so one was OK.

Good opener for sure. four birds Saturday. Two on Sunday...The 1/2 limit thing is a self imposed rule...Any day we kill limits we only take a max of a 1/2 limit on the next hunting day...Have a good rest of the season, folks...Stay Well

In spite of our differences and disagreements, people could learn a lot from Last Dollar's self-imposed 1/2 limit thing.

I got an all too short taste of hot and heavy Ringneck Pheasant action in my state early in my hunting career, and certainly remember my Dad and Uncles bringing home relatively easy limits of big strong flying native Ringnecks. Then my state game commission, in its' infinite wisdom decided to allow the shooting of hens... the mommy birds that were raising those plentiful broods. A lot of short-sighted hunters gleefully killed as many birds as they could, both hens and ringnecks, and it wasn't too many years before they were all wondering what happened to the Pheasants.

Our game commission has tried a number of things to bring back a viable hunt-able population including the ill-fated introduction of the Sichaun birds., but they steadfastly refuse to admit the error of their ways and restrict the shooting of hens, along with strictly lowered bag limits until things improve. If they simply tried that, and it worked, they would have to admit they were wrong... and that will never happen. The recovery efforts became even more unlikely as coyote and hawk populations took off. And that's why Pheasant hunting here is mostly a put-and-take affair where stocked birds are released and then quickly hunted to near extinction.

Around Downs and Meades Ranch, Kansas, the pheasant numbers are pitiful. Not sure the reason, maybe a hail storm in the Spring? It would seem that around Norton to the West might be where the pheasant numbers pick up but we have found some 25+ coveys of quail w/ around 30 birds per covey. But they are like bumblebees in the wind when you are expecting pheasants. Also, the temperatures are not conducive for quail hunting the day long.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Wester the better, is what I am hearing...Acess is a problem almost everywhere...Maybe some snow tonite...Cool things off...Saw bunches of Mallards yesterday...

Headed to Stockton, Ks today enroute to Webster Wildlife area so hopefully it will be better there. I too saw waterfowl pour in yesterday afternoon but we & the canines are all but spent walking 8 - 10 miles a day for a ditch parrot or 2.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

LOL....I guess the good news about not being able to walk much any more is I don't have to walk much? Had a friend hunt around Stockton on WIHA's..did see some birds....have fun

Many thanks & we will give it a once over.


Typical days bag Downs, Kansas.


Also a reoccurring find on our walkabouts.





Large Moon rising on Sunday night over Lake Waconda. Poor attempt to capture image but a once in a lifetime experience/occurrence.


2016 Leader of the pack, or so she thinks.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Didn't make it to Webster Wildlife today as we had a rear chunk pinion seal issue but boy did the waterfowl pour in to Lake Waconda this afternoon by the hundreds. I guess there a blizzard condition North of us somewhere? Great dog work today on what we did manage to find.


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Snowing here, lotsa Ducks and geese landing...Stay well