doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com My season is over.

I snuck out to a WMA I have hunted for 50 years yesterday. This spot was where my Dad hunted pheasants, and we often hunted it together. I used his Beretta Silver Snipe both times I made the pilgrimage this year, it has a single trigger that allows for the use of gloves. It was the first time this season I didn’t move birds. The temp was a reasonable 24 degrees, but, the wind was blowing pretty hard out of the northwest, perhaps 15-20 with gusts to 30. I have a heck of a time moving birds in those conditions. Gave it three or four hours, if I hadn’t needed the exercise I would have called it quits, sooner. I have a tired and scratched up dog, and never fired the gun. Saw nothing, save pheasant tracks in the snow. The previous week I saw 8 pheasants, 5 deer, and a fox squirrel, I wasn’t squirrel or deer hunting, but, I enjoy seeing them, anyway. The birds at this point are survivors, uninterested in dog bells or holding for a point, for the most part. The slews are all frozen solid this year, which makes it easier to get around. You can cut across ditches and cattail slews and cover ground that was impossible back during opening weekend. I can hunt until the 2nd, but, the weather coming for the weekend will feature sub zero temps, and brisk winds. There was a time, but, that time isn’t now.
Hope you guys had a good season. As long as I’m still having seasons, I’ll be happy.

Best,
Ted

Ted,
Still a good way to end the season! Grouse season ends on the first, and I usually finish that way providing the weather cooperates. Seems like a good way to end the season and start the New Year.
Hope the coming year is good for everyone here.
Karl

You never know Ted, if the wind lets up for a bit, the solitude can be satifying and enjoyable. With encroaching civilization, congrats for having a throw back spot that's still birdie. Happy New Year.

Ted:

My season is over as well here. Very stiff and sore this morning and a big winter storm seems to be bearing down also here as well (about time!). Hunting those old coverts with a loved one's gun is a special moment. Sorry you didn't connect with any game but with your writing I had no problem fully picturing your experience. It seems that we live in very troubled times(!) so... maybe these little side-trips help us in ways we'd never expect? Looking backward before turning to look forward is something I find myself doing a lot lately. 2021 has been a challenging year for many of us here, but it hasn't been without it's blessings. The greatest for me was having the time and opportunity to spend it doing so-many hunting related activities with old friends and family this Fall. Never had this sort of luxury before now.

My only child turned 18 yesterday as we were coming home from his first big game hunt. The rifle he was carrying was his grandfather's and the ammo he was using were handloads created by it's previous owner. I've found dies for it but still haven't found any brass, so he's only shot it once before this trip. I had some concerns about his level of experience and preparation because he'd not entirely-embraced some of this hunting stuff (lots of distractions for young folks anymore). Cars, school, social-life (girls?) and work have seemingly been fairly consuming, so my expectations were accordingly muted. I shouldn't have been so-concerned...



My hopes for the coming year (& years) are in a better place now. May they be the same for you.

My goal has been to find birdie places that are closer to home. I’m down to Lloyd as a hunting buddy, when he is in town, and sometimes, like this year, our schedules don’t match.

That means, I’m alone, for the very most part. I don’t have a cell phone, and, the places it wouldn’t work are full of birds, places where I really like to be. Thusly, no great loss. But it concerns a few folk, greatly. Me, not so much. I been at this a while.

This spot is centered between Steele and Waseca counties, in the middle of farm country. The DNR has owned it for perhaps 60 years, maybe more, and it will always be rural, and, have birds. But, it is a wild little tangle, hit hard during deer season by the locals.

Dad was in my thoughts both days. He had a lot of fun at the spot, with an Irish Setter named Paddy, Mom’s Dog, technically, but Dad’s when it was time to go pheasant hunting. A show dog that would hunt 120 lbs, or so. I have Dad’s shotguns, this one was slated to be my Son’s, but, he so much prefers the autoloaders, an A5 and a SBE, that he gave it back to me:



My brother sent my Dad’s A5 my way. A diabetic amputee has little need for bird guns.
My Son will blast away at our trap course, but, he is a fair weather hunter at this point. He does not seem to be a meat eater, neither was his grandfather, really. He would eat a piece of meat about 1/2 this size of a pack of cigarettes, and call it enough. He loved to hunt, though.

We all soldier on.

Best,
Ted

Ted, nice story. My season is over, too. A few minutes ago I took a couple of pics off of the west deck of the house. It is zero degrees F, now, but scheduled to get much colder as the day wears on. The deer are filling up in preparation for the cold night.

Oddly enough, our waterfowl season has just started, or maybe midway, and most other chasing of game will bleed over into February if not till February's end. I will say this cold weather that is being experienced will be to the betterment of our hunting period.

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Lloyd3

What caliber?

What gun?

Have you found some brass yet?

Mike

Like Ted I have hung up the pheasant hunting season as well for the year in my part of southwest Minnesota, Renville County. They are talking -40 F windchills tomorrow and Sunday for this part of the state and I see the pheasants outside my grove out in the corn fields picking and struggling to survive the cold so I figure it's time to hang it up for the season as well. God willing I will be ready to go at it again next October.

I have hunted around Marshall MN when the wind was blowing so hard it sounded like a jet. One of the few times in my life I was actually hypothermic, temp was in the high teens, wind was off the charts.

No birds, that trip, either.

I do remember my host leaving the car unlocked, and the keys in the ignition. Theft wasn’t a problem in that part of the world, and in weather like that, getting back to the car and warming up was going to be kinda’ important.

Best,
Ted