Day 3: Temps dropped significantly last night, 20 at 10 am and very windy, got a tiny bit of snow and the birds definitely acted way different today than yesterday. They were huddled up in tight groups, none wanted to run, everything flushed, whether it was in front of a dog or flushing when there was a shot in the field. Still very wary, not acting dumb. On a shot or another bird flushing, every bird in the field got out of there.
Field 1: Saw a lot of birds around this field yesterday afternoon. Hit it first thing at 10AM. Dogs were birdy off the bat. Within the first ten minutes my friend and GSP point and flush the first rooster of the day. Nice shot, stone dead. A couple of hens and two rooster flush on report of the gun, fly straight across the private corn field and land on the other side, aren’t dumb. . Keep pushing down the field, Callie jerks around on a dime at the fence line and instantly flushes a rooster that held the tightest I’ve seen all trip. Before I can stop Callie she’s jumping through the barbed wire after him, got caught up, retrieved the bird, learned her lesson.
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Field 2:
Back to a hotspot that we’ve been killing birds in all week. Right off the bat have a good feeling and sure enough not 20 yards into the field Callie flushes a rooster to my left, stoned dead, she about caught it before it hit the ground. Not a minute later the GSP flush another rooster, he stones it in the cattails. On his shot the field erupted in birds. Couldn’t count them all but there were at least 20 that flushed within 50 yards of us. Dogs go crazy, we both struggled to find roosters to pick out. Both pulled the trigger on two separate ones. Knock them down but not hard in the cattail slough. Dogs were being puppies and nowhere to be found. Run them in the cattails for 30 minutes looking. Nothing to be found. Birds ran for sure or burrowed down. Lesson learned, pick your shots, these birds are very resilient. Should’ve slowed down, picked a good shot and taken it rather than rushing. Still came out of the field with two, just not the two man limit we were hoping for.
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Decided to hunt the back half of that same field just like yesterday to see if birds were still holding there. Sure enough, same story, birds were everywhere. Dog flushed the first rooster and same eruption in birds. At least 25 in this field, we both pick one out each and knock them down. It’s in thick grass at least 5’ tall so we both go instantly to where both birds fell with dogs. Search and search for at least 30 minutes. Can’t find them. Really ticked at myself for not hitting them harder, I’ve been shooting lights out all week but can’t hit these last birds as hard as I’d have wanted to. Either burrowed down or ran on us. We both decide that that’s enough killing/winging for the day. Should’ve had a two man limit but our fault for not hitting birds hard enough. We’re done for the day, we’ve wounded/killed enough for our fair share of a two man limit. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow our last day will be able to walk out with six birds in hand. Rest the dogs, beer is cold, we’ll get back out there tomorrow.
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