Just got back from North Dakota yesterday afternoon. Headed out Thursday before last for some Pheasant Hunting. As luck would have it the week we decided to go was absolutley terrible weather. We were basically driving into a damn blizard. Parts of South Dakota received 47" of snow while others recieved not much at all. We managed to get to our destination with not too much trouble and only one near death experience of sliding on ice going 65 mph. Two South Carolina boys that have maybe driven on ice one time in their lives is a dangerous combination in the snow.
Anyway, the weather sucked pretty much the entire time with highs in the mid twenties and snow almost every day. The snow really posed a problem because it clogs the farmers combines. So, with snow on the ground and in the corn stalks it meant no corn cutting almost the entire trip. 90% of all birds roost in the CRP and sloughs at night and move to the corn early in the am to feed and hide all day. In the corn they are virtually untouchable. This of course threw a rather large wrench into our plans. Our trip dates were planned around the farmers cutting corn.
We hunted hard and long for the birds we killed. Everything was frozen solid and it played hell on us and gave the dogs an even tougher time. Hurting feet and raw noses were all to common in the freezing temps. With most of the birds in the corn all day, we had to catch them early in the morning or later in the evening. There were a couple of days that we got lucky and shot our limit in just a couple of hours and other days we hunted for an easy 10 hours.
Don't get me wrong....there were a shit pile of birds, they were just all in the corn. A snow goose hunter who had just come from north of us tipped us off to plenty of cut corn fields about an hour and a half north. We headed up that way on Thursday and smoked em'. With more shitty weather moving in for Friday and Saturday we decided to end on a good note and head home a couple of days early. We were beat and I don't think the dogs had another day in them. Niether pooch wanted to get out of the crate for two days.
On another note there were very few ducks in the area.....everything was frozen and I mean everything. However, there were an absolute shit pile of geese. My pictures do them no justice.
Enjoy the pics.
2 guns and 2 dogs.
Woody and a nice Rooster on day one.
End of day one. Yellow dog named Jack and myself.
The honey hole.
Smoked em'......done by 11:00am.
Nose to ground
Gettin it done.
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