South Dakota

[Stan Hillis]

Great thread and pics, Harold. Tell me more about that Fox 16. Looks to have fairly long barrels . . . 30"? I have a Philly Fox AE 16 with 30" tubes that I shoot very well with a Kick Killer lace on pad to get more LOP.

[SXS OHIO]

Daisy is a Ryman setter from Weisse kennels, she is now 11 months old. She was a replacement puppy for the one that passes from cancer that he got back in 2021. So, Dave received Daisy three years later than he had wanted and his heath caught up with him right then. He got Daisy this past March and then had a heart attack. Dave gifted her to me due to a 2nd heart attack about 8 weeks ago and his hard time recovering from it. Dave has two other dogs, and the young puppy was causing all kind of trouble. He has not been able to walk well, and the wife was at her wits end. Daisy is going to be a great dog; she is behind on training, but we are getting along very well, my other puppy Charie Rae loves her, and they have bonded like super glue! She is learning to be a good citizen, house broke and good in the car. Soon as the weather warms up, I will start yard training, it was -7 degrees her this morning in Ohio. I have spent the fall and winter of 2024 with puppies. This is the most important training time of there lives and I want to get it right! So, I did not do any pheasant hunting with them this season. We will be starting Daisy with pigeons this spring, soon as I can get some in my coupe and ready for training. Going to be a busy year training two puppies. I have 2 weeks booked in the UP for October the 18th thrue Novevember 1st. (-: SXS ohio

[Harold Pickens]

Stan, pics are deceiving. It was originally 28 in, but someone had cut it to 26.5 in. Has a nice replacement stock k also with pad. A Utica Fox so chambers are 2 3/4.
Sitting here in the truck waiting for the 10 o'clock start time. Weather now up to 28 degrees but windy. Have seen at least half a dozen roosters flying into the grass from the cut corn, oh boy, but as they say roasted
ain't roasted.

[Harold Pickens]

Sorry wrong picture

[Wes Stueber]

Harold,
I just talked to the landowner and he said they have literally no snow on the ground in n/c SD and he's still seeing a LOT of roosters..!
The dogs and I are ready to head West shortly.
Good luck to you the remainder of the late SD season..!
Good looking bird dogs you have there.

[sparky]

Harold -You and your hunting friend are tsb]s that do the walk &the talk living the dream .

[Harold Pickens]

Nope, no snow. Wind has been 20-40mph every day, so be prepared . Seeing lots of birds, they are just getting up out of range, often over 100 yds or more. A bird getting up heading south with a 25 mph north wind is quickly gone. We don't talk, no beepers or bells on dogs. Have my buddy's lab and my setters. Hunting good grass and heavy cattails, hunting a lot of WPAs.

[mikeschneider]

Heading back out there Saturday, forecast is for 30’s Sunday followed by 5+ days of 40 or better…even if the highs are 10 degrees under what’s being forecasted, that’ll be a nice way to end the season. Was there as recently as 1/14, birds are pretty plentiful and behaving fairly well…I’m 30 miles from Manolis’s, may have to
get a sandwich!

[Double Lab]

What area are you hunting Mike?

[mikeschneider]

Forestburg to Fedora, both sides of hwy 34….lots of public land in the area…this is my 32nd season hunting there…I own a 1/4 of WRP in that area, and mostly hunt private ground owned by 3-5 different farmers…an old farmer enrolled 9120 acres in CREP last year, all within a few miles of my ground. Gonna take another year for the prairie grasses to blossom, but a fair amount of sloughs and low ground on that land, hence the appeal of enrolling it into the program…been surprised all season at the bird #’s given the fact we got over a foot of rain in about 3 days around June 19-21st, and it was very cool at night…couldn’t have helped matters…but these birds are pretty determined critters!