Travels With Charlie-Somewhere in North Dakota

[Bruce Day]

Sharptail grouse hunting in North Dakota. Finding lots of birds, sometimes limiting out, doesn't matter. Great country, lots of walking.

Some people think North Dakota is flat.

If you are wondering about the picture with Charlie and his bandaged thumb, the shooting was so hot and heavy that he closed his thumb in the gun while loading. I'm shooting my old P grade 16, CH a GH 20 or a CHE 12 and Larry Thompson some sort of Spanish thing.

T shirt weather. Too warm.

Heading for the Black Hill tomorrow, staying at my old favorite, the Blue Bell Lodge in Custer State Park. More photos to follow.

[Dean Romig]

That sure looks like fun!

It truly is "big sky country" out there - bet you guys did a lot of walking!

Hey Charlie, I did that once too, with my Ruger Red Label - the one I sold to help finance my first Parker.

[Francis Morin]

Yeah- gonna be a Bluebirdy opener this Sat for ducks and Geese- so a short early field set up in a cut over corn field- hope to get a shot or two.

My partner, a retired Dr. is, like my son-in-law, a "Southpaw" and he has a fine Binelli fully camo 12 autolaoder- in LH mod. We had the Trius foot pedal clays trap out this past Sunday afternoon- I had my Smith 12 2E- I tried a few shots with his Binelli- loading and the safety was a bit tricky, but those Federal 1oz. light loads- shattered the orange discs and the recoil- like a .410

Guess I'll have to get lucky (again) at a DU Banquet and win one- at $1700 plus retail- a fella could get a good 12 VH shooter for that dinero- I did have trouble thumbing in the second shells, not used to an autoloader- but my sympathy goes to Charlie and his taped-up thumb. You never realize how useful those thumbs are until you rack one up-- Good fotos too bruce- Thanks for sharing:bigbye::bigbye:

[Eric Eis]

beautiful country Bruce hope you keep the pics coming. Wish I was there

[Gerald McPherson]

Hey Bruce; What do those people do for fire wood? In pic 014 is that a white dog on point? My goodness a fellow could sure let his pups run loose up there. That is sure stange country to an ol Georgia boy thats never been west of the Mississippi or north of Kentucky. There is sure nothing in the way of shooting. Thanks for sharing. Gerald

[John R. Richards]

Bruce:

Great photos. That terrain comes as a real surprise to me. We hunted Isabel, SD last year, my first time in the Dakotas, and it was almost completely flat. Walking was a breeze. Are you hunting public lands, management areas and CRP or are you on a private ranch? Looking at the draws and cuts and hills you're hunting must really put a "hitch in your giddiup" after 2 or 3 days. We will hunt SD again in about 3 weeks and I can't wait, just hope we find as many pheasants and sharpies as last year.
Congratulations on such a fun hunt.

[Kurt Densmore]

Very Nice....!!

Looks like some country I have hunted along the shores of Lake Sakakawea. Never knew if a sharp-tail, Hun or Ringneck was going to flush.

Have a great hunt,
Kurt

[Bruce Day]

I've lived in and flown jets out of Grand Forks, Minot in NoDak and Rapid City in SoDakota. Got a Master's degree from U of North Dakota. We used to fly low and fast across these hills in B-52's so I've seen a lot of this country.
My great grandfather homesteaded near Dickinson, ND.


These photos are from the Little Missouri Badlands area of NoDak south of Medora, about 30 miles east of the Montana line. Its Teddy Roosevelt and cowboy country. Its a patchwork of private and public lands. Great to hunt and full of game but a person has to like to walk and accept that he may not limit out. We must have seen 50- 70 sharptails, and further east , maybe a thousand pheasants but up here, I like the native sharptails.....to me they are a treasure because we can hunt pheasant anywhere and I have so many opportunities to hunt wild pheasant that it becomes common. But sharptail grouse are always special. I'll post more photos later. If a person really wants to go and can stand the terrain and distance let me know.

Charlie and Larry wanted to see the big animal range so we drove down through the buffalo, antelope and elk range where we saw hundreds of animals....I'll post photos in a couple days. Saw plenty of golden eagles, prairie falcons, etc.

Somebody asked if that was a dog on point off on the far hillside. Yes, but not on point. Sharps won't hold after the first couple weeks and so the dog was just searching. If we got a far flush, we might have to walk a half mile but we could raise the bird again.

You don't measure the available hunting land in acres here, but we had over a hundred square miles of land to hunt, so maybe thats 100 x 640 acres, 64,000 acres. We ran 5 dogs, four setters, one Brit. I left my old pointer Shortstop at home for this because he could not have lasted. In a few weeks I'll take him to South Dakota where he can manage better.

Both Dakotas and Nebraska have lots of very hill terrain. South Dakota has real mountains. Nebraska has areas that look just like Colorado with pine covered ridges, steep cliffs and clear lakes.

[Bruce Day]

Charlie and Larry wanted to see South Dakota, and they had not been to the Black Hills before, and I lived in Rapid City as a kid and was later stationed at the air base there myself, so we went.

Mount Rushmore. We were unable to substantiate the rumor that the federal government was going to add Pres. Obama as a fifth great president to the monument.

The timber walled place is the Blue Bell Lodge by Custer, where I had been many times before and is one of my favorites. Old time cowboy bar.


The Chances R restaurant is in York, Nebraska, where we spent Friday night. We had a PGCA pheasant hunt there about 5-7 years ago and many times ate in the Chances R.

[John Dunkle]

Wow.... Just wow...

Thank Bruce for sharing the pics..! Someday - I hope to see that part of the country. Looks beautiful..!

John

[Bruce Day]

These are Charlie's photos.


The old house under the trees is the old Dunkle homestead.

Let me tell you about Larry, a retired school superintendent. We were driving on the gravel road and stopped because two sharptail were right in front, 20-30 yards away. Larry crept out of the car and had two going away easy shots. He missed both. Charlie won't let him live it down. But Larry is also the champion porcupine catcher with three of them. His dog caught one and we spent a half hour pulling quills, but Larry wasn't satisfied until he limited out with two more.

Charlie was thinking about bagging the buffalo until he decided that 7 1/2 shot from a 20ga was a little light.

[Dave Suponski]

Absolutely georgous...keep'em comin boy's. We live in the most beautiful country on the planet.

[Bruce Day]

The North Dakota pheasant opener is this weekend. We saw thousands of pheasants.

Sharptails are harder to hunt in my opinon. They don't run, but they will creep away. They post sentries in trees and when a flock is feeding, they will have a perimeter of sentries. They cackle when they take off and the whole flock will go. On pheasant, if you don't move, a pheasant flushed by another hunter will sometimes fly within range of you, but sharptails will see you, moving or not, and will avoid you. There is unlimited cover for sharpies but if you can find alfalfa fields, they like to eat that. They also like ripe autumn olives, we found them in that, and rose hips. They prefer low brush covered slopes where they take off downhill. 40-60 yard shots are common. Always interesting guiding for sharptails, I've usually found them, but finding them in large numbers and getting them in the bag is another matter, and you cover a lot of ground to find them.

[Bruce Day]

Here's Larry in sequence, trying to make the best of it.

[Bruce Day]

This fellow used to post on the forum.

[Francis Morin]

But you USAF lads don't use the "Iron Compass" so I am told. Great country, and sharpies and huns- those huns can get into their afterburners in a heartbeat. Tried to hunt them years ago up North of Ronan, MT (Nine Pipes Federal area, if memory serves. Never got closer than a football field to the flush, so we saved our shells for the "Ditch Parrots"--

Hunted central Neb years ago- Kearney, or Ft. Kearney area- and here's a true story of MidWestern hospitality and gracious manners- we were in GrandPa's Steak House- we got the last available table- 5 or us- eight chairs, and elderly couple walked in, and the greeter said it would be maybe 30 minutes before they could be seated. Our host for that trip went over and introduced himself and invited them to join us, which they did. When later in the conversation we discovered the gentleman was a WW11 Navy Vet who survived the terror of Pearl Harbor and then Pacific Theater, our host picked up their dinner check in a small way of saying "Thanks for serving, Sir"-- Now that maybe might happen in the "Big Apple" or Las Vegas, but I'd bet against it. Great country, even greater people in our Heartlands- Miss a bird in my name with Shortstop- what a great name for a bird dog, just like "Catfish" Hunter a great name for a baseball player-

PS- The 'rumor" about Obama being next for Mount Rushmore- years ago I even heard that rumor about old "Tricky Dick" Nixon after the Watergate scandal-- Great thing about our Country and that ol' debil- Politics-- never any end to the jokes that come along- maybe that American spirit and sense of humor has kept is going through some really troubled times- We all know that we'll see Obama on Mt. Rushmore when either Mr. Puglisi, Mr. Chadick or Mr. Julia offer a 1928 mfg. fully optioned 28 ga AHE in the original box with tag for, say- $5K-- just ain't gonna happen!!

[Richard Flanders]

Nice pics Bruce. Trigg and I will hunting pheasants in NDakota in just over a week from now, after the RGS Minnesota hunt and on our way back north. One pic has you holding a sharptail that is either the size of a small turkey or you are only 4ft tall! I love hunting sharptail. One of my favorite Montana spots near Havre has phez, sharpies, and huns all in the same drainage.

[Bruce Day]

Had a request to show both sides of Mt Rushmore:

[Francis Morin]

:rotf:Had a request to show both sides of Mt Rushmore::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf:

[Gerald McPherson]

I like that one Bruce. Thanks. I need a good laugh. Gerald. ps Is there room for Obama?

[Bruce Day]

..... ps Is there room for Obama?


Perhaps, but the voters in both Dakotas made it abundantly clear that there is not in their states. Where, I'm not sure, but I'm sure some here could offer suggestions.

[Frank Cronin]

Bruce,

Thanks for sharing those pictures. Last time I was in SD was in 2003 for the Sturgis Rally. I noticed pictures you have of the Needles Highway going through the granite and forests of the Black Hills. The scenery riding this road and the Iron Mtn. Road is breath taking. Don't be surprised if you are driving 20 miles an hour because there is so much to see. We camped in Custer State Park and it was the best week of vacation I ever had. These pictures brought back some great memories the last time I shared great company with my uncle before he passed away.

Thanks Bruce,

Frank

[Greg Kitchens]

This is GREAT...thanks for sharing.
If you come accross the Four Corners Cafe I can highly recommend the rhubarb pie. It is on the road between the north and south parcels of the Roosevelt NP.

[james van blaricum]

Bruce, what a wonderful group of pictures. Truly a wonderful land we live in. Thanks for sharing. JVB

[Bruce Day]

I brought this back up in view of the recent discussion about north hunting. We are heading out next week. We may be back, maybe not.

[Mark Garrett]

Thanks Bruce for bringing this back up . I am headed to Montana on the 16th, so all the stories and picture really got pumped up . I know , I won't want to come back.

[Jeff Christie]

Bruce-

Great pix!! Very envious. We are in St Petersburg Russia. I am certain it was on some target route pack in the bad old Cold War days of Buffs.

Jeff and Weezie

[dwight pugh]

What a trip.... Thanks for sharing

[Bruce Day]

We are stopping by Rushmore to see the new addition, added by executive order.

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

You Guys are crazy, and having a ball, keep it up tell charlie, to hold on to the saddle horn, and not the side and he will not mash that thumb again! Envious, Gary

[Todd Kaltenbach]

Looks like fun Bruce, us young guys that are still working are jealous. Keep the great pictures coming and have fun.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

I am so jealous. I want to do that so bad. I am currently at the beach, Hilton Head, with the family, but am so not a beach person. I have been reading The High Lonesome Road by Robert Holthauser all morning. It is about a man and his 2 dogs traveling and hunting across the country. I will do this one year, and it cant be too soon. In the meantime, I will look forward to your posts and pictures and dream of my upcoming 2 weeks in the UP. Oh, and my new setter pup I will be getting next week after I get back home.
Shoot straight!

[Bruce Day]

Lots of Huns and sharptails. Hundreds of pheasants there were three broods raised this year. Big country hundreds of thousands of acres to hunt.
Now in one if the little hamlets waaay off the grid taking a day off to rest man and dogs. Stitched up one dog yesterday. Pulled porcupine quills. Great points and holding birds tight from. 200 yards out. Hot in the afternoons for the next couple days then cooler. Big country and lots of birds. Slow internet connection and will post photos later.

Definitely off the grid here. Obama has not paid a visit to everyone's great disappointment .