this winter has been good so far!

[mazzgolf]

Got a friend of mine to buy his '18 pheasant stamp and come with me to hunt some leftover birds.  He brought his dog and we had some fun They stocked on Saturday, but I figured, with the bitter cold, the number of hunters that went out on the 31st was down and I was betting with the cold hanging around, no one bothered to buy their '18 stamp and go out for the leftovers the past couple days.

 

Well, as we are driving in (didn't even reach the fields yet), damn if I didn't see one of those dark-colored cockbirds hanging out on the side of the dirt road!! We look at each other and shrug and say, "Why not?" He parks it right there, and we hurry to get out and let the dog loose. We were all smug and so sure of ourselves - "easy peasy". HA! Yeah, right! Well, that cockbird outsmarted us and the dog! We followed that bird into the woods and it disappeared like a ghost. Dog couldn't track it. We dog-shamed him the whole walk - "we gave you a freebie and you couldn't seal the deal??? You better find another bird and redeem yourself!" 

 

Well, we ended up hitting a few fields on the WMA, and we did end up taking home a cockbird that the dog managed to find. Anyone notice if this bitter cold affects a dog's sense of smell? He seemed to have a really hard time - even when we downed the bird, he had a really hard time finding it. And this dog is normally a very good bird dog.

 

Anyway, still fun - a full two days since the last stocking and we are still seeing birds !! They are lasting even in this cold. Crazy. To those people that said you can still hunt and find birds after stocking days, you were absolutely right! I'm now three-for-three on hunting leftover birds in the afternoon or day after (in this case, three days after!)

 

I've had off from work the past couple weeks - have had success pheasant hunting and I've taken some geese, too, even in this sub-zero wind chill weather. Can't wait 'til I retire, I like this having nothing to do during the day except hunt

[Nomad]

I heard others say that the very cold can effect the dogs ability to locate birds as well. I don't have a dog but with this snow finding tracks and working that area has been working good for me. Still a lot of birds out there.   Also, I  found quite a few frozen pheasant just lying there in the tucked position, not a mark on them, all hens. 

[outdoorslife]

Sounds like you're having fun mazz...nice!

[rgw]

you can say that again