North Dakota Report Oct. 2010

[rwwong]

My buddy, my Father in Law, my Cousin, my Uncle and I hit North Dakota this weekend for some pheasant hunting.

We were hunting private land through relationships we built with farmers we met last year. These are generally some of the most gracious and hard working people I've ever met.

We hunted areas Southwest and Southeast of Bismark. With still alot of standing crops we really didn't know what to expect. We ended up with 20 Pheasants, 20 Sharptails, and 3 Huns; the best mixed bag we've come home with. All the pheasants came from their usually spots: Cattail Sloughs, Corn, Ravines with heavy cover, and Shelter Belts. The Sharpies we found in the Prairie Grass, Leeward side of hills, and the corners of Corn Field Outcroppings. We only found one covey of Huns, and were able to chase the covey down three times for 3 birds.

We hunted behind my 3 year old Vizsla "Hunter," who impressed me more and more each day. Birds were holding relatively tight with the wind and he locked up and pointed plenty of birds for us. I'd say we produced pretty good numbers of birds for only one dog, I'm proud of him!

my buddy brought his new 11 week old pup "Tobin," who impressed us all by joining us on some of our biggest walks. He didn't bust any birds, but he did get birdy a couple times and he got great experience and a good early intro to the shotgun. We even set up a retrieve for him where he caught wind of a downed Sharpie, tracked it, picked the bird up, held the whole bird correctly in his mouth and brought it right back to Andy, it was a sight to see as the bird was over half his size. The two dogs are already buds, it will be fun to watch them work a field together next year.

Unfortunately, we only took pictures one day. This was the day we really got into the sharpies.

[2thepointsetters]

Nice job on the sharptail. The area I hunted we couldn't get within a 100 yards of them. I quess they were educated.

[rwwong]

The Sharpies were a blast! Some of them held so tight my dog had a couple points on them, the rest flushed wild well within range.