Pheasant Hunt Hutchinson MN November 17 2024

It had been just over a week since our almost 7 yr old Val setter passed away after a hunt and I wasn’t quite ready to hunt again but our 12 yr old setter Tasha was tired of hanging around the house.

It was a fairly nice day, 50 dogs and a slight breeze.  I loaded up and water and we set off into the field.  She went on point almost right away, it was a nice point but it ended up being a hen.  We worked the east end of the field which had a picked soybean field next to it.  We had 2 more hen points.  We turned and followed the south side of the property.  Tasha was working a scent for half of the length when she locked up and this time I kicked up a nice rooster and I was able to bring it down with a shot.  I was using my 12 ga Beretta semi auto with an improved choke and #6 shot.  

This field is 1/2 half of a 160.  Our half has a lot of cattails and is better for late season hunts but does seem ok even in the earlier season.  Tasha and I hit the border of the property and swung along the west side and about 1/4 of the way she went on a point and a nice rooster got up, I took two shots and it dropped a leg.  It was still flying decently when it landed.  We looked for quite a while but it’s trail let to the cattails and standing water.  We did not end up finding it.  I did switch to #5 shot after this incident.  We ended up working around the cattails but didn’t move any more birds until we got back to the west end of the cattails and started to work the grass again.  We got 3 more hen points but no more roosters before we got back to the truck.

It was a nice hunt to get Tasha back into the field as she has been a bit lonely without her buddy.

 

 

 

 

We hunted about 2 hours… Tasha was doing well at 1:45 but was tired from the extra 15 minutes.

Gear:

Danner Vital Boots

CZ 12 GA Sharptail Target SxS Shotgun

Garmin Alpha 300 + T 5X Collars

Dogtra T&B DUAL Training and Beeper Collar