Sharp-tailed grouse lunch tacos

 

Yesterday I grilled a a couple of Sharp-tail breasts from our hunt in Mid-Sept so today I had some leftovers to eat.  

I didn't do anything fancy, just 2 types of cheese ( I like mine melted ) Mexican rice and the meat.  It was pretty tasty.

Pheasant Hunt Hutchinson MN Dec 8th 2024

Tasha and I met with our buddy, Tony, and his two shorthairs.  For early December it was a balmy 45 degrees and a decent breeze.  Tasha and I started by working the east edge of the field.  She got a little birdie in a couple of spots but we didn’t move anything so we decided to head for the thicker cover.  The wet sections including the pond are now frozen so we have access to the thickest cover on the property.  I saw a fair amount of pheasant drippings in the cattails but all of the tracks looked a few days old but we kept moving from thick to thin cover hoping to move a bird to an area that we could get a good point.  As we went to the North side of the thick cover I heard Tony take a couple of shots but saw the rooster flying onto the neighbors half of the property.

After pushing the thick stuff a bit longer we went back to the grass.  My thinking is that with the warmer temps that we would see the birds in the thinner cover.  We were rewarded a short time later with a nice point but it ended up being a hen.  We worked the grass area for a bit longer but didn’t move anything.  Back into the thick stuff we went.

Moving back into the thick stuff paid off as we moved six more birds, all hens.  All of the birds were along the edge of the thick cover and not in the middle.  I’m not sure if we were too early ( 2 pm ) to catch them moving to the food sources or if they had moved off of our side of the property.

Even though we didn’t see any roosters it was still nice to get out in the 40+ degree weather and it was fun for Tasha to get a good amount of bird stink in her nose.  Tony and his dogs did and the one rooster and a number of hens also.

It was a good hunt considering that we were only in the filed for 90 minutes.

Gear Used.
Danner Sharptail boots
Final Rise Vest
15+ year old Columbia hunting pants.
Garmin Alpha 300
Dogtra t&b collars