Shoulda' Woulda' Coulda'

We were this close to having our limit. Not that I'm complaining! It was probably the best in-state hunting day I've had in a couple years. It's tough to beat a 9:1 rooster-to-hen ratio.

I met up with my new hunting buddy Wade, his girlfriend Brittany, and their Small Munsterlander, Deke.
Unfortunately, Bandit wasn't able to come due to some sort of injury. I don't know what happened, but he's been limping around for the last few days. I thought he was fully healed and I had him all loaded up and ready to go hunting when he started limping again. It drove him crazy to see me leaving without him, but I've got to protect him from himself.
We hit up one of my favorite WPAs west of St. Cloud. The first couple hours we walked through a lot of thick, swampy grass and only saw two birds flush, both well out of range. Maybe these early-season birds were smarter than we thought!

I read an article recently about how timing can greatly influence your success when pheasant hunting. With so much corn still out in the fields, this was particularly important now. The pheasants will always come back to the cover to roost for the evening, and this usually occurs just before dark.

About an hour before sunset we decided to push through my favorite spot on this particular land. About 50 yards in, a rooster flushed 5 feet in front of me. It startled me, and I must not have mounted my gun properly, because I missed with 4 consecutive shots. Wade also missed the bird twice as it sailed into the corn.

We continued on and Deke flushed another bird, which provided a long crossing shot that was subsequently missed. We were just getting ready to turn back when we saw a rooster land 150 yards ahead. We decided we should go after him. Good call.

When we got to the spot where we'd seen the bird land, Deke got very birdy. A rooster flushed about 50 yards ahead of us. Then another one flushed close. We shot simultaneously, there was puff of feathers, and we knew we had a dead bird.

Just seconds later, another rooster flushed, and we dropped it at about 30 yards. The way the bird went down, we were convinced it had been dead in the air. I went to look for the first bird, and Wade went after the second. I was able to find mine quickly, but Wade wasn't so lucky. We spend about 20 minutes searching for that bird with no luck. It must have hit the ground running. We and the dog scoured the area, but nothing materialized. This is where I missed having Bandit along. He's hell on running birds.

I hate the thought of leaving wounded game in the field. It makes me ill. But we gave it our absolute best shot, and a fox will likely get a good meal.

Deke did a great job. It was my first time hunting with a Small Musterlander, and I was impressed! He hunted exactly the way I like a dog to hunt. Relentless in his search for birds, yet never too far away and quite obedient with a calm disposition. You could tell he was actualling "thinking" while he was hunting.

Judging by the spurs, I'd say this is a 2-year-old bird. Most birds I bag are young, so it was a treat to outsmart an old veteran.

Theoretically, we could have had our limit. Which is saying a LOT for Central MN.