# Opening Weekend Reports and Observations!



## Rick Acker

Tough day for us. Went to the same spot we limited out by 8:30am last year on opener and the 4 of us only shot 3 all day. Had a stretch of 5 strait walks without seeing a bird. The scary thing is we probably saw less than 10 hens all day. Which doesn't bode well for next year and the future. 
With that being said, all the crops were up and no doubt 80% of the birds were in them, so I'm sure it will get better by Thanksgiving.
Talked to 3 other groups of friends of mine that were a little further west and had similiar or worse results.
Oh well, things will get better later and it was good to watch the dogs! :beer:


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## fryerjj

Our group saw lots of birds and shot a four man limit by 10:00 A.M. I think the bird numbers in South Central ND are still higher than the 10 year average. I agree though, another winter like last year will greatly reduce pheasant numbers in NoDak.


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## njsimonson

Corn and beans still up solid in SWMN. Caught a few birds yesterday and today moving from the grass to the fields just after opening hour. Got my first double today. A strange sensation to start and end the outing with a bang-bang.


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## lynxx69

Hunted in the SE part of ND this weekend, saw a total of 40 birds all weekend. Tough hunting, the birds are in the beans and corn. Should be better hunting in a couple of weeks. Toughest opener I have experienced.


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## Coach529

I only got out for about an hour yesterday on some unposted stuff close to town. I moved about a dozen birds, 4 with color on them but only one within gun range.

Tough hunting will hopefully weed out the road hunters and lazy buggers!!


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## Remmi_&amp;_I

Worst opener I can remember. 8 of us shot 4 birds on Saturday (we hit all 4 birds that were in range). I agree with Rick, the lack of #'s, especially hens, have me really worried about next year..........


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## blhunter3

Chopped corn all weekend and the one field has been notorious for pheasants and we only flushed one hen in two days. Last year year we flushed over 20 in two days.


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## muskat

Corn, Corn, and more Corn in our area. Bird numbers are down, did see lots of hens on the land we work, which is encouraging. Group of six people shot 5 on Saturday. Another 3 or 4 birds in range that could have been in the freezer. 4 of the 5 we got were this years hatch.

Birds moved to the corn right away in the morning and didnt come back out until evening. Thanksgiving and later should be OK this year. Corn looks to be at least 3 weeks out, still lots of beans standing.

On a side note, the dog did wonderful!


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## Dak

TOUGH hunting. Fun though.


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## hunt4P&amp;Y

Shot a 9 man limit by 9 am on Sat, and a two man limit by 8 today! Best opener I can remember!


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## _Addicted-_-to-_-Hunting_

saturday we went out and didnt get a bird and then on sunday we went out and got a two man limit in about an hour and a half so i think it might have been the cold and wind keeping them in tight


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## Old Hunter

I started out on the same ground as last year. Where I flushed 40 birds last year, I got up 7 this year. Hens and rooster numbered the same. The last blizzard of last winter really took out the hens.I guess the NDGF figured that you couldnt handle the truth. Bird numbers are down 80% in many areas.


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## omegax

I was hunting the SE part of the state. _I_ got some shooting in, but almost nobody else in my party did. We didn't hit it really hard, but the poking around we did do wasn't encouraging. Some of the spots where we've had a ton of fun in the past were completely empty. We're talking similar conditions crop-wise to last year, but I'd estimate we saw a third of the birds.


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## dosch

Hunted SE of Bismarck and put on about 300 miles in the two days and maybe saw 40 birds and of them 5 were hens. I'd say about 80 % down is right. Barely any hunters either. Saw lots of cranes, a few snows and lots of puddle ducks. My son got two teal in one shot so it was a fun weekend for us.

I'd say if we have another winter like last year they should set the limit at 1 for next year.

Great weekend to get out with my son. Makes a guy appreciate living in good ol North Dakota.

We ended up with four roosters for the weekend.


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## lynxx69

dosch said:


> Hunted SE of Bismarck and put on about 300 miles in the two days and maybe saw 40 birds and of them 5 were hens. I'd say about 80 % down is right. Barely any hunters either. Saw lots of cranes, a few snows and lots of puddle ducks. My son got two teal in one shot so it was a fun weekend for us.
> 
> I'd say if we have another winter like last year they should set the limit at 1 for next year.
> 
> Great weekend to get out with my son. Makes a guy appreciate living in good ol North Dakota.
> 
> We ended up with four roosters for the weekend.


If the limit was set to 1 rooster a person, that would change nothing. 1 rooster can breed 20 hens if need be. The NDGF likes the bird ratio to be 10:1 by breeding time.


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## dosch

> If the limit was set to 1 rooster a person, that would change nothing. 1 rooster can breed 20 hens if need be. The NDGF likes the bird ratio to be 10:1 by breeding time.


Yea I know smart guy. I don't think they will change it because I mentioned it. So go shoot 10 I don't really care.


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## 94NDTA

Tough opener. We were not really trying to hard due to all the talk of the numbers being down. We used this opportunity to try and find some new spots. We did not see a single bird. Plus, we found a couple of plots that we traveled to that were on the map, but not actually in existance. That was a little discouraging.

Oh, and some of the new plots we traveled to still had crops on them.

First opener with out a bird. I did learn what places not to go this year.


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## Bagman

lynxx69 said:


> If the limit was set to 1 rooster a person, that would change nothing. 1 rooster can breed 20 hens if need be. The NDGF likes the bird ratio to be 10:1 by breeding time.


Really? Someone should have pointed out that the limit being lowered "would change nothing" to the NDGF back in the 80s and early 90s when the limit was dropped to 2.


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## tlr

Weather was terrilble but thee of oy got 4 birds on saturday and 
five birds on Sunday.Only problem on Sunday was some stupid hunters saw us hunting an area and drove about a quarter mile a head of us and started to hunt the same cover.I was not non-residence either! It is the same thing as people settting up in the same field for waterfowl, when you were there first. :******:


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## G Man

We didn't have the same problem as most of you. We hunted the same fields as last years opener and did about the same. We didn't get our limit but shot 16 in two days with 5 guys so not too bad. I would say we saw about the same number of birds as well. However we saw a LOT more young birds. All of this was on PLOTS land. When the corn and flowers come off it should still be some dang good hunting around our area.


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## mburgess

Hunted a piece of land that I usually hunt on opener that I typically flush birds left and right on Saturday. Kicked up two roosters and two hens. One of the roosters was in range and ended up in the bag. Lots of corn and beans up all around it. I don't believe a ton of birds were in the crops though. Heard absolutely no crowing. I'd agree, where I was at they are down 80%. I maybe hunting coyotes early this year. Still nice to be out though.

If bird numbers held up in a given area, they had to have good winter cover last winter. I believe numbers are going to be very spotty this year, and I'd look for places with REAL good winter cover. :-?


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## drjongy

Just went out Saturday and got a couple, but the wind was a huge factor that day, although in general I did not see the numbers as in years previous. Never saw a single bird while driving, but that was probably due to the wind as well. Lots of corn and beans up...had my luck walking CRP next to bean fields. Only saw two roosters on Saturday, 4 sharpies, and about 10 hens.


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## hunt61

Pretty slow for an opener, we shot a total of 19 for the weekend, didn't work too hard though.

We did get one with a Windsor Canadian band on it's leg.


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## indsport

See post on out and about. For Sunday, 1 bird, for today, 2 more. Hunted three pieces of PLOTS in our neighborhood today and flushed 0 birds, no hens, no roosters, no nothing. Last year, same land, averaged seeing over 60 birds in an hours walk. After hunting for 3 days in southeast north dakota, 60% decline is an underestimate. Considering between my wife and I, we have a total of 75 years pheasant hunting experience and between us, hunted 54 days last season, this opener was similar to the 1980's prior to CRP. Already had two groups of family and friends cancel their north dakota trips to our area this year. Do expect somewhat better success once the corn and beans come off but not much.


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## NDMALLARD

I hunted South Central ND for the opener and I agree with the folks on here who say the bird numbers are down about 80% in this area. I drive and scout for geese during the early season and there are just not many birds.

I have heard a few of my friends say the birds are in the corn and beans and they aren't down that much. That is wishful thinking on their part. There are still pheasants to hunt and it will get better as more crops come off, but the good ol' days are gone for the SE and SC portions of the state. Now I don't want some bird-brainiac to get their feathers all ruffled and tell me the birds are not down in their area. I am speaking in general terms from my experiences in this portion of the state. If you think you have the same number of pheasants in your area as last year, send me a personal email with the map cordinates and I will verify if you are correct. I will post up an apolgy after I have had chance to extensively hunt the area to verify your claim. :wink: :wink:


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## JBB

Hunted S/W of Bismarck. Worst opener I can remember with both weather and bird numbers. The flooding, wet and cold spring/summer did a number on the birds. It was down to 18 Sat morn and 14 Sunday. I dressed like it was middle December. Saw about 1/4 the number of hunters over the weekend. Hunted my normal places and did not shoot but 3 for the weekend. Dogs worked their hind ends off. 
Saw some old friends from that area, finally bought a 7 1/2 acre spot for my camper. Just about froze first day out because I did not take enough clothes, wind almost blew me away and got stuck on a little snow on some grass, (who thought we would need snow tires opening day) and shot almost no birds. All said and done a great weekend.[/b]


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## tumblebuck

hunt61 said:


> Pretty slow for an opener, we shot a total of 19 for the weekend, didn't work too hard though.
> 
> We did get one with a Windsor Canadian band on it's leg.


yeah..sounds slow :roll:


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## HUNTNFISHND

Went out Saturday afternoon. Very windy, cold and snowy. Lotsa hunters but few birds. Got two roosters, should of had my limit though. They were pretty tough to get outta the cover. Dog got into a skunk. PPPEEEWWW!!!


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## hunt61

tumblebuck said:


> hunt61 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Pretty slow for an opener, we shot a total of 19 for the weekend, didn't work too hard though.
> 
> We did get one with a Windsor Canadian band on it's leg.
> 
> 
> 
> yeah..sounds slow :roll:
Click to expand...

Nineteen birds between six guys over two days, that is PAINFULLY slow....we've never hunted past 9:00 a.m. on an opener in 10 years. Lowest pheasant numbers I've seen since the fall of 97.

Watched another section of CRP we've hunted for ten years get hayed (soon to be plowed) over the weekend, times are changing......


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## wurgs

I was a little concerned when we didn't see 1 pheasant live or dead along the road from fargo to Belfield. We hunted birds half days ( around some pronghron and turkey hunting) and managed 14 birds between 4 guys in 3 days. We saw alot less birds than previous years but did ok. We saw more roosters than hens which was surprising. Some locals were saying that the roosters were driving the hens off the food sources because of the bad winter and the hens really took a hit. Anybody else hear anything like that?


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## snowhunter16

I live in south dakota by huron and hammerd the hell out of them lol.


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## kingcanada

it sounds like i am going to wear out some boots this year. i don't mind walking all day if i get a few birds though. anyone seeing many grouse in the southwest? that would go along way to relieve the lament of a poor season. 97 is the only year that i ever considered disappointing for pheasants, but the sharpies were in good numbers so i didn't mind at all. the countryside shouldn't be too crowded by time i arrive if the birds come tough. not a bad thing.


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## The Norseman

The back yard......and there's more you can't see










There are more Pheasants than ever. Holding tight though.

My Secret place, East River.


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## jbach

hunted opening day through thursday in south/central nd. didn't expect to hunt in snow opening weekend but limited out every day day with 3-5 guys. we had our birds most days before 9am. by then most had moved into the corn or flowers. the days we didn't get them early, finding them in crp was tough. i still saw lots of sign and know there's more birds around than what i saw. crops coming off will be the tell tale sign. had a great few days with my young lab performing above and beyond my expectations. glad he got to see what it was all about.


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## MSG Rude

hunt61 said:


> We did get one with a Windsor Canadian band on it's leg.


Now that right there would be really cool to see! Did you take a picture of it and what happened when you called or what ever? It would make for interesting reading to hear about it.


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## hunt61

MSG Rude said:


> hunt61 said:
> 
> 
> 
> We did get one with a Windsor Canadian band on it's leg.
> 
> 
> 
> Now that right there would be really cool to see! Did you take a picture of it and what happened when you called or what ever? It would make for interesting reading to hear about it.
Click to expand...

There is a number to call with an ext. number. Send the band to the address they provide (it's a Fargo address) and you will receive a hat and T-shirt. You are also entered in a drawing in Jan. for some larger prizes.

I took a couple pics with my phone....


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## confusedsoul

Colder and Windier on Saturday in Eastern SD where we hunted. Took pretty much till end of shooting hours to limit. Sunday was beatiful and didn't take us near as long. Tons of pheasants btw, TONS! I can't imagine what it will be like when there is no corn or sunflowers to hide in! Going again next weekend, can't wait and hope some crops are actually out!


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## Roughrider

Hunted Sat. and Sun. south of Jamestown. Worst hunting in the past ten years. Five guys 2 dogs 4 birds on Sat. pretty nuch gave up on Sun. Hunted private posted land that had not been touched. The ndgf says birds are down 40-60%, where we were the birds are down atleast 90%. The winter must have hit them a lot harder in areas than anybody thought. Very, very frustrating.


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## Springerguy

HUNTNFISHND,

Hope you were able to get the skunk smell out of the dog. I've dodged them so far this year but expect it will happen - last time we had a wet year like this we had our share of episodes with skunks. I think the wetness pushes them out of the low cover (i.e. culverts and such).

Here is what I do - take bottle of hydrogen peroxide, small box of baking soda (8 oz), fill small travel bottle with dish detergent, 1 pair of rubber gloves (the type sold for gutting deer). Find someone with a vacuum sealer - put all the items in the bag and vacuum seal. Your very own de-skunking kit. I also carry an old pail in the truck to mix up the concoction. Works like a charm. I couldn't figure out why noone has packaged this commercially so I did some research - if the items are mixed together in a sealer container they can be explosive. Not sure how explosive.....I'm assuming just enough to make a mess. But it explains why it's not available commercially- to much liability. The recipe was invented by a chemist that specialized in getting rid of smells.....and one of his fellow employees had a cat that was sprayed by a skunk so they concocted this recipe - I read the chemistry behind the mixture but it's over my head.


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