# Ending the Season



## Dick Monson

(due to ignorance this will take a couple posts)

Beautiful weather today and way too nice to stay inside. The plan was a short jaunt around the the Great Swamp to see if any roosters were home. Like most good plans it soon went to.......well, scrap that plan. The cattails are snowed in pretty good so snowshoes are required. Sam would break through and I did no better. Except he could go under and come up some where else. I had to "swim" out over the snow which is somewhat like crawling out of a well.


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## Dick Monson

We came around a point following a couple rooster tracks when sharptails started to rise from the deep snow like Jack-in-the-box. Due to my quick reflexes I was able to finally nail the third one of five. Sam made the retrieve. Kind of.


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## Dick Monson

As I stood there with an open action the two roosters flushed behind me. :rollin: There is no respect from Mother Natures children. So we ended it this way.


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## Dak

Nice going Dick.


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## Canuck

Thanks Dick...nice pictures, just like we were there...except for the climbing out of the well part.
I envy your long bird seasons...our grouse hunting ended in mid-December!
Canuck


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## wburns

Congrats! Looks like you had a wonderful hunt.

My hunting partner and I had the same thing happen. We walked into the middle of about 50 birds. The cool thing was they only flushed in groups of 2 to 5 birds. We had our limit and the dogs were still pointing birds. One of the most memorable hunts I have ever had. I have never had that many hold so tight that late in the season. It was a great way to end the season. One of the coolest things IMO was seeing the snow filter off their wings as they would explode out of the snow.


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## Dick Monson

Wade, that's a great picture. You covered both ends of the spectrum! I just never expected grouse on the edge of the cattails like that. Never had an indication from the dog either. They flushed plenty close but the first two got by because I was so surprised, then I took one, muffed another, and stood there like a dunce fumbling with my gloves when a fifth took off. Marshal Dillon would have hit me six times before I had my gun up. A guy should get out there in soft snow more often, probably be surprised how well they would sit. Sam and I made a lot of commotion as we came up to these. They were more than a foot deep in the snow, settled in for the night I believe. It's crop was stuffed with corn.

My partner is retired for the season.


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## GW

Great pics, guys.
Our pheasant season in Iowa closes the 10th of January, but we've effectively been done since that storm at Christmas. Too much snow. Although I'm quite disappointed to miss hunting the last three weeks of the season, it has been a good year, with lots of quality dog work and birds bagged. 
Since I don't have any last day of the season pics to share, I will share a couple from the first upland hunt of this year, just to get us by until next fall. These were the first prairie chickens I've ever shot.
The long wait until spring turkey season begins...


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## kingcanada

we are still hunting huns and chukars here in Wyoming! got until jan 31st! will be going again this week. may post some pics.


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## wburns

Thanks Dick, for thee photo compliment. You had some pretty sharp looking photos as well. I agree, that soft snow sure makes them sit. I remember I had a similar thing happen with sharpies about 6-7 years ago. Sure makes for a fun hunt. We found a lot of these the last day.










There were no foot prints. Looks like they would drop in and form a little roosting area.


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## kingcanada

here are some chukars from monday. we will be going back again sunday or monday (both!?).


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## Dick Monson

kc, take lots of pictures and post 'em up. Very interesting to see what hunters are doing in other states. Do you hunt chukers in WY or go out of state? About 50 years ago NDGF stocked chukers in the ND badlands as an experiment and they held for awhile around Bullion Butte but then died out. I don't think my legs could handle the rough country they live in.


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## kingcanada

we hunt them in state. it can be good if you know enough spots and can burn some gas when needed. these were shot about 100 miles from home. it's the only spot i know where you can catch them on the flats. my friend in the pic likes that feature. my job is to follow them up the mountain afterward. we shot over 35 from this spot since around Christmas. that's about 1/2 of what's there. we will leave them alone for the most part now. next sun/mon we hunt huns. they will be flushing wild again most likely. my over under 10 ga with buffered hand loads of hard #6 does the job when it gets that bad. it works well on your sharpies too!  there are several coveys of chukar near my home too, but most of my friends look at the terrain and reply "hell no"! i need to take more pics, this year i bought a little digital and have taken many more. problem is that i often hunt till dark. at least it is dark when i get back to the truck. i sometimes will hike from one valley clear over into the next. chukars are the ultimate fitness program! i need to put a super light tripod in the game bag. after season i may post a gallery here and in a few other sections.


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## Afzaal

nice pics

u got pheasant and the other bird is partridge right?
well it seems more bigger than asian partridges .


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## wburns

Afzall
Dick and I have sharptail grouse , and I also have pheasant in my picture. The sharptail are native to the US. GW has a "prairie chicken" which is a pinnated grouse and related to the sharptail grouse which is also a native bird to the US. They are all grassland prairie birds. Kingcanada has what we call chukar partridge which are a Eurasian bird you probably hunt. From what I gather they come from Pakistan and other countries in your region. What are they called in their native homeland?


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## Afzaal

Chukar 
Grey Partridge
Black Partridge
Sand Partridge are native birds in my area.

well Chukar is bit far from specific my area but they are native birds of Paksitan.

Grey Partridge also known as Grey francolin










Chukar also known as Chakor










black partridge or francolin 









sand partridge also known as seesee










this one is migrated bird which comes for 40 to 45 days in my area.

and many kinds of Ducks


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## frank_lap_127

Just one thing,
Grey partridges and Grey Francolin are close relatives and pretty similar, however these two are two different species from two different genus.

My 2 cents :beer:

Frank


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## Afzaal

frank_lap_127 said:


> Just one thing,
> Grey partridges and Grey Francolin are close relatives and pretty similar, however these two are two different species from two different genus.
> 
> My 2 cents :beer:
> 
> Frank


thanks for the info.


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