# Poor opener



## tlr (Feb 20, 2008)

this was the worst opener we have had in years! 'We hunted land that we have hunted for years, private land , and saw very few birds. the cover was good. The numbers in this area must be down as there was nosign of birds in the fields.Last year 10 guys got 30 birds- this year 5 birds. we hunted hard with good dogs too.


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## 1fastskeeter (Mar 10, 2005)

The birds acted like it was 2 months into the season. As soon as the dog got birdy they were running. Did manage to get 2 though.


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## malspeck (Nov 21, 2005)

I took my sons out yesterday and the place we saw lots of birds last year, we didn't see one yesterday!


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## Cin (Jan 25, 2008)

Birds are a little scarce where I am in Western ND. Too cold, then too dry. Rained all day yesterday and we have several inches of snow on the ground this morning, still coming down. Not great hunting conditions.


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## kevin.k (Dec 31, 2005)

I agree the birds seemed like they have been hunted hard already, although i did get my limit as soon as my dog got on one the birds were running like crazy and getting up way ahead.


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

kevin.k said:


> I agree the birds seemed like they have been hunted hard already, although i did get my limit as soon as my dog got on one the birds were running like crazy and getting up way ahead.


Well, when you think about it...A lot of birds have been hunted already with the yooth season getting more and more popular...

Weather was lousy, but we scratched out a limit each day in the S.E. From the people we talked to at the bar, I think we were fortunate!


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## NDJHG88 (Sep 29, 2008)

This weekend was not the best opener. I hunt around Stutsman county, the past few year around our farm we have been able to limit before noon on opener. Not this year, with the large amounts of standing corn and poor weather the birds were just not coming out. It took us all day and hard work but we did limit.


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## hunter9494 (Jan 21, 2007)

probably the real reason the birds are wild is due to the fact reproduction was way down and you guys are hunting last year's birds, for the most part. i have seen this before, i used to live in Nebraska and one year we had a very poor hatch, same deal, most of the birds, what few we could find, were survivors from the previous season. also nature has a way of instilling even more wariness in the last of it's species....which over the long run is helpful......may be a good year to travel south and hunt in your sister state.


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## bornlucky (Jul 24, 2007)

Three of us hunted Saturday morning with a good dog and only got one bird. We missed another. The birds we saw got up way ahead of us. I think the birds are out there. They are heading to corn and soybeans early and staying there all day.

I talked to a guy who said his hunting party hunted out by Mott. They had very good luck out there, but they were hunting some prime habitat which included food plots.


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## 94NDTA (May 28, 2005)

Only 2 of our 6 pheasants were last year birds.

We saw a ton of birds. I am not worried about the pheasant population.


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## spoiler92 (Jul 30, 2003)

We had 8 hunters, and got all we needed on Saturday somewhat easily. Birds were spooky for so early, but the young dumb ones held tight. Sunday we got only about half of our limits, but didn't hunt much as it was so wet


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## NDJHG88 (Sep 29, 2008)

I will agree the majority of the birds that we shot were older birds. The wet spring in our area i think hurt the hatch, along with the increase in predator numbers. we have many older birds and many younger birds that are so young i am afraid they wont make the winter.


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## nd_hunter (Nov 5, 2007)

There were tons of birds up in the NW corner...we were able to get a 6 man limit in 3 hours saturday when the weather was good. Had to settle for 10 on sunday with the slushy/windy conditions. It was also our 8 month old black lab's first outing and she did outstanding!

Hopefully there will be some nicer weekends comin up...


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## bigbrad123 (Dec 22, 2005)

I am guessing the entire weekend was a combo of a lot of factors: lower numbers in parts of the state, a TON of standing crops left, wet conditions, youth hunt becoming more popular, etc. I'm guessing hunting will improve as the crops come down. There was a lot of standing corn and beans in the SE part of ND and I doubt they will be getting in the fields anytime soon!


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## vizslaking (Sep 24, 2004)

> We saw a ton of birds. I am not worried about the pheasant population.


I agree. :withstupid: We saw a lot of birds. Hunted PLOTS and unposted grass. Found them on windblown hilltops. Poor shooting held us back but the vizslas worked great, including one rookie on her firs hunt. Shot birds, watched some good looking pointers, was NOT at home with a 10 foot honey-do list, ANOTHER GREAT OPENER!

:beer:


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## huntinND (May 1, 2008)

My brother and I did manage to get our limits within about an hour Sat., Sun. and Mon. Hard to say how the rest of the year is going to go. We only shot about four adult roosters out of 18. So it seems like there was a descent hatch in the area we hunted. Saw about the same amount of birds as last year. It was pretty miserable in the rain on Sun. but the birds were stacked up in some russian olives. A lot of birds were running but we hunted thick enough cover that enough held for easy shots.


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## martin_shooter (Sep 27, 2008)

on saturday the same 6 of us that go every year on the opener went and we always get our limit on public land in the XXXX area. we got our limit this year as well but had to work much harder for them than we usually do. out of the 18 birds only about 4 were last yeras. the birds all seemed to be sitting very tight and didnt have any problems with them bein flighty. i went over by XXXX with a group of my buddies and it was a totally different situation. we shot six birds, all of which were from last year and we were having a ton of birds get up way in front of us. could be an interesting rest of the season. does anyone know if the game and fish publish their hunter assisted study on the age of birds harvested?

--edit by R y a n
-- no listing specific locations please


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## fargojohnson (Oct 17, 2005)

Shot birds, watched some good looking pointers, was NOT at home with a 10 foot honey-do list, ANOTHER GREAT OPENER!

:beer:[/quote]

Great line vizslaking. All I have to add to that is Mott, North Dakota is great.


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## MSG Rude (Oct 6, 2003)

fargojohnson said:


> Shot birds, watched some good looking pointers, was NOT at home with a 10 foot honey-do list, ANOTHER GREAT OPENER!
> 
> :beer:


Great line vizslaking. All I have to add to that is Mott, North Dakota is great. [/quote]

Ya, Mott is great if you have a few bucks you want to spend hunting or you know someone with land out there. I was out in Dickinson for a few years about 8 years ago. It was hard then finding some where to hunt.

I can say that I have never, ever seen as many Pheasant any where in the world like I saw out there. When 14 of us in a group can limit out by 0930 on an opener day, you know that there is birds....


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## Norm70 (Aug 26, 2005)

Didn't really go out this weekend, but the last few nights driving around looking at the deer I have noticed that on roads that had birds on them every night last year there were _none_ this year.

I saw 1 hen in days.

Yikes!


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## johndeerel (Jan 6, 2007)

i live in north western north dakota and there are birds everywhere. Opening day was amazing


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## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

Out today about 20 miles west of where I live. last year, limits in a short time. This year, obvious hail damage in narrow swaths. Walked 5 miles of good cover with my dog. Had but 2 roosters get up but got both of them (both adults). Stopped and talked to land owners, the late rains got the second hatch chicks. as to talking to my neighbors from over the weekend, average brood size seen in the field was 2 and worst hatch since the winter of 96/97.

My pheasant season is rapidly drawing to a close unless I travel some distances. Last year hunted into January in the same areas and saw plenty of birds.

Grim.


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## T3wrath (Oct 12, 2008)

Indeed the opener was poor in the area which I hunt, but this week so far has been outstanding. 3 man limit upon walking 2 treerows in the same area yesterday. The amount of birds these rows were holding was completely unbelievable. Many roosters and many hens. The roosters we got were young but none the less tasty!


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## Perry Thorvig (Mar 6, 2002)

We hunted the central part of the state. We had mostly dry conditions on Saturday, rain on Sunday morning (no hunting), and intermittent precip on Monday. We almost decided on Friday not to go hunting at all because of the heavy rain in Fargo. But, glad we did. Four of us got our limit on Sat. but had to work harder than normal. We found a lot of really young birds. There was still a lot of standing corn and flowers.


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## woolie.222 (Dec 3, 2007)

I hunted south central nd and saw about 25 birds each day over the weekend. Passed up alot of young roosters due to cloudy conditions. Mostly hunted tall grass around haversted beans and standing corn also walked alot of old railroad bed. My 4 year old GSP is at the top of his game!


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

I hunted a lot of fields that I normally have very good luck with and we didn't have much luck at all. We shifted more towards the cattails and then got into a lot more birds. We did seem to shoot a lot of young roosters.


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## morel_greg (Apr 16, 2007)

Hunted south of XXXX half of each day, we got some birds but not our limits. The birds were very spooky and not too plentiful. Could have had our limits with better shooting. The birds we did get were all young. I did get my first partridge in a few years which was nice and my gf got a mourning dove that must of forgotten to fly south.

-- edit by me

-- Ryan


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## wurgs (Mar 3, 2008)

Hunted around XXXX on opener and was tough. We limited out one day and took 24 birds hunting 3 1/2 days. It was a very dry summer with most farmers not even harvesting their fields so cover was scarce. The rain and snow was very welcome out there although it made hunting pretty miserable. 

--edit by me

-- PLEASE stop listing cities folks!

-- Ryan


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## rowdie (Jan 19, 2005)

Indy

Hens may renest if a nest is destroyed, but they only will hatch one brood each year. That said, there are many late hatchs becuase of weater, and in my area, a lot of the roosters have very little color.


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## pointblankshot (Nov 2, 2005)

Shot a limit today with a couple of bonus sharpies! A couple of the roosters were very young. Got them only in the catails that had water. A fun impromtu half day hunt that work out alright.


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## deacon (Sep 12, 2003)

Would have to say birds numbers are definitely down in SE. Some areas still have birds similar to last year, while some areas have practically no birds - hard to believe but true. Very disappointed.


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## NDMALLARD (Mar 9, 2002)

I agree with Deacon, the numbers in the area I hunt are down. There are some pockets of birds where the nesting success rate must have been decent because we did come accross a fair amount of birds in some areas. One thing that stood out for me and has been mentioned by others was the lack of pheasant sign (roosts, poop, tracks etc) in some of the traditional areas that I have hunted since 2000. Folks can say they are all hiding in the corn and beans but if they ain't poopin in the grass they ain't eating in corn and beans :lol:

Numbers in the SE portion of the state are down in my opinion, of course I am speaking in general terms. Some areas will have a localized concentrations of birds. With more CRP coming out it is appears we are headed into a down cycle. I hope you all enjoyed the "good ol days"


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

Lots of birds....never in my 35 years of chasing roosters have I see so much corn still standing and the vast amount of corn that is out there as this year. This will be the best last 1/2 of the season that we have ever seen when the corn comes down. Just sit by your favorite fields and watch what the pheasants do in the mornings...when its nice and quiet they are already heading to the fields by first light....and they won't come back out until they want gravel in the evening.

A bunch of us have made the contacts and have great places to hunt in anticipation of the coming not so good old days. Lots of birds to. Thanks g/o. I'd suggest you give him or others a call...we spend less money per day that it costs to rent a motel, eat and drive around looking for a place to hunt that what we are charged and we shoot mainly wild birds anyway.


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## Ref (Jul 21, 2003)

No thanks Fieldhunter. I'd rather knock on doors and meet the great farmers and ranchers of ND. Even when I get turned down, I politely say thanks and move on. It may cost me a little more for gas, motels and restaurants etc. ( great for the small communities), but meeting these families keeps me in touch with "the real world".

It's worth it to me.


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## Bagman (Oct 17, 2002)

Field Hunter said:


> Thanks g/o. I'd suggest you give him or others a call...we spend less money per day that it costs to rent a motel, eat and drive around looking for a place to hunt that what we are charged and *we shoot mainly wild birds* anyway.


 :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll:


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## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

Got out today to get a limit, but my suspicions about the opener confirmed. Few young birds in our area, saw 3 additional sections (square miles) or former CRP plowed under in the last 2 weeks and checking another area, saw 6 more sections mowed and according to land owner, will go under the plow this fall or next spring. This brings the total in my area to over 15 sections of CRP lost in 2008 including some former PLOTS land from last year. Worse is the effect on my dogs.

Stopped by a section of CRP we have hunted since 1987 this morning. Dog was all excited since she recognized the prairie trail we normally go down. Let her out to see the black desert, she just sat and howled. Most heart breaking sound I ever heard from her. I feel quite the same.


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

Thanks Field Hunter always enjoy your company. Nice to have had the oppurtunity to know and do some buisness with people from this state for a change.

indsport, I'm putting some back in next week, $90.00 an acre is a fair price for our neck of the woods. Another 10 years Field Hunter and I will have a place to hunt.


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## deacon (Sep 12, 2003)

It is just a matter of time before the pendulum (sp) swings back to CRP.

"World Commodity Prices Deflate; U.S. Farmbelt Faces Below-Breakeven Crop Prices. Oct. 6, 2008 (LPAC)--Index prices have fallen over 40 percent since July for a combined group of commodities, including grains (e.g. corn, wheat, soybeans) "

Goods news for CRP. thanks G/O, you are ahead of the pack.


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Quite a bit of CRP mowed down for breaking here too just in the last week. Corn harvest will be delayed also with the wet ground. This is a slowwwww start. It takes awhile to realize your best year was a few years ago.


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## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

It's getting a little better now that the corn and flowers are starting to get harvested. It should only get better from here.


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## deacon (Sep 12, 2003)

Dick Monson said:


> Quite a bit of CRP mowed down for breaking here too just in the last week. Corn harvest will be delayed also with the wet ground. This is a slowwwww start. It takes awhile to realize your best year was a few years ago.


Definitely agree, 2006 will probably go down as the greatest year for me. Birds were plentiful and harvest of corn(usually last major crop to go) was 90% by end of October. Wonder what the percent is this year? 10%?


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