Pheasant Hunt Stewart MN November 17 2024

It had been just over a week since our nearly 7-year-old Val passed away after a hunt, and I wasn't quite ready to hunt again. However, our 12-year-old setter, Tasha, was tired of being cooped up at home. On a fairly nice day with 50-degree temperatures and a slight breeze, I loaded up Tasha and some water and headed into the field.

Tasha went on point almost immediately, but it turned out to be a hen. We worked the eastern end of the field, which bordered a picked soybean field, and had two more hen points. Turning south, Tasha locked up on a scent, and this time I flushed a nice rooster that I was able to bring down with a shot from my 12-gauge Beretta semi-auto with an improved choke and #6 shot.

We continued along the west side of the property, and about a quarter of the way, Tasha pointed again. I took two shots at the flushing rooster, but it flew off with a damaged leg. Despite a lengthy search, we were unable to locate it in the cattails and standing water. I switched to #5 shot after this incident.

As we worked around the cattails, we didn't move any more birds until we reached the west end and started working the grass again. We got three more hen points, but no additional roosters, before heading back to the truck.

 

It was a nice hunt that helped get Tasha back into the field, as she had been a bit lonely without her companion.

 

 

 

 

We hunted about 2 hours… Tasha was doing well at 1:45 but was tired from the extra 15 minutes.