My Land Tour...The Big Woods

[H20fwler]

That painting is a dead ringer!

Do you stock the pheasants, or are they wild?

We release pheasants in early October and they seem to go feral pretty fast in the tall native grasses. A couple neighbors must do the same or we have a little carry over, I like hearing them cackle early in the mornings or at sunset while I’m in a stand.
It’s fun to take the dog out on weekends or days off to try and pin one or two down. This spring I’m going to release a mix of hens and roosters to see if they make it through the summer I think the cover is getting good enough for them to stay healthy.

 

[H20fwler]

Dead ringer! And Darcy looks to be in hog-heaven with the birds and bunny. You probably have to COAX her to go hunting ………… right???

It’s funny I’ll say “let’s go to the farm” and she starts bouncing around like a kid going to Disney Land.
She has traveled quite a bit this fall upland hunting and has really been a joy to work with. Her waterfowling skills have come along big time this year and it’s been almost impressive seeing her handle geese in the cold the last couple weeks. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t make me laugh out loud with her antics.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

How many roosters do you normally release in October and about what % end up in the freezer? It sounds like a good way to get some bonus upland hunting in. I'm looking at enrolling some acres in CRP and I have thought of doing something similar.

 

[Mortenson]

And along those same thoughts, how many acres do you have for them to inhabit, or how many acres do you think it would take to keep some alive? I have a minimum of 7 acres of rolling pasture across the road that I've been thinking of creating pheasant habitat on. Neighbors a few hundred yards to the south are also talking of creating upwards of 15 acres for the same purpose. Wondering if we could make a good thing happen. Congrats on your buck also!

 

[H20fwler]

How many roosters do you normally release in October and about what % end up in the freezer? It sounds like a good way to get some bonus upland hunting in. I'm looking at enrolling some acres in CRP and I have thought of doing something similar.

I put a dozen out on our place, sometimes we might do it twice if one of the boys wants to have friends over to hunt. I try and give them at least a month head start and they act pretty wild by then, we end up shooting around 75% of what we released. I have found where hawks or owls have gotten one before, we release quail all summer to work the dogs on and they are way more fragile they might last a few weeks to a month in summer/early fall.

 

[H20fwler]

And along those same thoughts, how many acres do you have for them to inhabit, or how many acres do you think it would take to keep some alive? I have a minimum of 7 acres of rolling pasture across the road that I've been thinking of creating pheasant habitat on. Neighbors a few hundred yards to the south are also talking of creating upwards of 15 acres for the same purpose. Wondering if we could make a good thing happen. Congrats on your buck also!

Our pasture is 14-15 acres with two shallow ponds in it, the native grass plantings are getting nice and tall and thick with mixed clovers so there is pretty good low ground and thermal cover for them that is only getting better. I've got some volunteer foxtail with a little millet and lots of partridge pea planted so they have plenty to eat, the shrubs we have in aren't fruiting yet but they should help provide in the future. Where the pasture runs along the woods also has some good edge cover and when we cut firewood we make some good brush piles. We have also planted clumps of pines that are from 2'-4' tall now and have some 4'+ spruce along the road that they seem to like to hang around.

I think you would be able to hold pheasants for a month or so on seven acres of tall native grass, if you let some patches of goldenrod and similar get thick all the better.
Some friends of ours to the county south of us have released a rooster/hen mix for a few years in fall on their twelve year old WRP of forty acres and they saw a hen with chicks last summer.
Getting good healthy birds that come out of a big fly pen to release really helps on their survival too. Between you and your neighbor I think you could have fun with some pheasants.
.

 

[H20fwler]

Late in the afternoon the last day of our first gun season my youngest son was hunting out at the farm so I came out about forty five minutes before sunset to push the woods out for him. I gave it the slow zig zag through the woods while whistling but all that came out was does and fawns, about two thirds of the way through the woods I found this little fatty with FOOT long spikes. We had jumped him up a few times during bow season in the pasture while walking to the stand and had seen him many times while hunting this fall. I immediately thought he had been shot on one of the neighbors properties and made it into the woods and died. I checked him and he was cold but looked really fresh but no visible holes, had fresh blood coming out of his mouth and nose.
I finished pushing the woods out for my son told him about it and we walked back to snap a pic and text our local CO to make sure it was OK to move it, I did not want it in the woods drawing coyotes so close to where we hunt. The warden came out and looked it over really good then cut into his neck which had some internal bruising and blood clots, he decided it must have been hit by a car the evening before. It sucks that he was cold and the meat will go to waste, I did lift the head because the crazy long spikes looked interesting. I cleaned the head and steamed it out, I'll bleach it a little but still not sure what I'll end up doing with it..I just liked the look of the long spikes.
It's a shame he wasn't a little faster crossing the road or had walked in front of some young hunter, at least he won't be rubbing my pines and spruce anymore.

 

[Mortenson]

Poor little guy. Bet he had some good times at your place before his days were up.

 

[H20fwler]

Poor little guy. Bet he had some good times at your place before his days were up.

He sure seemed to hang around a lot, shame he didn't last a couple more years. He did like the pumpkins we put out if you look at the head pic of him you can see pumpkin that was smeared on his bases from putting his face in them eating.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

H20 - I'll second the young hunter idea. Both our sons shot spikes for their first deer. Too bad your spike got hit. He could have made a young hunter's year. Interesting head though.

 

[buckdeer1]

In my marsh I have hundreds of wood ducks early and was looking at wood duck houses,did you build yours and what post did you use,We saw a thousand ducks yesterday but couldn't get them to land in decoys they wanted the cattails and we had some kids with us so couldn't move to them but it was quite the seen

 

[H20fwler]

In my marsh I have hundreds of wood ducks early and was looking at wood duck houses,did you build yours and what post did you use,We saw a thousand ducks yesterday but couldn't get them to land in decoys they wanted the cattails and we had some kids with us so couldn't move to them but it was quite the seen

I didn't build those but have made some in the past. I got two from our local waterfowl refuge, they were built out of pine by Boy Scouts as a project. The third one came from a friend of mine that works with the DNR in MI, it is made of cedar. They are mounted on old used stop sign posts that I got from the state and work great for those and last forever. I made the predator guards out of sheet metal from Menards. I read that the boxes do better if faced to the east and that hen woodies show preference to wood over the fiberglass capsules, so I went with that. The ducks seem to like them and use all three multiple times every year.
We are going to put two more up this winter in the vernal pool that runs through the woods from early spring through early summer.

 

[buckdeer1]

Really nice I will have to add some this year

 

[H20fwler]

The oldest son and I took the dogs out to the farm today for some fun. Right as we were coming down the road around fifteen geese lifted off the front pond they must have roosted there last night, if we would have just gotten there twenty minutes sooner the dogs could have gotten some water work!
Darcy got to try out one of her Christmas presents, a new locator beeper collar...it was awesome don't know why I waited so long to get one, very handy in the tall native grasses. It was overcast this morning but the birds held well, both dogs did really good the oldest sons dog is really coming along.

Darcy doing her thing;

 

[Bill]

Darcy is having a good life. Most hunting dogs never leave the yard theses days.

 

[H20fwler]

Had a couple "firsts" yesterday.

After the good time we had Saturday we had planned to meet up yesterday morning to see if we could do it again.
The weather did not cooperate at all, woke up to a cold steady slow rain so I called my son who lives forty miles away to see if he still wanted to go and he was already on his way and was not taking no for an answer. I have never had any luck hunting pheasants in the rain in my life but with the boys enthusiasm was ready to get wet anyway. My youngest son opted to go duck hunting and the oldest and I headed out to the farm after it was light enough to hunt.
We geared up and turned the dogs out and within a few minutes TWO roosters flushed just ahead of the dogs one going left and one going right, Erik dropped the left and I scratched down the right. First time ever shooting a rooster in the rain..and first father son double I've ever had! We kept on hunting and Darcy pointed a rooster despite the wind and rain ten minutes later then another a little after that and we were limited out just like that in less than a half hour...a quick wet "Gentleman’s Hunt".
So even with my doubts it ended up being AWESOME we were both pretty happy with the results.

After cleaning birds the oldest went out and hooked up with the youngest son and his one year old GSP had her first ever waterfowl retrieve.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Good doggies !!!!
Can't beat that stuff, H20. Miserable weather here too, but at least you had some fun at your place.

 

[J Kuch]

I might have missed the answer somewhere in here but how many acres is your land?

 

[H20fwler]

I might have missed the answer somewhere in here but how many acres is your land?

Not very big, this one is a little over thirty acres...all of it wildlife habitat.

 

[H20fwler]

Yesterday was last day of season, my son had a couple friends out to have some fun. Darcy had a blast and there were some spectacular misses and some laughs.
I still can't hardly believe how "wild" the birds get after a few weeks of freedom, they wanted to run like crazy gave the dog a good work out some we never did see. Found four grass nest roosting spots full of pheasant poop in the switch, there will be a few roosters that will have a chance to try and winter over. This April I'm going to release a rooster/hen mix and see how they do, the cover seems pretty good now.