Final Pheasant Hunt

We cleaned-up and finished packing at the house, leaving Lilly at 10:10 AM. We drove south for about 2 hours to hunt pheasants at the Tuschen Slough GPA just outside Spencer, SD. This is the same spot we hit on the final day last year and had good success, so we figured we should try it again.

Maybe for the first time of the trip, our plan unfolded as we had hoped! We hunted for 2 hours there: 1 hour over Mag & Winnie and 1 hour over to Jax & Winnie. Winnie pointed a rooster that held long enough for Dan to kick it up. He knocked it down with his first shot and tried to anchor it quickly after it landed with a second shot. Unfortunately, it was still alive & ran into some thick grass. Winnie was trailing it & Jackson and I came over to assist, but all of our efforts at recovery proved unsuccessful.

Later in that first hour, Jackson flushed two roosters about 10 seconds apart. The first presented a beautiful shot for me and as I pulled the trigger I only heard a click instead of a bang. It was only then that I realized I had neglected to load any shells in my gun when we started the hunt... as the second bird flushed, Dan killed it cleanly with one shot and Jackson made the simple retrieve.

Winnie pointed what turned out to be a hen around this same time. Dan flushed it and she stayed nice and steady as it flew away.

During the second hour, we continued to hunt the cattails and similar brushy edges of the shallow lake in the GPA. Maggie flushed a group of birds which turned out to be two hens and one rooster. I was in very close proximity, but the sun prevented me from correctly identifying any of them as a rooster so I did not shoot. Dan took one shot at the rooster, but missed.


When we got back to the Suburban, we cleaned our one rooster, changed clothes, & fed the dogs. We hit the road headed for home at 3pm. All 3 of us are both surprised and impressed that Dad did not choose to take any days or even half-days off from hunting & still kept up with the overall pace of the trip without incurring any injuries! We're heading across southern MN now & expect to be home several hours ahead of schedule. I'll post a trip recap over the next couple days - when I have a chance.
I know it's a bit off topic, but we could help but marvel at the size of the farm equipment out here. I'm not sure the picture does it justice, but this thing seemed about twice the size of anything I see in the fields around my house...