upland game rounds

**splashtx556ftw** · 12-09-2008, 07:41 PM

well, im not saying you can adjust for it, just that it plays a major roll in the accuracy of the shot. and heavier shot will buck the wind a little better than small will. i have shot 7.5 at everything. toward the last few weeks of the season i go to 6s but not often.

**birdbrooks** · 12-11-2008, 12:49 PM

Heading to North Dakota early tomorrow to chase late season pheasants.

Weather has been fairly mild but minus degree temps and wind are forecast for the next several days. What would a December Dakota hunt be without that?!

So, if it gets windy--and it will-- I'll blame any misses on that!

**timb99** · 12-14-2008, 10:19 PM

How'd you do?

See photos on my trip to South Dakota this weekend.

**birdbrooks** · 12-16-2008, 03:19 PM

Did real well in ND for two days filling out and a few bonus Huns, Timb99, but then the blizzard did hit starting Saturday afternoon. It was -17 degrees where we were when we quit at sunset Saturday and the wind was just picking up. Then it really got cold! I'm talking -22 and gusting to 30 mph winds; the windchill was -50. That is, of course, extremely dangerous. So, Sunday was spent holed up. The whole state was shut down Sunday.

There were a bunch of pheasants all through the midwest and near west this year... probably as many as I've seen in 40 years of hunting, and that's a big bunch of pheasants. We had party hunts in tree groves and food plots where we pushed 1000 birds out-- more than one time.

But how many will survive at least in the Dakotas (or MN, which has been enjoying a real resurgence in pheasants) until spring is unknown. The ranchers and farmers I've talked to say the blizzards this season already are the worst since the '96-'97 winter, when hundreds of thousands of livestock and untold numbers of wildlife were wiped out.

Monday we went out to scout- still -22 in the morning- but only to scout a bit and visit our farmers before heading home. They opened I94 from the Montana line through to Fargo by midday Monday. Roads okay until MN and then the icy patches made for a slow run home.

Gotta love that late season pheasant hunting!