South Dakota Pheasnat Hunting 2010

Well, It's almost that time again. The group that I hunt with are getting very excited as it is only a few weeks away. This year we have a couple of additions to the group. One of the new additions is the son of a person in the group. And the other is a person that works with the members of the group. So now we're up to 5 people and we'll have 4 dogs. Should be a pretty good mix and they all seem to be very friendly. I'm really excited because it will be the first real big hunt for my new black lab pup. I will take him out in Minnesota beforehand but Minnesota pheasant hunting is not like South Dakota. If you see a hand full of birds all day.....you're doing pretty good in Minnesota. That's a bad day in South Dakota. Please I'm looking forward to just getting away. If the dog has success and we have fun....that's a good day in my book.

The new pup has been out the hunting preserve and has done pretty good. I think he'll do fine as long as I can keep up with him.

South Dakota Pheasant Hunting 09

Well we ventured out to South Dakota to chase some crazy pheasants. If you don't know out of state residents get to pick two 5 day periods to hunt. You can pick them back-to-back if you'd like. We chose to separate them. The first hunt was October 23rd - 26th. And the second one was December 11th - 13th.

During the first hunt out there we noticed that the they had a whole bunch of water. As a matter of fact, we wish we would had purchased the waterfowl license as well. So since there was so much water, it made find a spot to hunt, without getting wet, a little tricky. Also the farmers had to leave a bunch of the crops up. This also made it difficult to find a place to hunt. However we did manage to bag about 12 birds in the five days we were there. Of course the first bird I pulled up on, I missed. And there were a few other "misses" throughout the hunt. So we should have had more but that's how it goes when you're hunting. All-in-all we had a blast. The weather held off for us. It only rained a little bit. We had a couple of young dogs that did an outstanding job for us.

During the second hunt we drove out on Friday and hunt along the way a bit. We ended up getting a few birds. Saturday was a pretty nice day. It was windy but not bad. We hunted all day long and I think we ended up with one bird for the three of us for the whole day. NOT GOOD! But that's how it goes some days. Sunday looked like it was going to be a rough day because we woke up with -2 degrees for a temp and very windy. Wind chill was well below that. It was tough hunting but it made the birds hold tight. We just had to make our hunts shorter and be a little more picky in the locations. But we ended up with 7 birds for the day. So all-in-all it was a pretty good hunt and a great time with good dogs and great friends.

The Morning of 11-6

It was kind of a funny morning. I got up late and so I was running late. As I was looking out my kitchen window, I see a deer (couldn't tell if it was a buck or doe) run across my field and into the woods right where my stand is. I figure, ok well I'm not going to see that deer because I'll scare it as I walk in.

Weather: The weather has shifted. The wind is now out of the south and it's a strong wind. It's a bit cold but not really too bad.

So I'm walking out to my deer stand and I start going into the woods and sure enough I hear a deer head deeper into the woods. Figured it was the deer that I saw run across the field. Oh well.

So I climb up my deer stand and just get stilled in and I'm thinking...ok...I'm not going to see anything. Well of a sudden I hear a noise and I look up. There stands a 8 point buck looking right at me about 15 yards away. He walked in on the same trail that I just walked in on. He stopped and looked at me. I was perfectly still. Then he put his noise down to smell the trail. I stood up and drew the bow back. Just as I did he started to walk forward. As I got the bow all the way back, he stopped and looked up at me again. Then he decided he should maybe turn away. So he did. But he did it real slow. As soon as he got turned around and took one step, there was a good opening so I lined up the sight and took the shot. The arrow was on a good line. It hit the deer right behind the rib cage on the right side and it was just angled perfect.

The deer jump and ran off to his left. I knew I hit him and I thought I hit him in a pretty good spot. I know you're suppose to wait a while to let them sit down. So I told myself that I would wait about 30 minutes. But I couldn't wait any longer. I had only waited about 5 minutes. So I started to get down. I was lowering my bow down. It was almost on the ground. Just as I did, three does came flying up the other trail to my right. One doe almost ran right into my bow which was now hanging from me by a string. So I decide to raise my bow in case something else was going to come running by. While after about 5 - 8 minutes the does started to walk off to the North.

So I got down and started to look for my buck. I went to the place where I shot him.......and there was no blood. Not even a drop. So I started to head in the direction he ran......nothing. I started to circle around.......nothing. I back tracked and heading down the other trail thinking maybe he ran Southeast at first and then ran Southwest - thus scaring those does to me........nothing. Ok, I was starting to get frustrated. I thought I'll go home and get my wife to help me look. I started to walk out the on the trail I came in on and just as I almost got to the field's edge I saw blood.

I started to follow the blood trail. As I walked it started getting heavier. That was a good sign. I walk about another 30 yards and there he was. He was in a small opening right on the field's edge. From my stand, he was about 60 yards away. The arrow had hit behind the right rib cage and came out just on the inside of the left shoulder. It was a good shot.

The Evening of 11-5

Didn't see a thing. The wind is starting to pick up and the cold weather is starting to come out of the South. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

The Evening of 11-3

Well, I blew it. I was sitting in my deer stand. I was focused on a deer that ran off behind me to my left. All I could see was the tail end of it. So I thought I'd try to call it back to me. So I was working hard, thinking I could maybe get it back. When all of sudden I hear a bunch of leaves crushing to my right (bad side for a right hand bow shooter). I knew it was a deer even before I looked. So I slowly turned my head and sure enough out of the corner of my eye, it was a 8 point buck about 10 yards from me.

So now what do I do? I'm sitting looking straight forward and the buck is too my right looking straight at me. I tried to very slowly turn that way but every time I did, he would look a little closer at me. Finally, he had had enough. So he turned to his right and started to walk into thicker woods. So I decided to make my move. I turned to my right and stood up. He didn't hear me because he was making a lot of noise going through the thick woods. I found a spot and decided when he crossed there, I was going to let the arrow go. Well, of course Murphy's law was there and when the buck got there, his butt end was pointing directly at me. I didn't want to shoot him up the butt so I decided to make a little noise to see if I could get him to turn a bit. Well, it worked. The buck turned just a little towards me to see what the noise was. So I let the arrow fly. All of a sudden, the buck jumps up and off to his right he runs. What the heck? Oh crap, I hit the one big branch between me and him. (Murphy's Law) Of course, there sits my arrow.....stuck in the dirty. Dang it!!! Oh well. That's how it goes sometimes.

The Morning - 11-3

Well, I went out this morning.....was a little late in getting out there. As I was walking along our bean field to get to the edge of the woods, I thought I saw a deer standing on the edge of the field. Of course it was pretty dark out still so I wasn't going to be able to shoot it but it did get the blood pumping. Sure enough, it was a deer. Because I took a couple more steps and off it ran into the woods. I could hear it going through the woods.Well, I thought, maybe they'll come back (yea, right).

So off to my deer stand I went. As I started to walk into the woods, I hear the deer (yes, more then one) run farther into the woods. I guess you can win them all. (But one would be nice.)

At about 9:15am, a doe started to walk on the edge of the bean field that I just had walked in on. She was pretty good size but I said I wasn't going to shoot a doe. She was about 40 - 45 yards away. So I thought I'd wait for the rest of her "party". Well, she decided to head north away from my stand along the bean field. Oh, well. Maybe next time. I'm planning on going back out tonight again.

Joe's Hunting Blog

Well, I started bow hunting this year....first time picking up a bow in 20 years. Actually I started last month, October. See, I own about 40 acres in Minnesota. About 20 of it is wooded and there are bunch of deer running around here.

So last January I purchased a used Mathews bow off of Ebay. I got a Mathews LX and I think I got a pretty good deal. Also, I joined an local archery league....figured I needed to practice a bit. Good thing I did join.....'cause boy did I need to practice. At the end of the 16 weeks of league, I was getting pretty good. I was shooting about 295 out of 300......never did get a perfect score. Maybe next year. I did however get a "robin hood".
I couldn't believe it. This was about 2 months after I purchased the bow. These Mathews bows shoot really straight. Now if I only can get a deer with it.