Recent Posts

More Deets on SD Pheasant Forecast

More Deets on SD Pheasant Forecast

To follow up on yesterday’s post, here are some good deets on the South Dakota count/forecast from an article at ArgusLeader.com. Highlights: > The decline from the 10-year average is 41 percent. But Travis Runia, GF&P senior upland game biologist, who prepared the report, noted that the past 10 years have been epic in the […]

August 30, 2011 | By | Reply More
SD Pheasant Count Way Down But…

SD Pheasant Count Way Down But…

…Hunting Will Still Be Good? The official South Dakota pheasant count is in, and it ain’t prettty: a 46% decline in brood numbers from last year. Before going any further, here’s our standard disclaimer about counts and forecasts: > Use them more of an indicator than as the final word. > Because you’re Serious, you’re […]

August 29, 2011 | By | Reply More
Where’s the New Gear?

Where’s the New Gear?

Typically manufacturers of hunting and fishing gear roll out a bunch of new stuff before the season. Happens every year and truth be told…we love it. Seeing, checking out, testing, using new gear, it’s fun. Even when it doesn’t work out, we’re always learning. So where’s the new upland stuff? We don’t have a whole […]

August 26, 2011 | By | 1 Reply More
No ND Sage Grouse Season Again…

No ND Sage Grouse Season Again…

…Habitat Story Like Quail North Dakota won’t have a sage grouse season for the fourth year in a row. Maybe not the worst thing in the world, but the story there and elsewhere is one of increasingly fragmented habitat, the same problem faced by bobwhite quail. We’re not getting fewer Americans with fewer needs/wants, so […]

August 25, 2011 | By | Reply More
World’s Largest Pheasant Gets New Life

World’s Largest Pheasant Gets New Life

If you’ve perused any photos of South Dakota, no doubt you’ve tripped over at least one of the world’s largest pheasant, all 22 tons of it. It’s in Huron along Highway 14, right by the Dakota Inn. (Yes we do want to stay there one day and hopefully tip back a Rooster Lager for a […]

August 24, 2011 | By | Reply More
MN Pheasants Will Be…Dismal?

MN Pheasants Will Be…Dismal?

Dismal. That’s the word Star Tribune writer Doug Smith starts off with in a blog post about what this year’s pheasant season might look like for Minnesotans – those Minnesotans who don’t already head for points west during pheasant season, that is. Highlights (if you can call them that) of the post below: > Dismal. […]

August 23, 2011 | By | Reply More
MI Ruffies Looking Great Too

MI Ruffies Looking Great Too

Lakes states newspapers have been reporting that the grousing will be off the charts in MN and WI (though we did get an anecdotal report that WI may not be all that in some areas), and now comes a recent report that Michigan may be similarly stellar. Time for a “Yooper” invasion! Some highlights of […]

August 22, 2011 | By | 6 Replies More
Could PF Make An Upland Stamp Happen?

Could PF Make An Upland Stamp Happen?

We’d like to see Pheasants Forever (PF) take over the world – the upland bird world. Much as we like the Ruffed Grouse Society, no one’s got it going on as well as PF…which we say as folks who have talked to PF and seen their folks operate up close and personal. In light of […]

August 19, 2011 | By | Reply More
Cool Hot Weather Dog Training Tips

Cool Hot Weather Dog Training Tips

Good article at gundogmag.com, worth a full read. Here are a few highlights that stood out for us, either paraphrased or quoted. > In training, your dog works harder than you do. So watch out when the temp gets 65 degrees for pointers, and 70 for retrievers. Be especially careful if a dog is out […]

August 18, 2011 | By | 2 Replies More
We’re Wearing Rangers This Season

We’re Wearing Rangers This Season

If you read our first book, you know that when we wrote it we admitted we didn’t wear glasses in the grouse woods, that it was stupid and that we were on the hunt for glasses that fit the bill. Or really that fit the bill for all types o’ birdin’. To that end, last […]

August 16, 2011 | By | Reply More
NV Doesn’t Ban Sage Grouse Hunting…

NV Doesn’t Ban Sage Grouse Hunting…

…this year, anyway. Last weekend the Nevada Wildlife Commission discussed banning this year’s sage grouse season in an effort to prevent the bird as being listed as endangered, but decided to allow the hunt to happen. Here’s some background from the Reno Gazette newspaper: > Commissioner Henry Vogler said he intends to press for the […]

August 15, 2011 | By | 1 Reply More
Will Cali Be Awesome This Season?

Will Cali Be Awesome This Season?

Anecdotal reports make it sound like California is shaping up for an off-the-charts-good bird season – awesome if true. Sometimes anecdotal reports indicate reality, sometimes not, either way Serious bird hunters will be out there. Reports also are anecdotal because apparently Cali Fish and Game doesn’t do bird counts. So here goes, from this article: […]

August 12, 2011 | By | 1 Reply More
‘Time for the Cows and Chainsaws’

‘Time for the Cows and Chainsaws’

As we’ve said here many times, cutting trees is good. It’s good for forests – the whole seeing the forest, not just the trees thing – and it’s good for wildlife. And hunting. That’s just one example of sound – SOUND – management, and across the country the landscape is in dire need of it. […]

August 11, 2011 | By | 1 Reply More
Global Recession? Not On the ‘Glorious 12th’

Global Recession? Not On the ‘Glorious 12th’

The “Glorious Twelfth,” as they say across the pond, is Aug. 12, the start of the red grouse season in northern England and Scotland. And if you make paper airplanes out of Benjamins, you’ll be enjoying it. Some excerpts from this article in the UK’s Telegraph paper below. Hmm…80 mph fliers, eh? > Next Friday […]

August 10, 2011 | By | Reply More
Some PA Hunters Want Sunday Ban

Some PA Hunters Want Sunday Ban

WTH? First, know that I (Jay) am a regular (every week) church-goer. So I get the reason (supposed) behind a Sunday ban. But as much as I enjoy our local church, I’m not going to feel at all bad if I get away for a couple Sundays – or better yet, long weekends – to […]

August 9, 2011 | By | 3 Replies More
MN Ruffie Harvest Up, Hunters Too But…

MN Ruffie Harvest Up, Hunters Too But…

Ruffed grouse hunting is about as exciting as watching paint dry, grass grow or – maybe a little better – making donuts. Of course that’s not true, but apparently a lot of hunters think so, especially when compared to sitting up in a dang tree all day hoping for a deer to walk by. Now […]

August 8, 2011 | By | 2 Replies More
You Gotta Hear About This: Holy Smoke

You Gotta Hear About This: Holy Smoke

In his will, a friend of ours has specified that he wants to be cremated, his ashes “loaded into shotshells and given to my duck hunting buddies, so I can keep on killing them winged bastards.” Do you love this guy or what! Well, now that’s possible with a new Alabama company named Holy Smoke. […]

August 5, 2011 | By | 1 Reply More
Drought Not All Bad News for Quail

Drought Not All Bad News for Quail

The drought affecting several Midwest and Southeast states seems to be only bad news for an already hurting national quail population. We checked in with Dr. Tom Dailey, assistant director of the Northern Bobwhite Quail Initiative, to see how the quail are doing, and found out that it’s not all bad news. But first the […]

August 4, 2011 | By | Reply More
KS Birds Doing Okay in Drought

KS Birds Doing Okay in Drought

Those of us not experiencing the drought in the Midwest, Southwest and parts of the Southeast may not realize just how bad it is. Upland birds in affected regions have to be suffering to some extent. Just a quick update on Kansas, first with what we previously reported: > Western Kansas has one of the […]

August 2, 2011 | By | Reply More
Alberta Pheasants May Vanish?

Alberta Pheasants May Vanish?

Upland birds aren’t getting much love in Alberta, Canada: “…pheasant hunting could become the exclusive purview of rich people hunting on private preserves, like European nobility.” Some folks think that’s an inevitability here in the States too – hopefully not. Anyhow, here’s the situation in Alberta, excerpted from here: > In a province hungry for […]

August 1, 2011 | By | Reply More