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I am looking for some advise on where to go for Sharptails and Huns. I would like to plan a trip and don't want to fight the crowds of Pheasant hunters. I would like to hunt some lonley desolate place where nobody wants to go. Maybe a should hunt Chukers or something else. Any advise would be a big help. My first thought was North Dakota could mix in some ducks.

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

How about N Dakota and mix in some pheasants? Very Happy

Get that knee rehabed and your in. But as I understand Prairie Grouse require miles of walking between birds. Thats what appeals to me I love to test myself and feel that sense of earning the birds you bag. Plus I'm so used to the tight close quaters of my Ruffed Grouse covers I'd like to actually watch my dog run and hunt. When we are gouse hunting I just see bits and pieces of his work. He never slams a nice point where I can see it all unfold. Don't get me wrong I'd shoot a couple wild roosters but would prefer to target the open grassland birds. I think the whole deal will make me love the great Ruffed Grouse hunting I have even more. The Stories of lonley wind swept prairies and Bird dogs working old farmsteads and the lack of people appeal to me. A beer and some wiskey at the end of a long day with a dusty throat also appeals to me.

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

Wow, I think you just excited me with that writing. Smile

I start working on the knee tomorrow morning at 8:30. Then 3X a week for 3 weeks. Rolling Eyes

I know when I hunted pheasants in Kansas there were in wide open rolling fields. In fact if your dog had a habit of hunting way out in front, you could actually lose sight of him out there. Very Happy

Joined: 07 Jul 2005 Posts: 23

MT, SD, WY and NE all have huntable population of Sharpie and chicken with some Huns to boot, but the best Huns I got into be in Canada.
As for where to go, most of outstanding hunting I've encountered are all on private land. Like you, I enjoy the dog work and you need lots of dog power to pull it off, the big running dogs are favorable, we can burn through a string of 12~16 dogs in matter of a week of hunting …on foot.

Here is a picture of the country where we chase Sharpies; the patch of crop you see in the picture is 8 mile strip of sunflower. The hills near the horizon are about 15 mils from where I’m standing.

I may have spoken too soon I don't have that kind of dog power.Me and a very fit Pudelpointer but he probably won't hunt more than 150 yards from me. Don't think I can come up with a dozen dogs.

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

I've got 2. Very Happy

I don't think our 3 bearded dogs can run 45 miles a day for 5 or 6 days. But then again if we can drag our butts 15 miles per day maybe the dogs can too. Its all about pace but we won't cover the ground those big runners do.

Lots of options in the Nebraska Sand Hills
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Nebraska+Sandhills+hunting&btnG=Google+Search

Don't know about "lonely and desolate" But Jersey springs to mind as a place nobody would want to go.

Speaking of jersey. Girly boy(whaaaa my knee hurts), don't forget the old man picked up that Winnabago, and is babbling about a west trip. You'd have to put the 1 pit in a carrier on the hitch or in the towed 4x4. Be comfortable for the flightaphobic.

You send your mone for the end of th emonth?

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 787 Location: Indiana

I did the kind of mixed bag hunting that an early poster described, back in 1998 near the very small town of Binford, North Dakota. A hard-nosed friend of mine and I hunted sharptails, Hungarian partridge, ducks and about four different kinds of geese near there and up near International Peace Gardens; Bottineau ND. We had a hard-hunting Golden retriever that would retrieve anything and, I guarantee you, that trip wore us all out---dog included. The dog got skunked once and we washed him in tomato juice; he fought with a huge farm cat and generally had a helluva fine time. So did we: for the 4 1/2 days we hunted we shot 38 ducks, 11 geese, 5 sharptails and 7 Hungarian partridge in some of the most wild and desolate but beautiful prairie country I have ever hunted in.

The farmers and townspeople we encountered were some of the most open and friendly I've ever met. The world was reduced to the basics: Earth, sky and water---buildings or lights at night were rarely seen.... We hunted on a farm belonging to the father of my friend's college roommate. Charge for hunting, lodging and several meals? ZERO. The memories? PRICELESS; I'm ready to return.....shot so many ducks, we were sick of cleaning them....

Member Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 128 Location: NE

this is a good place for information on public land prairie chicken or sharptail hunting in Nebraska. Nebraska Game And Parks Commission. It lists close to 300,000 acres of state and federal land that is open to hunting. (slightly less than ted turner owns here)
The early season can be beautiful weather or just plain damn hot dry and dusty. Most of the people I know that hunt chickens don't take their dogs. About the only time chickens will hold for a point is very early in the season, (and how does a dog point a flock of a hundred birds scattered over a half acre anyway? Oh, they are not going to hold but it may take two minutes for them all to take off) Later on, the damn things are going to flush way out there most of the time so a flusher isn't needed. They fold pretty easy when hit well and are usually easy to walk over and pick up, if not hit well, they can set their wings and glide for a mile or more so you better have a good retriever if you are sending him after one of those.
If you do go on a Nebraska sandhills chicken hunt, and have never been out here before, do yourself a favor and bring a gps not a compass. When everything looks exactly the same - miles and miles of rolling sand dunes covered with tan grass and yucca and prickly pear, no roads, no power lines no landmarks of any sort, nothing to orient yourself by, a compass don't do squat unless you are watching it all the time.
For those wanting to check it out, I would recommend Cherry county, you can stay in Valentine or camp and hunt around Merrit Reservoir 6,000 acres, or Mckelvie Forest 115,000 acres, The Valentine NWR is 70,000 acres - non-tox only.
Another good area is south of that, in Thomas county near the middle of the state. The Bessey Division of the Nebraska National Forest the forest only takes up a fraction of the 90,000 acres, plan on camping there. Or if you want to see the real wild west, you can go out to the northern panhandle and tromp around in the footsteps of Crazy horse, Sitting Bull and the US Cavalry at Ft. Robinson 21,000 acres and the Oglala National grasslands 94,000 acres.

berg

Berg,

Good info. As a new resident of northern Colorado, I plan to hit the sandhills as much as possible. Between the sandhills and parts of SE Wyoming, I should be able to fire at a couple of birds.

Kevin