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Had an amazing pheasant opener. Good dog work and good company. Public land was packed down in SW Minnesota. Having only gotten 1 bird in the morning walk, we were losing hope. Thankfully our luck changed and we managed to bag our birds in the later part of the afternoon.
A great start to the 2023 waterfowl opener. Lots of teal!
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Join me tomorrow on KFAN FM 100.3 as I talk bird hunting and my journey to being an adult onset hunter! 7-9pm!
Check out my recipe for wild pheasant red curry! You won’t be disappointed!
Join me for this awesome event! I’ll be speaking all 3 days on stage at the path to upland stage talking about my “journey to the upland hunting community”
Did you know I had my first radio interview 5 years ago?!? And with Bob FM. Their invitation then kicked off my media journey in the hunting space.
Come have a listen as I sit down with them this evening to chat about what’s happened since our chat 5 years ago, and some late season pheasant hunting tips.
The4outdoorsmen Mark Lewke
To become a hunter, it takes patience, learning, and a bit of luck. Pheasant hunting may look simple at a glance, but it requires a lot more effort than one may think. Especially on pressured public land. In my recent blog with Pheasants Forever, I tell you some late season tips for success.
What’s some of your tips for late season roosters?
Here are some of Keng Yang's tips for finding roosters in the mid-late season, to help you bring home a bag full of birds.
Nothing like walking up to your pup on point!
You’re probably wondering where all the duck pics are from this season 😄. Throwback to the duck opener, Matteo from reached out and asked if he could join me on a duck hunt. This being his first duck hunt ever, I gladly said yes. Showed him the grind and hustle it takes to be successful, and now he’s hooked. Remember to try and take a new hunter out this year!
Moments like these are hard to beat
Public land roosters are plenty this year, A great morning hunt in Iowa this past Saturday. first rooster. Glad he to got experience hunting over our dogs.
A cheap and effective way to remove that skunk smell in the field, only $6 total!
Calling turkeys may seem like a challenge, but by putting in practice and just having fun with it, it will improve your game tremendously. Don’t be afraid to call when hunting!
When I was hunting my bird. I let my friend Tou do some purring for me. His first time with the slate call. I showed him once on how to hold the call and what purring sounded like and he was able get the Tom in the last few yards.
I like to start out with a slate call then moved onto a mouth call when I was efficient with the slate.
What’s your favorite turkey call and why?
Boss Tom with hooks sharp enough to cut you. They have to be sharpening these some how. Tou’s bird with 1 1/2 inch spurs.
4 years! Thats how long it has taken for me to get my first MN Tom. Sacrificing my time and energy to helping my friends and others get their toms first over the past years has finally been rewarded.
My buddy Tou and I set out for an evening after work. After setting up on public land for 30 minutes and not hearing anything I decided to move to the next spot. We drive by another piece of public land and notice a Tom hanging out on private land nearby.
We quickly park the car and set up on an opening on public land. A quick yelp and the Tom responds. Within 5 min the Tom pokes his head out then drifts back into the woods where he continues to gobble his head off. I then pull every call out my pocket and really got him fired up with crazy clucks. He returns back strutting and stopping at 40 yards. Tou pulls out the slate and purrs pulling the bird into 30 yards where I dropped him.
A thrilling quick hunt that I’ll remember forever!
Red white and blue
The average person may not even notice all the colors on a turkey. I always take a few minutes to look at every part of the animal from its head down to its spurs. What looks like a large black bird in the binoculars is actually full of color. it’s iridescent brown and green feathers and white and black wing tips broken from carving the ground. There is such a huge appreciation for the anatomy of these birds that any anomalies are treasured.
As hunters we are blessed with this opportunity of closer observation which gives us a better appreciation for the game we take. What are some things on a turkey that stand out most to you?…
Side note: I heard it’s custom to cut off the snood and take it with a shot of whiskey, have you tried this? 😄
As easy as it gets…..
This turkey season I also took out my hunting buddy Tou on his first turkey hunt. He was hesitant to go just like me on my first turkey hunt, because you can’t hunt with your dog. Which is one of the main reasons we both love to hunt and why we both stick to upland and waterfowl.
Well I somehow convince him and we both bought our tags for B season. With no scouting or roosting birds prior to our hunt, I put us on a public land spot that I’ve seen turkeys hang out around last year.
We hike in our gear and blind and after we finish setting up 5 minutes before shooting time, we hear a Tom gobbling his heart out right behind us. 10 mins into shooting time and we spot him strutting right at our decoys from behind us. Tou takes one shot at the bird from 10 yards and drops it. A thrilling and quick hunt that we will remember forever. Huge public land Tom!
Day of the hunt…
We walk in early morning through the cover of darkness to set up before shooting time. As we wait for turkeys a couple deer pop out of the woods. They smell us and book it along the tree line and turn right into the trail opening I highlighted in the previous post. This assured me that this trail was being used still.
We wait an hour and got bored so we decided to check what’s on the huge private land field to the SE of us. We see a Tom walk down the edge about 300 yards away. We immediately start walking back to our blind and when we settle back in, here pops out the Tom on the trail. Boy did this bird cover some ground in a short time. A couple yelps but he doesn’t like what he sees and steps back into the forest.
I record the time we see the Tom, around 7:30am and we head back to the lodge to try again tomorrow. The next day we set up our decoys and blind closer to the edge of the public land. You can see in the picture that there are young pine rows still growing, so I made sure that the placement of decoys were in the most open areas.
Like clock work, here comes a hen and 2 Jake’s out the trail at 7:00am. Turkeys are a creature of habit and you can pattern them pretty easily. Right behind the group was the Tom. He sees our decoys and struts in to 30yards where Jack takes one shot, dropping the bird by our decoy.
Setting the stage….
I hope this info helps any new turkey hunters reading this. When I was invited to mentor the turkey hunt, Mark from said we would be hunting in Brainerd, MN. A place I’ve never hunted before.
I usually hunt the bluffs in SE Minnesota or AG fields with pockets of trees. So the north central area was completely new to me. First thing I did leading up to the hunt was open Onx and started looking for open field edges on public land. With the wind and constant rain all weekend, I knew the birds would be hiding away in the big timber.
I settled on a spot with a small field opening between two huge pieces of timber. On closer look I noticed a deer trail running in between. So that’s where we set up. In the first picture, I highlighted the trail opening on the private property, the second picture we sat up where the pin is at the top of the deer trail. My thought was, they would come out from the private property and cross over towards us.
Deer and turkey share the same habitat and I knew if there were deer there would be turkeys. Did I hear any gobbles or see turkey signs when I scouted the area? No, but sometimes you just gotta hunt and learn from what you see and hear. Like I mentioned in my previous post. We just happened to luck out. Pt.2 next post.
This past weekend I was invited by and to be a mentor for university students looking to learn how to turkey hunt for the first time. I can gladly say that with a lot of luck, I was able to help put my mentee on his first turkey Tom.
I had a blast at this work shop, meeting new people who share the same passion and enthusiasm for the outdoors like I do. Hoping we get another event like this next year so that I can help mentor another new hunter 🙌🏻
New hunters and old alike, please join myself and Modern Carnivore for this free webinar on learning how to waterfowl hunt.
Feel free to ask questions below so I can try and answer them during the webinar.
Hope you can attend 🙂
Are you curious about hunting ducks and geese, but aren't sure where to start? Click below and register for FREE to attend the upcoming webinar series made possible through the generous support of Safari Club International Foundation. It starts next Wednesday and promises to be informative and fun. The series will be hosted by Mark Norquist and we have guests like Keng Yang, Leigh Neitzel and others scheduled to take part in the sessions. Register for FREE today: https://modcarn.com/waterfowl-webinar-series/
Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours. Today I am thankful for my supportive family, friends and YOU! Kaiya and I have had an incredible year and we aren’t stopping here. Thank you all for being a part of our journey in the hunting world. Cheers to such an incredible community.
-Minnesota Hunter
My heart ❤️ in one picture…….the first snow hunt of the season makes hunting easy. You gotta get out before the birds understand what snow is and start to run and flush again. 😉
Can’t stop, won’t stop chasing these beautiful birds.
So what went wrong? First of all, not sure why Kaiya didn’t point, the bird was literally right under her nose 🤪. Second I wasn’t able to shoulder my gun correctly. Lastly I didn’t swing the gun in front of the bird. All these decisions must be made within seconds of the bird flushing.
Wild birds can be so challenging to chase and hunt down, this is why I love chasing roosters.
The only good footage I’ve gotten so far from a pheasant hunt this past weekend. Always a thrill when your dog points and a fat rooster pops up out of seemingly no where. The bird almost got away 😄
Drive and power; another great weekend of pheasant hunting. Plenty of birds around still for some public land limit.
We are headed to Iowa next weekend for Iowa’s pheasant opener and can’t wait!
Many sloughs are non existent this year, that doesn’t mean you still can’t find good duck hunting. and I on a public piece near the cities. Turns out this spot is a great shallow haven for ducks.
Remember that when you are scouting, always keep an eye out for that shimmer on the waters surface. I could of easily missed this spot. Thankfully I didn’t, it’s turned into a great woody honey hole.
Ended our weekend opener hunt with a limit of roosters on Sunday morning. This was the quickest and most productive hunt I think I’ve had in Minnesota.
We just happened to be at the right spot at the right time, it also helped that all the crops were pretty much already cut in the area we hunted.
How did your MN pheasant opener go?
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Nothing like walking up to your pup on point!
Moments like these are hard to beat
A cheap and effective way to remove that skunk smell in the field, only $6 total!
The best skunk removal formula to have in your day bag. For less than $6!
So what went wrong? First of all, not sure why Kaiya didn’t point, the bird was literally right under her nose 🤪. Second I wasn’t able to shoulder my gun correctly. Lastly I didn’t swing the gun in front of the bird. All these decisions must be made within seconds of the bird flushing. Wild birds can be so challenging to chase and hunt down, this is why I love chasing roosters.
The only good footage I’ve gotten so far from a pheasant hunt this past weekend. Always a thrill when your dog points and a fat rooster pops up out of seemingly no where. The bird almost got away 😄
A new recipe I thought I’d put together with some Fleet Farm seasoning and sauces. Give it a try! *full recipe on my website next week* . . . #ad #minnesotahunter #fleetfarm
Our hunting season is coming up! Excited to share with you guys all the recipes I’ll making this year. Enjoy these springs rolls!
Had a great dinner and even greater conversations with friends. Credits to the chef Tony Jones for the invitation to his home and for cooking us this excellent meal. Modern Carnivore . Also thanks to @simon_tiedge for the app, my first time having pheasant rillettes.
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