Today is a bit depressing for yours truly. If things had gone as planned, I would be leaving Kearny, NE about now headed for Pierre, SD for what has become an annual pilgrimage to worship at the shrine of the pheasant rooster. But, as some sage said a long time ago, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.

The plan was to leave home about 0700 hours yesterday and drive to Kearny, then head on out of there the next morning, which would be today, and meet up with six other guys to walk the fields and thick draws on a 14,000 acre farm which belongs to a friend of mine in Highmore, SD. For five days we would shoot prairie dogs in the morning hours, then at noon, put down the rifles and chase the pheasants til all of us were limited out. If we did real good, and there was sunlight left, we would case the shotguns and go back to the prairie dogs, and maybe even get a shot at a coyote or two.

Evenings would be spent dining in one of the local establishments, the meal accompanied by some adult beverages, while stories of good shots, and bad shots, were recounted. Perhaps they might even be embellished…just a bit. This motley group was to include two gentlemen from California, one from Colorado, two from Kentucky, and one from North Carolina. Of course I was to be there, along with my hunting partner from here. The diversity of the group is what makes it really fun. One guy is a truck driver, one owns a gun shop and farms, another is a Major in the Army, recently returned from his second tour in Iraq, two in construction, one works for an airline, and the last owns a real estate company.

The reason that I bring up all these different occupations is to point out the common passion all of us have for hunting and the shooting sports. When it is all boiled down to it’s bare essence, all of us love the thrill of the hunt, and the shared experience of eight guys who don’t get a chance to see each other on a regular basis. And all of us love to hunt and shoot!!! Some are just better shots than others, but when you are having fun, are in good company, who cares?

Central South Dakota is a very different place than I am used to. Northwest Louisiana is a veritable pine forest, mixed with some hardwoods, and of course the mandatory large cleared areas that are typically planted with soy beans, corn, or cotton.
On the other hand, central South Dakota is a vast area of rolling hills that has almost no trees, and the corn and millet fields seem to go on forever. When you do find trees there, you also find a farm house. And where there are trees, or thick cover you find pheasants! And deer, both white tails and mule deer.

For those who have not been there, imagine a corn field. A large one. Now imagine 1200 acres of nothing but corn. Or millet. Or sun flowers. Or a cut corn field where they have harvested 90% of it, where they leave maybe eight rows of corn standing and it’s 75 yds to the next eight rows of standing corn. And the rows are a half mile long, or longer. Same with the millet or sunflowers.

Pheasants hate to be in the open. They really hate it, so when we do a push, we pick a field we can push and have blockers on the other end. The pheasants run through the cover in front of the pushers, and take to wing when they get to the end of the cover not wanting to run in the open. The pushers get a few shots, but the ones blocking get the real fun as pheasants flush in two’s and three’s, sometimes more. Now I’m sure you have seen the shows on television where three guys are out with a pointer or setter and they get to watch the dog work and they flush a bird and have at it. It can get like that, later in the season, but the first weekend, birds that are pushed and blocked come out of the cover like a large covey of quail on the rise. The noise they make starts the adrenaline flowing, and for two or three minutes the shooting is unbelievable, with each blocker having to reload at least twice, sometimes more.

On the first push last year, four of us walking a thick draw with lots of tall, thick grass, I had just loaded my shotgun and closed it while walking. After going less than 30 feet, a mule deer doe and fawn busted out of the grass and bounded off across a recently cut corn field. Startled at first, I watched as they ran away, then heard the unmistakeable cackle of a rooster as he took to flight. It was right in front of me, and reflexively I shouldered and fired, dropping the rooster about 40 feet in front of me. Not a bad way to start the season, especially from my point of view. Less than two hours after we started all of us had our limit of roosters….three each.

I’m going to be in serious withdrawal about not being able to make it this year, but armed with the memories of last year, and the year before, I’ll make it through this funk, spurred on by hopes for next year. My reservations are already in place for next year, and everyone else that hunts in that group are experiencing the same emotions I’m feeling now. But as one, they have already started making their plans for next year, too.

Hope everyone else’s hunt is a success.