Longtime friend, Gary Quincy picked me up Thursday in Kingston after he had already traveled from his home in Orlando. We made it to his mother’s home place in Friend, Nebraska 16 hours later. After a quick check on the home place and a little break we were back on the road to the eastern side of the sand hills where we planned to start our hunting. We have hunted this area since graduating high school, making some good friends along the way. Ranchers Dean and Jane Heiden allowed us to hunt their property and even have allowed us to stay in their hunting cabin over the last 30 plus years. Dean is an avid sportsman harvesting some of the largest whitetails and mule deer I have seen. Over the years he has repeatedly explained to me the difference between ranching and farming. Someday I hope to repay his hospitality with a Tennessee fishing trip. Their son-in-law Rancher Doug Pokorny has hunted with Gary several times over the past years and recommended we join him on a Canada goose hunt that afternoon.
We unloaded our supplies and got our hunting gear together, meeting Doug to help with the portable blind that resembles a large round hay bail on a trailer with removable wheels. We drove to some land owned by a large feed lot that Doug had permission to hunt and set the blind and decoys up. Doug moved the truck off about a half mile and returned ready to hunt. Within an hour the geese started to filter from surrounding pounds in search of food. By dark we had one short of a limit of three apiece and also seen thousands of ducks feeding in the corn field.
Saturday was opening day of pheasant season. We had plan to hunt another one of Gary’s moms partials of land with Doug and Todd Milner, Gary’s high school friend who lives in Veil, Colorado. Todd was going to join us for some of our trip. The opening morning went well and by lunch we needed 3 more birds for a limit. We ran into town and ate and returned, finishing up within an hour. Even though the state wide pheasant numbers where down we still managed a great hunt.
The next morning we decided to try our luck on ducks in the area that we had goose hunted. Setting up the blind and decoys, we were pleased to see several flocks returning to the field to feed at first light. The strong wind made the birds work the decoy spread well. But also helped them get out of range quickly. By 10 o’clock the ducks had returned to the ponds to spend the day. So we finished our hunt with several mallards and a few pintails. We cleaned up and met our friends and their families at a local diner for supper. After eating we visited and planned the next day’s hunt.
The next morning we returned to Gary’s mother place to hunt pheasant again. We limited out again. We returned to the diner for lunch and we stopped by a community center to try to give away some of the ducks that we had killed. By law we were not to have over a two day possession limit. They took all we had cleaned and would remember this in the future. We returned to the area near the hunting cabin to scout for ducks on some of the marshes. Thousands of ducks returned to the marsh well after shooting hours. That evening the Pokorny’s invited us over for a great supper. Until then we had mostly eaten cold sandwiches and energy bars.
This morning we pheasant hunted close to the cabin on some land that we had always done well on over the past 20 plus years. It was damp and cold, and started out slow and then Gary’s dog started getting some good points and we had our limit before long. Todd returned home and was going to catch up with us in Idaho on the second part of our hunt.
The next day we set up near the marsh that we had scouted two nights earlier. At daylight ducks started flying around the marsh, giving us plenty of opportunity to shoot. We left with a mixed bag of redheads, mallards, and teal. We met Doug mid-morning after his chores, for our final pheasant hunt on some of Doug’s property. We came close to limiting out and jumped a large buck that Doug thought he and his wife Brandi would hunt later during deer season. Brandi is also an avid hunter harvesting several giant Whitetails. Several evenings during our visit, she took her two daughters Tally and Gracie and son Ryder to the deer blind to scout for the next trophy on the upcoming season or the chance for a turkey.
We left for Idaho at 5:30 am Thursday and drove through the rest of Nebraska and all of Wyoming, where we saw a few elk and lots of antelope from the road. The mid part of Wyoming was suffering from a blizzard and several trucks with campers did not fare well, lying on their side with their belongings skewed over the highway. We got to our hotel in south east Idaho and met back up with Todd.
Friday morning we drove to an area that Todd had done some research on and recommended it for ruffed grouse. By noon we were short one grouse for a limit and Todd showed up after having a little trouble with his slide in camper and the hotels roof. The camper’s air condition did not favor well. Todd and Gary made another walk to finish up Gary’s limit and Todd also bagged a few birds. We knew we had a long drive to our net destination so we left early.
Saturday morning we meet up with Todd friend Jim Peters from Boise, Idaho. We went by the forestry department to pick up a key to gate of an area that we were to hunt chuckers. The ranger was helpful since most of us had never hunted wild chuckers before. The key was altitude and rim rock, both making for a difficult hunt. You seem to be caught out of breath or on lose footing or both every time a bird flushed. After a hard day of hunting we ended up with about a dozen birds between the four of us.
Sunday we had a key to a new area, and were sure we had them figured out. Doug and Jim started out high and Gary and I hike up from the base of the mountain. It took about 2 hours to reach the ream rock and about 30 minute to catch my breath. It was so steep that I felt a little light headed when looking off the mountain. We did pretty well on the birds but I tired quickly. By the time we reached the car around dark we had knock down about 10 birds finding eight of them. All the time I was wondering how we keep from falling or twisting an ankle. We almost made it through the hunt without an injury until crossing a creek by the car. Gary fell, breaking his index finger. Todd and Jim had a few chuckers and a couple Hungarian partridge with no injuries.
That evening we returned to Jim’s home, where his wife prepared a wonderful dinner for us. The evening was short and we all turned in early because of the previous days of chucker hunting. Not long after entering Todd’s camper we were both a sleep.
The last two days we were to hunt California quail along the Snake River outside Boise with Jim and his friend Steve Boren. Steve was an avid quail hunter and was to join us on the first hunt around 10:00 am. The area was amazing with the duck infested Snake River winding around his property while rock pillars jetted out of the surrounding prairie. There were more quail than I had ever seen. There were so many the dogs stayed confused by all the scent. The birds ran and jumped flying just a few yards before landing followed by more running. We ended up pushing then with the dogs toward designated shooters and this method work well. Everyone got several birds or the chance to shoot at them. Steve’s enthusiasm and the amount of birds made for a hunt of a life time. The next day I was to get on the plane in Boise after a morning hunt. We had another great quail hunt and made it to the airport on time. I left my friend Gary and his dog to hunt their way back across the state of Idaho were he got into some Hungarian partridges and some more ruffed grouse before heading back to Nebraska for a few more pheasants.
Todd and Jim continued their hunt in Oregon were they hunted more chuckers and Hungarian partridges. They called letting us know that the terrain was much forgiving and there were lots of birds. Gary and I think this was a ploy trying to convince us on going on another trip in the future. It never takes much convincing.
Take someone hunting, Greg
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