CRP Signup Time

By Doug Leier
Whether we like it or not, it’s part of human nature to take for granted things that become part of our lives or benefit us over the long term. The only way we can truly appreciate the value of what we have, is to have less of it.
In the outdoor world, the U.S. [...]

Looking to Fall in ND

By Doug Leier
With the Vikings into training camp, regardless of who plays quarterback for the Purple this fall, most experts agree it should be a good season. The same goes for North Dakota’s primary gamebird species this fall.
That said, there’s no guarantee and we really won’t know until hunters or football players take the field. [...]

Hunting Sage Grouse

By Doug Leier

While it won’t become official until the annual small game hunting proclamation is finalized later this month, it’s a certainty that North Dakota will not have a sage grouse season again this fall. This will mark the third year in a row that the state has not had an open season [...]

All in the Stats

By Doug Leier
I’ve always been intrigued by numbers and the dynamics of statistics. While the numbers themselves, if they are accurate, are more or less facts, the factors contributing to those final statistics are where the real fun comes in.
Consider, for instance, last fall’s deer and pheasant harvest numbers. When the North Dakota Game and [...]

Late Season Pheasant Hunting

By Doug Leier
Growing up as a kid in the 1980s, across the prairie from Williston to LaMoure and Valley City, December was a time of transition in our house. After the close of regular deer rifle season, the collection of my Dad’s gear in the “ready” position shifted from primarily hunting, to a mix of [...]

How to Pheasant Hunt Late Season Roosters in SD

By PJ Maguire
I  have said it before, and I will say it again. When there is snow on the ground and the sloughs are frozen, that is the best time of the year to hunt pheasants. This year we have had snow and freezing temps across the Midwest during a good part of pheasant season. [...]

PLOTS

By Doug Leier
We’re building on a generation of hunters who grew up with the Conservation Reserve Program. Just about half of that generation has never known a North Dakota landscape that did not have at least a few fields marked with a triangular yellow Private Land Open to Sportsmen or PLOTS sign encouraging walk-in hunting [...]

Late Season Roosters

By Doug Leier
For those of us who like to spend as much time as possible on the outside of the window, October is a sort of early Christmas present. Hunting seasons for just about everything are open, and fall fishing can be just as hot as summer, but without humidity and mosquitoes.
While crunching across the [...]

South Dakota Pheasant Hunting

By PJ Maguire
My dad said that last weekend was probably the coldest weather he had ever experienced in the field. Even with all the advancements in cold weather clothing, the Midwest winter chill can get you.. These days my dad owns warmer clothing and knows how to dress for the elements. The Friday was the [...]

Hunting Pheasants – Fried Pheasant Recipe

By Doug Leier
When I look back over pictures of may dad and I hunting pheasants in the 1980s, it’s not hard to see from the old prints how special these birds were. In this age of taking thousands of digital photos, even 25 years ago a couple of snap shots were usually reserved only for [...]

Sense of the Pheasant Season

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
The day is finally here – pheasant opener. Many sportsmen have been counting down since about mid-July. And with good reason, it is a time in the field unlike any other. It is a circus of the senses and the experience is remembered not only by birds put in the bag, but through [...]

Classic Pheasant Recipes

By Nick Simonson
If pheasant opener left you with anything, it was most likely, birds in the freezer. The question is how one goes about eating them. No longer are hunters bound by the code of Cream of Mushroom soup and a crock pot. There are many exciting ways to prepare pheasant recipes and what follows [...]

Youth Pheasant Hunting

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson

 
“I love it when a plan comes together,” is a cult classic phrase said countless times by actor George Peppard in his role as John “Hannibal” Smith on the 1980s action-adventure series, The A-Team.
And who doesn’t? When the pieces fall into place for that perfect hunting or fishing trip, the experience makes countless [...]

Pheasant Facts to Fight the Fever

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
The countdown on my computer’s screen saver says it all: Nine Days, 18 Hours, 32 Minutes, 14 Seconds.
To help time lapse for you, that’s about sunrise on October 14, 2006 – The opening moment of pheasant season. I expect to find myself walking the five-row shelterbelt west of the Simonson farmstead near Watford [...]

The Value of a Safe Hunt

By Doug Leier
Pheasants are plentiful this fall across the prairie. Deer numbers, too, provide plenty of incentive to get out and enjoy what we may someday refer to as “the good old days.”
I’m not going to apologize for appreciating the hunting opportunities that should be available this fall of 2006.
While game populations largely depend on [...]

Kicking Off the Partridge & Grouse Hunting Season

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
“I can’t wait for pheasant season,” my buddy commented as he boated his twelfth 10-inch walleye of the evening. “I can,” I replied as I swept the hook into another of the lake’s small denizens. “What I used to consider the preseason is now the regular season,” I stated as I slipped my [...]

Pheasant Numbers Looking Up

By Doug Leier
August brings with it an array of predictions and prognostications for the upcoming hunting seasons. It’s not much different than gauging the outlook for your local high school or college football team, or trying to guess how well the Vikings will play.
It’s a process of reviewing last year’s results, mixing in changes over [...]

Get Fit for Upland Hunting

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson

 
Safety in the field goes beyond hunter’s education, being aware of your surroundings and knowing your target and what lies beyond it. Personal physical well-being in the field is usually an afterthought, and when it is addressed, it is usually too late.
The early upland seasons are a walking hunter’s re-introduction to the stress [...]

Wiley Winter Roosters

By Nick Simonson
I’ve never seen such wild roosters in my life. Between the games of family poker, the opening of stockings, and Christmas dinner there was holiday hunting, although it was more like a track meet with shotguns.
Closing the door on the pickup truck caused the end of the tree row, nearly one hundred yards [...]

Pheasant Hunting Thourgh CRP

By Doug Leier
By now I hope most hunters understand the connection between North Dakota’s continued strong pheasant population and the state’s 3.4 million acres of Conservation Reserve Program lands.
But if not, here’s a short refresher on what can happen when you take marginal cropland out of production and plant it to grass.
In each of the [...]

Late Season Pheasant Hunting

By Doug Leier
Hunting season doesn’t end with the close of deer gun season. In fact, for some hunters the fun is just beginning.
While traditional pheasant hunting images resonate strongly with a warm October sun and a crisp morning walk with dew-soaked boots, don’t think for a minute that December pheasant hunting is reserved exclusively for [...]

Fast & Easy Pheasant Cleaning Tips

By Gary Simonson

This is a pheasant cleaning tip for anyone out there looking to get the most out of the birds they harvest. Give it a try and post up the results in the recipe forum!
Completely skin the bird leaving on the head. Do not gut. Please note these photos were taken at home, if [...]

Public Land Roosters

By PJ McQuire
“I could have shot that one.” said UND student Nick Anderson, as a Mallard flew over us at the break of dawn, the skyline pink in the East.
At that moment there were nine of us sitting on a gravel road just south of Bismarck moments away from the 2004 pheasant season. Ahead of [...]

The Prairie Dancers

By Doug Leier
I  like the emergence of spring on the prairie to an annual visit to Yellowstone National Park – spread over the span of a month.
It starts with the arrival of giant Canada geese, already paired off and ready to start nesting when ice and snow are nearly gone. Canada geese are a sure [...]

Pheasant Recipes

Here’s some favorite pheasant recipes of ours.
Baked Pheasant Recipe :

1 can (10.75-oz) cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup Apple cider
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp. Salt
1/3 cup Chopped onion
1 Clove (small) garlic, minced
1 can (4-oz) sliced mushrooms, drained
2 Pheasants
Paprika

Blend all ingredients except pheasants and paprika. Pour over pheasants and sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350, covered, for [...]

The Importance of the CRP Program

By Robert A. Langager
 

 I grew up in Fargo, ND and Marshall, in southwestern MN. I have spent many autumns chasing waterfowl in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of MN, ND, and SD. I currently reside in Durham, NC and attend North Carolina State University and am pursuing degrees in Watershed Hydrology and Wetlands Assessment. I [...]

Pheasant Hunting Tips – Pheasant Hunting in a Hurricane?

By Perry Thorvig
If you know me, you probably think this article is going to be about hunting around Hurricane Lake in Pierce County. Or, it has something to do with chasing Hurricanes in Florida, Well, it’s not about either of those topics. But, it is about a hurricane. Do you believe in hurricanes in North [...]

Late Season Pheasant Hunting

By Jason Phillips
Although the days of tight holding roosters may be behind us, there are still some opportunities for avid upland game hunters. The young of the year birds are now well educated on how to elude hunters and the wily “old” roosters continue to demonstrate how they became old. To this point it has [...]

One Too Many

By Perry Thorvig
Man, I was bushed!! I slid onto a bar stool at Bismarck’s Comfort Inn north of I-94 and ordered a tall brew. The frothy suds went down smoothly and began to quench a mighty thirst. I was well into my second brew when a rather odd looking old character hopped on the stool [...]

Old Farm Creek

By Jason Phillips
As the heat of summer is in our midst, crisp fall mornings seem only a distant memory. Now is a great time to reflect on great autumn outdoor memories of years past and look forward to the upcoming season. My mind often drifts to my first hunt. It was a crisp autumn morning [...]