There is just some country that looks so good it makes me want to walk it with the Setters just for the experience. If it holds birds and we find them that's the reward. There's a couple of sections 12 miles north in some gentle rolling hills that fits that description. However there is no public access so I had to contact the landowner to make arrangements to hunt. I did that 3 years ago and every season I call to make sure we can still hunt. This area does hold both Sharptail and Pheasants while not in great abundance but being such a picturesque setting it's worth hunting to me.
There's alfalfa,wheat, and barley interspersed among the hills and valleys with some ridges that have steep points and bowls hidden from the wind that the Sharptail love. This farmer rotates his cattle so that the pastures are always left with plenty of cover having healthy stands of buffalo berries and cattails along the waterways.
I never take many birds here but every season shoot a few of both species mostly late season as it's pretty with a little snow cover over looking a lake to the east a few miles. This year on my scouting runs in July checking for how successful the hatch was I happened to see Sharptail along the road in this area so decided to hunt it earlier than normal. The amount of corn in the area this year though made the Sharptail hard to find anywhere else as they preferred the cover of the corn as a food source and relief from the intense heat we experienced all summer.
The Setters and I had made a trip up there last Saturday as we had located a nice covey earlier in the week without getting close to them and decided to try our luck on a day without as much wind. Upon arriving I noticed there was 80 acres of corn that was now picked on the southeast edge of the section so we started in the pasture adjacent to it betting the birds would be still close to the food source they'd most likely been living in all season for the most part.
After an hour we had moved a half a dozen birds without getting a point or a good shot so I opted to head back to the Jeep and circle around to the north hunting a ridge line I had watched a few birds head for. This was best a one dog run so I let Molly out and we headed for the ridge along a barley field which sloped sharply away to the north. Within a couple hundred yards a bird flushed wild off the top of a point and I shot and missed. Molly was working nicely up and down the sides within close range and after becoming birdy around one of the bowl formations another bird flushed straight away which I also missed having only a quick window of opportunity before it vanished over the hill.
As I walked to the top of the ridge I saw a man coming towards us directly in the path in which I had just shot. My first thought was this guy almost just got himself shot! His green pickup was parked along the fence line. With an "orange" Cabellas hunting vest and a "big" hunting knife hanging off his belt walking up to me as I was hunting I knew what this was about. His question as he approached was " Can you tell me what you're doing on this land?" I said well I've got permission from the owner and stated his name. The gentleman then told me he was a cousin and had been given permission to post the property. I stated again that I had just talked to the landowner earlier in the week. It was obvious he was upset that I was there and I assured him that I had plenty of places to hunt and did not plan on causing him any distress. But he went on to complain about the neighbors ruining his hunting in one way or another and let me know this used to be his fathers farm but was sold years ago and he now had no where else to hunt as he lives in Mandan 80 miles to the west coming here on weekends with his friends. Also known as "Gang Hunting". And also knowing there are endless public and private land hunting opportunities between here and there I listened while he went on and on about the history of the area and complaining about various other things.
I didn't want to spend any more time with this guy so asked if it was all right if I completed my run and he said sure if my cousin gave you permission go ahead but then repeated that he was here every weekend blah blah blah. So Molly and I moved on and within just a few minutes on the other side of the hill I had shot our first Sharptail of the morning for her which she proudly retrieved.
While I did certainly have permission to be hunting there I was trespassing in his mind and this type of interaction is exactly why I like to hunt public access land. There then is no disputing who has permission to hunt where and when. No contacting the landowner. No looking over your shoulder every time a truck drives by. And no misunderstandings with relatives. I will still hunt this area occasionally but during the week so as to not upset the balance so to speak! It's still a beautiful setting and worth the walk even if I'm" Trespassing Sort Of".
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