During the late season, the weather can be down right nasty as I found out last week on a hunt we filmed near Watertown, S.D.

Over the last several years, a group of us back home in Watertown, S.D.  try to get together to do a pheasant hunt and this year; we just happened to pick a day where the weatherman predicted a temperature of -12 with a wind chill, a brisk  –21 degrees.

Well needless to say, because of the many things going on during this time of the year and the colder weather, we ended up with just 3 hunters on the first day of the hunt and four on the second.

Chuck Stone & John Wilson joined us on the first day with Chuck Stone, my cousin Joe Jipp and Larry Munger joining us on the second day.

With the cold temperatures, we didn’t get too excited about going out, hoping that it would warm up a bit, waiting until one o’clock before hunting our first field.

With the smaller group we were hunting with, we’d have to change our hunting tactics, hunting smaller patches then we had the year before when we hunted with a larger group.

We’d be hunting smaller grass strips, sloughs along with a few rows of unpicked corn.

On the first drive, since Chuck and I had dogs, we’d push through a slough towards a stock dam where John would be strategically waiting for those birds that ran ahead of us or flushed out the end.

As it often happens this time of the year, several birds blew out of the cover well out of range as we worked our way through the slough.

Fortunately for us, they only flew a short distance, dropping back into the four rows of snow packed unpicked corn we’d be hunting next.

The unpicked corn was a perfect place for the birds as they could burrow under the snow getting out of the weather and not far from their food source.

Shortly after we started our walk, one shot from John’s shotgun rang out, which is a good sign because when you hear one shot you can bet that the bird was down, as John doesn’t let many birds get by.

The birds that flew up in front of Chuck and I either flushed well out of range or were buried deep under the snow, until our dogs dug them out.

We ended up with four birds on our first walk and another out of a smaller slough on the east end of the field.  Not bad for three hunters out during the late season!

With the sun quickly disappearing in the west we hit a larger slough, hoping to pick up the last few birds of the day.

We followed the dogs as they worked through the slough, flushing several birds before the dog could get near them.

When my dog finally managed to corral a rooster, I was looking off to the north where I’d heard several shots in the direction that Chuck and John were hunting.

I franticly swung around, trying to catch up with the bird that was now airborne, as he desperately tried to put as much distance between himself and the dog.

My Escort 12 gauge barked twice as the bird careened through the trees and off into the next field.

The laughter from my cameraman and the goofy look from my dog told the whole story as I hadn’t touch a feather on the bird, but I did do an excellent job on a small tree and a bunch of reeds the rooster had came from.

The shooting I’d heard earlier was Chuck and John as the dog had flushed the first of four roosters as they approached the end of the slough.

The birds flushed in pairs with each hunter bagging two birds apiece, ending the first day of our hunt.

Our hunt on day two was very similar to our previous day as we hunted some several of the same areas, all of which were still holding birds.

If you’re still looking to do some pheasant hunting, there’s still some of the late season left, as the South Dakota pheasant season will run through January 3rd with the Nebraska season closing January 31st.

Late season hunting can be very productive, as you won’t have all the competition for hunting spots that you’d have during the early season.

The birds will be more concentrated, giving both the hunters and their dogs opportunities to hunt before the end of the season.

In the few hours that we hunted our group bagged seventeen birds, a bonus when hunting late season, as I feel the real benefit is the opportunity I had to spend time back home with friends and family.

Another color that can be seen everywhere this time of the year can be found on caps, shirts, dog collars, vests and even sport jackets. Its hunter’s orange, no matter where you’re at, you’re going to see it on just about everyone, everywhere, in convenience stores, restaurants, motels and of course in the fields.

Making our way north towards Pierre, hunter’s orange became much more “visible”, becoming the prominent color as we headed into some of the finest habitat to be found in the nation.

As we came closer to Pierre, the plantings for pheasants became more evident as numerous food plots, CRP plantings and tree plantings dotted the landscape.

The South Dakota Governor’s Invitational Pheasant Hunt is an annual event drawing people from throughout the U.S as well as over seas to the state.

This event brings business leaders, entrepreneurs, and state officials together to not only highlight the great pheasant hunting in the state but also to feature the many advantages of developing, moving or expanding a business in South Dakota.

My partner Larry Myhre of Sioux City, IA and I have been attending this event since the 80’s and have enjoyed not only the hunting, but also the many people we’ve met and we now consider good friends.

This year, I hunted with Team 29 on land owned by the Lyle & Mary Stewart family, located, just a short drive northeast of the state capital.  Our group would be hunting tree plantings, CRP and milo fields giving us ample opportunities to bag our limit.

Like much of the northern Great Plains states, most of the crops in South Dakota were still in the field, giving the birds thousands of acres of corn, beans and milo in which to hide.

On our first drive, we’d push through a CRP field bordered by tree plantings west towards our blockers, south and then east through milo fields.

Since we were hunting a pretty big field, we put plenty of dogs on the ground helping to push the birds up out of the grass as well as helping us to locate our downed birds.

A short distance into the trees, two birds made the fatal mistake, bursting from the heavier cover, both made it but not very far before plummeting to the ground.

One was retrieved quickly, while the other eluded the hunters and dogs in the tree line.

My lab, Mo, made a beeline in the direction where the bird had dropped to help look for it. Since there were several dogs already in that area I called him off.

As he came from the trees into the CRP field, he became “birdie”, hung a hard right, locking up on the wounded bird that had run out of the trees and buried itself in the grass waiting for our hunters to walk by, so it could make it’s escape.

As far as I’m concerned, hunting with a dog is a big part of the hunt as it’s a pleasure to watch them work and at times, they’ll retrieve others birds to you and by the time you get to the end of the field you could end up with a vest full of birds without firing a shot.

We divided the walking and blocking up evenly, taking turns at both giving everyone the opportunity to get into the birds. After one drive, several others and I loaded into a pickup along with our dogs as we headed to block the end of a Milo field.

Mo wasn’t about to quit hunting and as we headed down the road to block the end of the field, bailed out of the truck, heading back into the field to hunt with the hunters rather than ride.  Once he starts to hunt, he doesn’t want to quit and after the “spill” continued to hunt all day, showing no worse for wear.

Like much of the habitat found in South Dakota, the Stewart family farm contained excellent cover holding large numbers of birds, indicating that Lyle and his family had done an excellent job of providing habitat for wildlife.  In the short period of time that we hunted our team was able to bag 35 of the 1,000 plus birds that were bagged on this years hunt.

This is just one of the many events held in the state, highlighting all that South Dakota has to offer not only for vacationers, but for hunters and businessmen alike.

Once you’ve spent time in the state, it won’t take you long to realize why South Dakota is the state of Great Faces, Great Places!”

Last weekend, which was uncomfortably warm, we were out on the Grasslands south of Pierre hunting grouse.

It was down right hot as we covered a lot of ground trying to film a show and get a shot at a grouse or prairie chicken.

Half way through the walk, I had warmed up way beyond being comfortable and my dog Mo Jo had to be a whole lot warmer as he covered twice the ground that I had and did it while wearing a fur coat.

This time of the year, when hunters really need to be aware of how quickly a hunting dog can overheat.

Since dogs don’t sweat, the only way they can cool off is by panting, which isn’t a real effective way to disperse excess body heat.

Most hunting dogs love to hunt and will run until their wheels fall off, literally running until they drop from heat exhaustion.

A few years ago near Winner, S.D. hunters lost over dozen dogs from heat exhaustion.

I know what you’re thinking, how can anyone run a dog that hard, well it’s really not that simple as hunting dogs are trained to hunt and they’ll do it until the bitter end.

You can put water in front of one and if there’s something to hunt, he’ll hunt instead of drinking water.

This is why it’s vitally important to make sure your dog is hydrated, getting plenty of water and resting on a regular basis.

When I’m hunting during periods of hot weather, I always carry a squirt bottle of water in my hunting vest.

As we hunt, I’ll stop pretty regularly and give my dog a shot of water, which helps to keep him hydrated.

To help the dog cool off more quickly, I add Country Vet High Octane Dog Fuel to the water as it contains protein, carbohydrates and electrolytes that also help to reduce muscle fatigue.

I also like to sprinkle it over his dry dog food when I feed him before and after a hunt to help him recuperate more quickly after I’ve run him hard. This helps when we head back out the next day, as he’s not quite a stiff and a lot less tired.

Since dogs lap their water, it’s not the best way to get water to the dog, but it’s a whole lot better than no water at all.

Recently, I started carry a collapsible water dish in my hunting vest, which is made from Cordura with a flexible plastic line allowing my dog to drink as much as he needs when ever we stop to take a break.

In many of the areas we hunt there are stock dams or water tanks, when we’re near them, we always give our dogs a chance to slosh around in the water and drink their fill.

It’s a good idea to take your dog to the vet and have him checked over, checking for any problems the dog might have and making sure that your dogs vaccinations are all up to date.

Just to be on the safe side, I’ll take Mo Jo into the Cedar County Vet Clinic and have Erin or Ben check him over before pheasant season, that way, I won’t need to worry about him once we hit the field.

There are many states that you might be hunting in that require that hunting dog’s vaccinations, rabies etc. be up to date before you bring them into the state.

If your hunting dog is like mine, he’s more of a friend than a pet, so I don’t want to take any chances when it comes to hunting when it’s unseasonably warm out, so I’m going to take every precaution to make sure that we both have a safe and enjoyable hunting season.