The North Dakota Tradition

Every year, I make the trip to North Dakota for a long weekend of chasing Pheasants, Huns, and Sharptail Grouse with a group of friends. This trip has become an annual tradition, one I look forward to with great enthusiasm. There’s something special about being out in the fields, watching the dogs work, and experiencing the thrill of the hunt in such a beautiful, remote part of the country.

The location is a small town in South Dakota named Lemmon. This is where we base our weekend hunting adventure, but the land we hunt on is actually on the North Dakota side of the border. Why North Dakota, you ask? Simply put, one of our friends has access to a good amount of private land across the border.

I was joined on this trip by my good friend Nathan from Wyoming and Ryan, a fellow Minnesotan and Kleine Munstrlander fanatic. While this was primarily a hunting trip, some of my favorite moments happened in the evenings after the day’s hunt - playing cards and sharing stories with great company.

Downtown Lemmon, South Dakota

The Hunt Begins

Day one was cold. The wind was howling, making it feel even colder than it already was. But that's part of the challenge and excitement of upland hunting. The first few hours of the hunt passed without much action. Upland hunting is often more walking than shooting. While I may only shoot 10 to 15 times a day, we’re often covering 8+ miles. A lighter gun makes a huge difference when you’re on your feet all day, and the light weight of the Gordion makes walking much easier.

After a few hours of walking with no birds, we decided to take a different approach. Using OnX, we searched other properties and found a tree line that we hoped was holding birds. Our hopes paid off when we saw birds flush from the trees. Nathan took a shot, and suddenly, birds were everywhere! This is where I was able to get my first bird in the bag. It was perfect. One rooster held tight a bit longer than the other birds and gave me a perfect right-to-left-crossing shot right in front of me once it got spooked. It was refreshing to get into some action! The Gordion mounted and swung perfectly as I landed a near-perfect shot on this nice rooster.

THEY'RE IN THE TREES!

The excitement continued when we targeted another tree row based on the success of the previous tree row. As Nathan and Ryan pushed through the trees, I waited patiently on the opposite side. This was a long row, but eventually, I could see Nathan and Ryan through the trees. As the birds flushed toward me, they were smart, and quickly made hard turns to get back under cover. But as the other guys approached, the birds had no option but to flush out on my end of the row. From a distance, we assumed that these were grouse, but as the birds swarmed out of the end of the row, it became very clear that these hundreds of birds were mainly pheasants. In all the chaos, I downed one pheasant and took a quick couple of shots at another. Birds continued to pile out as I reloaded, and once I was ready to get back into the action, the birds had made their escape.

New Day, New Challenges

The second day came with its own challenges. The birds weren’t in the trees, as we had expected, but we kept at it, adapting to the shifting conditions. The morning was slow, with more white-tail deer sightings than pheasants, but we didn’t give up. One of the aspects of hunting that truly excites me is the unpredictability. It keeps the adventure fresh, no matter the outcome.

As the day wore on, we started to get into more birds, though they weren’t grouped together in the large numbers we had seen the day before. Instead, they were scattered across the prairie, and it was a matter of working the cover and adjusting our strategy to find them. We didn’t hit as many as we’d hoped, but we got some great shots on Hungarian Partridge, which was an exciting bonus.

The Joy of the Hunt

What many non-hunters don’t understand is that hunting is so much more than just shooting. Yes, pulling the trigger and bringing down a bird is rewarding, but it’s the entire experience. Spending time in nature, working with the dogs, strategizing your hunt, and spending time with friends is what makes it all special. That’s why I love upland hunting. It’s the adventure, the challenge, and the memories that make every hunt challenge worth it.