joeniv's south dakota pheasant hunt season opener 2000

Day 1 - after a successful afternoon of hunting. Poor picture quality due to the low angle of the setting sun. I've already had my digital wizard do his magic to it and the quality is as good as it can be. Opening day was very warm and sunny with high winds. We hunted a partially harvested milo field with a group of 18 and had very good luck. We also worked on a few stock dams, walked a cut sunflower field and finished by walking the creek. We were within 3 or 4 birds of limiting out by the time we called it quits.

What made the weekend so fun was the gathering of the families that grew up on the land and have since moved on to other things. When I was growing up, the ranches at the end of Green Valley were owned and occupied by my grandparents, my uncle and his family, my parents and then further down the valley was another aunt and uncle. These pictures can serve as a family photo album since they show the three different families and the 3 generations that have had roots on the ground we hunted. Cousin Boo and his dad - Uncle Robert now own and operate the Elm Creek ranch - a combination of all three original ranches.

Speaking of Elm Creek Ranch, the following photo is from the USGS, taken in April of 1998. This was my grandparent's original home place. Boo and Cheryl live there now.

It's a nasty job, but a vital part of every hunt. Clean up. Moonboy is doing his best to stay in the game. He does not have the world's strongest stomach. The long tall drink of water is cousin Loren. I believe his son is on the left.

Cousins - help me out if I'm getting any of the IDs wrong.

Day 2 - First shelter belt.

Did I just get lucky or am I really that GOOD?!?

I drew a blocking assignment on a shelterbelt just north of Boo's house. In the past, we've had a real hard time of doing a good job of hunting this tree patch as the rooster have so many escape paths.

Some days you just happen to be at the right place at the right time. I harvested these three ring necks within the first 15 minutes of the day's hunt. Not only knocked them down, but recovered them as well. Due to the heavy cover, they can be a challenge to find.

Left - Our hunting party spreads out to walk the creek. This pasture had not been grazed and provided good cover for the birds. We flushed at least 10 birds into the creek, but flushed only 2 or 3. I'm up on a hillside overlooking the walkers as we make our way thru.

Right - Hunting on Sunday has its drawbacks. We were forced to listen to the Vikings - Bills game on the radio. Boo and Cheryl's son Matt, my dad and Cheryl's brother Steve are listening to the radio during a break.

Boo and Cheryl had a new pup to help us out a bit during the day. She took a break along with the rest of us. The hubcap belongs to Robert's Buick. He couldn't remember how long ago it was lost.

Sunday was fun because we had all the generations and genders covered. These are Boo and Cheryl's two girls, Erin and Chris. Don't ask me which is which. They make pretty good pheasant go-fers. Steve's son William is behind Cheryl. The dog is licking the moisture off a coke can.

You've seen him elsewhere, but this is my dad - Frank. I'm pretty sure this is the end of day one's hunt. Since he is normally the elder member of the hunting party, his hands don't get nearly as dirty as the rest of ours do. He runs the wing and leg shears and the passes out the cold beers. 80 years young and is an officially designated South Hand Blocker. He also drives the truck from field to field.

Day two is over. 12 birds for 10 hunters. A bigger group would have harvested more birds, but you must leave a few for seed. Uncle Robert is in the back row, he doesn't hunt much but did dust off the 16 gage Model 12 and joined us. Middle front row is Boo's son Danny. He and Eric are both at SDSU in Brookings. Due to school conflicts, Dan wasn't able to join us until Sunday.

It is always good to get back to the farm, not only to see the things that have not changed, but also to keep track of the progress being made. This snap shot was taken during one of the breaks our first day out. We were working the milo field that was being harvested by Uncle Robert. It took a bit of adjustment to see him climb out of a John Deere! Sorta like seeing the cousins show up in Dodge, Chevy and GMC pickups when their dad was such a Ford man. Just goes to show, you never know!

Names with faces: Back row, Me, Brett (Mark's), Davon (Loren's), someone's girlfriend (Davon?), Mike C. (friend of Mark). Middle row, dad, Loren, Mark, Steve, Boo. Front row: Moonboy (mine), Matt (Boo's), Damion (Mark's) William (Steve's) & William's friend from Rapid City.

The next arial photo is of mom and dad's home place, where I grew up. Robert and Marj live there now. You can make out a good bit of detail from these photos. The meandering creek is Elm Creek. Where Elm Creek crosses they Hyde / Hand county line is right in front of Boo and Cheryl's place on the above photo.