doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Clapper Zapper's snow bird expedition

CZ has been hunting the northern plains and asked me to post this picture for him. He is currently racing a storm home, and he has a solid day of driving to get there.

He will post more later, and it should be interesting. The weather that I have heard about lately includes heavy snow and lots of it, high winds, and even rain at 23 degrees F. I do not know if he got into any of that, but shoot some birds, they did.

Greg,
Wishing you a safe return home. Having been chased home by a storm 10 years ago out of Garrison North Dakota, I know exactly what you're up against!
Karl

Good morning guys.

We’re in Iowa right now, heading southeasterly to get on 80 to stay below the storm.

Talk about wild weather.

When I headed out to Sodak, the ten-day forecast was no precipitation. Typical early December temperatures of 20 to 40° and dry roads.

Well, didn’t quite turn out that way.

For the people that don’t shoot a lot of pheasants, in a good year, the quantity of pheasants that you could see
naturally produced in the prairie states is mind blowing.
In a good year pheasants have exposed reproduction. They’ve had back-to-back good years.

Fleas on a dog’s hind hump comes to mind.

We saw many hundreds of pheasants every day.

We were far away from the big release operations, and none of the birds we killed, have a perforated septum, so these were all naturally produced.

CZ, are you sure you didn't shoot those birds in Scotland on "The Glorious 12th"? Don't be modest and pretend you got them in Iowa or the Dakota's. Or perhaps you're pretending they were shot in the U.S. to avoid paying any tariffs.

Poor DimmyW must be totally confused by all of this snow and cold in the Midwest in December. I'm expecting FedEx to deliver four Nokian factory studded snow tires for my daughter's car today, but that's because I know it still snows in the winter. This isn't fitting Dimmy's narrative of record high temperatures every day. Probably just another example of Trump fixing what Democrats broke.

Saw the title and thought he might be hunting ptarmigan up in Alaska again.



He’s driving an Audi. He’ll be fine. If he was in one of Ransom E’s contraptions I’d be sweating it.


_______________________________________
Oldsmobile! The pride of Lansing!

Chevrolet Silverado crew cab this run.
No room for dogs in the Q7

Looks like we’re gonna get out of Illinois without any snow
But everything behind us is a 0 degree mess.

Sounds like you had a great time, Clapper. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Good luck!!

Thank-you Jimmy.

safe home...

Yes, safely home.
Back to hunting grouse and pheasants here till year end.
Then snowmobiling and ice fishing.

We saw 1,000’s of birds.
We hunted 4 days in terrible weather.
I shot 12 wild pheasant over my dog.
My traveling partner shot 12 over my dog.

We stayed in Mitchell at less than $100.00/night. With breakfast included
You can’t hunt until 10am
License was $173?

A mixture of young and old birds.

I shot a Beretta and a Remington
1oz Bismuth on the WPA’s, lead elsewhere
6’s or 5’s

Went with gaiters and khaki’s instead of field pants
Strap vest
Garmin 200i
Dog wore boots, no foot trouble

The storm was behind us about 2 hrs as we highballed back.

Pretty much a typical late season (after Thanksgiving) east river Sodak pheasant hunt.

Been there on a Thursday, tossing a frisbee around at sunset, in a T-shirt. Freezing rain followed by snow on Friday. Full on blizzard on Saturday, followed by clear sky’s, a constant 25 mph wind out of the northwest and -30 for the high on Sunday. We hunted all day, all four days, but, not sure I’d do that again, today.
It was two dogs ago. The world was a younger place.

Glad you made it back.

Best,
Ted

Thank you, Ted.

One of these days I will send you some three speed stuff.

I can’t believe it is more than 50 years since I cataloged all the S/A, Shimano and Sachs, three speed parts for our shop.
Seeing my youthful scroll for the part number and the part description on each one of the little drawers feels really special when I look at it.

With regards to South Dakota, it is what it is.

The weather is volatile, the state sees tremendous tourism income from pheasants, and they have re-created former federal programs at the state level.

It’s nice to see all that CRP, prep, and WPA ground open to the public, and in a handy book.

Couple that with legal road hunting, and a person who is a complete invalid could drive around in the countryside and fill their vehicle with pheasants.



Oddly, I don’t really care for chasing pheasants around sloughs.
It’s tolerable after freeze up, but that brings other issues. However, it’s what my friends know and I go along with it.

You gotta fish where the fish are.

It takes 20 pheasants to make 20 pounds of pheasant bratwurst for the club. I’ll be making pheasant sausage next week.
I smoke some for pea soup. 1 carcass per lb of split peas.

Do you mix any other meat with the pheasant for the bratwurst? I must admit that I had never heard of pheasant bratwurst until reading your post. But, since I enjoy traditional bratwurst, I just thought I would ask.

Yes, same as chicken bratwurst.

I like a course grind at about 7030 or 6040. W/ pork. Pheasant is a little more peppery than chicken, so if a person is mixing their own spices, you can go a little lighter on the pepper.

But everything else is the same.

I had about a cup of ice water during the mixing process to make a very sticky Morse.
N naturally, I check everything carefully for pellets.

I run a wizard over the thigh meat and the rest meat just to be sure.

Sounds like great bratwurst and a wonderful adventure.

I’m spoiled Lloyd. It’s just one of many.

Actually it was kind of annoying. As a person who is a planner, with a full calendar, I don’t really like dealing with Weather.
I planned for a week of shooting, and it was cut to four.

I was out today, and the dog pointed some turkeys and pheasants, I let them all go. My freezer is full.

We will probably make another run out to Nebraska in January for the slam. Then AZ for the desert trifecta to finish the US season.

What time of year are you headed to arizona?

A buddy of mine and I have kicked it around and thought about maybe taking javelina or two as well.

Greg,
I’m not one to sniff a gift fish.

Two bikes left to get up and running, a Triumph 26” rod brake roadster, cloned from a Raleigh Dawn Tourist carcass, and a 1950 Raleigh Clubman, purchased as a bare frame. To add insult to injury, the Clubman was painted black and shod with pre-war Raleigh Record Ace decals.
Some people’s kids. Most guys and girls in my club can tell the difference twixt a RRA and a Clubman frame from 20 paces.

The dog and I went grouse hunting yesterday, but, the WMA had about a foot of fresh, powdery, snow, that made walking a bummer. Couldn’t tell the blowdowns from the holes in the woods, so, we stuck to the long closed road, and saw not a sign of a grouse. Many large deer scrapes, and a bluebird day, an average day hunting is better than a good day working.

One doesn’t hunt in order to kill, one kills in order to have hunted.

Best,
Ted

Sounds like good hunting weather is ahead for you gentlemen. Record setting high temps predicted tomorrow in some places around the nation and mid 50s are predicted next week and low 60s Christmas day here in the midwest. 4 1/2 inches of snow is gone here after three days. Wish there was something around here for me to hunt. Now where'd I put those car keys?

Poor brain damaged DimmyW will be much better off if he doesn't find his car keys. If he goes out for a drive, his car will surely overheat, and his tires will melt from all of those record high temperatures that have him so stressed out. Oh yeah, the sky is falling too, and it's caused by climate change.

"Climate Change"... the perfect all encompassing terminology to put dummies into panic mode.

Wow!! It's hard to figure out if you're upset because of the massive flooding in California and Washington that is going on right now which Al Gore warned people about back in the 1980s and continues to prove you completely wrong about climate change. Or if you're ticked off because you had to pay Trump's tariffs on some crappy studded snow tires that daddy wasted his money on- buying for his baby which she won't need come Christmas day. One thing is for sure-- At least you'll be able to hear her coming down the street with those studded tires on the dry pavement. Clickety- Clackety- Clickety-Clackety-WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!!! 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄