This is the week 10 recap of the 2025 Pheasant Hunting season. After bad weather and schedule conflicts prevented us from getting out last week, we were hopeful that we might have a good day. We caught a break on the weather and did a day trip to central Minnesota. While the weather was good, snow from the previous week made for some tough going.
December 17th - Minnesota
We finally had a day with decent weather. The temperature, when we started was in the upper 20s with a mild wind. The snow had settled and varied from 1 inch to 6 inches, with some drifting, in spots. The snow was still relatively soft, without a hard crust, so walking was okay. Just a lot of work. For me, what worked was to maintain a slow and steady pace. Doing that, I avoided getting over heated or running out of gas. Of course Kevin just plows through it.
We started out by focusing on some cattails. We saw very few tracks and after not seeing any birds we headed over to the west side of the field where there were adjacent crop fields. Along that edge we did see a lot of pheasant tracks. After a bunch of walking through snow drifted prairie grass we approached a small area of heavier cover and willows. Stella went on point. As I approached she slowly advanced. This went on for a couple minutes until there was a wild flush 50 yards head. We moved ahead and then Stella moved out into the prairie next to the heavy cover. Two more birds wild flushed out ahead of us.
We continued moving through prairie, looking for areas of cattails or heavier cover. After checking several, we ended up along the southern edge of the field. Stella got birdy but after a couple minutes gave up. Kevin and I decided to take a quick break. We both ate a snack and drank some water. As I was finishing up, I noticed that Stella was on point about 20 feet from me. I took my time, picked up my gun and walked over. I ended up flushing a hen from right in front of her.
From there is was a bunch more walking. We were back to the truck after about 4 hours. We had seen a total of 9 birds including several definite hens and the rest undetermined gender due to the extreme distance. It was good to get out, even if we didn’t see any roosters in range.
Video
A really short video that corresponds with an almost total lack of action.
Lessons Learned
- Cattails do not guarantee birds.
Summary
This has been the week 10 recap. We had a single hunt, worked really hard, saw some birds but had no shooting opportunities.
