Upper Midwest Bird Camp 2026

[TheGreek]

I’m leaving NW CO tomorrow morning and driving to central SD to meet friends for a few days of pheasant hunting. The plan is to then spend a day or two in ND chasing sharptails and then the rest of the week in MN chasing ruffed grouse and woodcock. I’m leaving the old gen 1 tundra at home and taking the little Subaru forester to save on gas.

I still love big game hunting, but I look forward to a week of bird hunting more and more every year. Maybe it’s having my own dog now. Maybe it’s not having to spend so much time in the dark like big game hunting and duck hunting. Maybe it’s all the miles walked in the gorgeous fall weather. Maybe it’s the little out of the way towns you find yourself in chasing birds across the country. Maybe it’s the good whiskey, good friends and good guns. Maybe it’s the unending loneliness, melancholy and simultaneous happiness I feel when I’m in the uplands.

Either way, I’m looking forward to a week of it. I’ll try to post some pics as the week unfolds and update this thread with our successes or failures.

 

[Birdbander]

Enjoying the same right now in the western UP for the next 10 days.
Safe travels and have a great hunt!

 

[JLDemo]

Same boat. Heading west for a week next month to chase Chukar and hopefully some bonus quail. It's the dog work I truly enjoy. Best hunting partners you could ever ask for.

Hope you get some fishing in while you're up there. Sounds like a great time, looking forward to the after action reports.

Good luck!

 

[TheGreek]

Obligatory loaded Subaru photo, about to hit the road. Next stop, SD.

 

[Treeshark]

Big rain and wind event coming through today, a lot of leaves coming down- after this pushes through looks like great fall hunting weather all next week

 

[TheGreek]

Snow on the pass here in the highcountry of NW CO. All those first rifle hunters must be cold.

 

[MNElkNut]

Following. What are your accommodations? Tent? Hotel? Cot under the stars? Instead of a walk, I will bring my labs out on a short pheasant hunt today. Absolutely love this time of year.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I always enjoy this thread. Looking forward to the report. Enjoy!

Grouse Camp here next weekend.

 

[TheGreek]

Wyoming.

 

[jbseamus83]

Following. Have never gotten into bird hunting that much, but I love the idea of it and look forward to the story and pictures.

 

[TheGreek]

Nebraska! My buddy just called me recouting his current cold and snowy cow elk hunting in Colorado, with no elk! Glad I’m going bird hunting!

 

[thusby]

Pretty prime weekend to catch the woodcock migration there, we’ve had a lot of success same weekend in previous years

 

[TheGreek]

South Dakota

 

[TheGreek]

Following. What are your accommodations? Tent? Hotel? Cot under the stars? Instead of a walk, I will bring my labs out on a short pheasant hunt today. Absolutely love this time of year.

A trailer in SD. My buddy’s RV in ND. Another buddy’s cabin in MN.

 

[MNElkNut]

Beautiful walk today. Totally fruitless in terms of birds, but saw a really big whitetail buck at ohhhh, 12 feet. 150"+. Interesting where I jumped him. He was unapproachable from about 350 degrees, but I took a weird route and was in the 10 degrees he couldnt see, hear or smell. For a split second I thought that there was a freight train coming through the saplings and was going to run me over. What an awesome adrenaline rush!