Hunting Report - 10/28/09

Well, the weather hasn't been to kind to the farmers (and us) as we had more rain late in the week and even received 4 inches of wet snow on Friday. With all the precipitation lately, we haven't been doing a lot of hunting. The wet conditions really limit us because so few fields are picked right now. The weather finally did take a turn for the better on Sunday. We have been having some warm days with a little wind to help dry out the fields. Hopefully the farmers will be able to get back to picking their crops.

Saturday morning, we hunted a field on the south side of Rochester. We thought with the snow cover, the action would be pretty good. We didn't see near as many birds as we had been seeing in previous days. We ended up shooting 6 birds that morning. Later on Saturday, the temps reached the mid 50's and all the snow melted.

We took some clients out on Monday morning. The weather was nice and it was an enjoyable hunt. The clients shot a few birds and everyone was happy. We had a couple of guys hunting on Tuesday, but they didn't see hardly any movement of the birds. They ended up shooting a couple of honkers.

Until next time...

Shoot straight and stay safe.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters

Hunting Report - 10/21/09

The goose hunting in the Rochester area is still slow, but consistent. We have seen more and more birds move in to the area, but not the full migration with the large numbers of birds. Over the past week, we had different small groups shoot 4 birds, 8 birds, and 10 birds. We have also had hunt club members take a couple of birds. So, there is some shooting happening, but we have to work for it. A lot of the birds in the area are already well educated because of the pressure they’ve received as a result of the limited places to hunt. The few fields that have been picked has allowed the birds to congregate in those places and ignore everywhere else. In our last update, we were hoping for some cooperation from the weather so more fields would get picked. It can be reported that the weather DOES NOT want to cooperate with us. To quote the USDA/University of Minnesota Extension Service Crop Report: "soybeans were 34 percent harvested, compared with 81 percent at this time last year and an 83-percent average. Only 3 percent of the corn crop has been harvested, compared with 17 percent at this time last year and a five-year average of 31 percent." Right now, we need some warm, sunny, and dry weather to allow these farmers to get their crops picked. The forecast for the next few days doesn’t look good either....more rain with light snow possible. Saturday and beyond looks like we may get the weather we are hoping for. Keep your fingers crossed.

We would also like to welcome our newest guide, Josh Peterson.

Until next time....Shoot straight and stay safe.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters

Trying to get caught up!!!!

Its been a while since I've posted any updates. I'll try to point out a few of the happenings from the past month.

About 30 days ago, Run-N-Gun had a booth at the Sportsman's Fair in Racine, WI. The fair wasn't as big as we had hoped, but we did get a few serious inquires. It's always fun to talk hunting with alot of different people. The same weekend, Trevor guided a client on an early season goose hunt. With the 80 degree temps, the hunting wasn't all that good. The client still had a great time and will be coming back to hunt with us in the regular season.

Oct 3rd was the opener for waterfowl. Several of the Run-N-Gun staff went duck hunting for the weekend at a spot a couple hours away from Rochester. The cold front that moved in just days before the opener didn't help us much as it pushed most of the teal out of the area. We did some shooting and got some ducks, but it was difficult hunting.

On Saturday, Oct 3rd, Spike hunted geese in Rochester with a friend. They had ducks buzzing and geese landing in the decoys...unfortunately, that all happened before the 9:00am opener. They did manage to shoot 3 geese that morning. They would have had their limit if they wouldn't have had gun malfunctions.

Sunday, Oct 4th, Spike and a few friends hunted geese again. They saw a lot of birds and worked quite a few flocks. In the end, they shot 7 geese...1 had a leg band (Spike loves that jewelry). So, for the opening weekend, Spike and his friends were 2 birds short of a limit by shooting 10 geese and getting 1 band.

On Saturday, Oct 10th, Mike hunted with a couple of clients. They saw a little action in the morning. The clients ended up shooting 5 birds, just short of their limit. Tim and Trevor hunted the same day at a different location. Tim and Trev saw a lot more birds than Mike did. In the end, they shot 5 birds with 1 having a leg band. Spike hunted on Saturday too. He and a friend were south of Rochester and finished the morning with 4 birds in hand.


All in all, the early part of the regular season hasn't been too bad. We haven't really seen a large influx of new birds in the area. The colder temps should push more birds into the Rochester area soon. The hunting is a little spotty right now, but we are still consistently shooting birds. As new birds move into the area, the hunting will only get better with every passing day. We really need the weather to cooperate with us so the farmers will get their crops picked, which will allow us to open up more of our pitted fields.

Now that the regular hunting season is upon us and we will be hunting several times a week, we will get updates posted more often.

Stay safe and shoot straight.

Run-N-Gun Outfitters