Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/464218
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 3 3 chosen this challenging venue to introduce a group of outdoor writers to the company's first over-and-under shotgun, designated the Model 828U. Our four days of hunting provided an unusually rigorous test of guns and gear as well as those of us who ventured afield. Folks in the Dakotas like to say the tallest thing between them and a mass of arctic air is a four-strand barbed-wire fence. I'll agree to that. During our stay, a Polar Vortex descended over the high plains, bringing snow and plunging temperatures into the single digits, with highs just barely sneaking into the teens. Icy winds that gusted to 30 miles-per-hour dropped the wind-chill factor to well below zero. A day of duck hunting, a nice addition that Brown's offers during waterfowl season, had been on the original menu, but had to be cancelled since every pond in the area had frozen solid. Irish Setter had sent each of us a pair of their classic upland boot, the 984, a few weeks before the hunt. When we arrived at the lodge, however, we were happy to find that they had also brought a good supply of their Deer Stalker model, which features 800 grams of Thinsulate! After an introduction to the new Benelli 828U on our first morning and, fortified with some of the tastiest homemade vegetable soup I can remember, we headed out for our first afternoon hunt. I was paired with Phil Bourjaily, shotgun editor of Field & Stream, and Frank Singleton whose outfit does PR work for Benelli. Brown's does not plant separate food plots for pheasants. With acres of sunflowers that stretch to the horizon pockmarked by huge cattail sloughs, there's no need for additional food or cover. Late in the season, and especially when it's bitterly cold and windy, the cattails offer the perfect haven for the birds and, not surprisingly, that's where our cold but resolute band of hunters and guides headed. There are two things about punching through chest- high cattails. First, it's tough going and second, there's no quiet way to do it. Each step results in a loud crunching sound of dry reeds snapping underfoot. For the birds, it's like a high-decibel warning alarm going off and, sure enough, we had taken only a few steps into the thick cover when dozens of roosters and hens started to flush out of the cattails a hundred yards ahead of us. It was both a magnificent as well as discouraging sight. It seemed our hunt was over before it hardly began. My years of pheasant hunting, however, told me otherwise. It may seem that every pheasant in the area has flown the coop after that first big flush, but there are always a few birds that stay hunkered down. Steamrolling through the countryside like Sherman's army on its "March to the Sea" is not, however, a winning strategy with tight-holding pheasants. The key to getting in range is to slow your pace; indeed, to pause for a few seconds after each few steps. A cautious and meandering approach tends to confuse the birds and O n this hunt the lodge and cabins at Brown's Hunting Ranch looked out over an icy Lake Oahe, but come spring the big South Dakota reservoir would provide excellent fishing for walleyes and northern pike.