Forest and Stream 
|3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1913. 
VOL. LXXX.—No. 24. 
127 Franklin St., New York. 
Chicken Shooting in Minnesota 
G ood chicken shooting to-day certainly does 
not compare with the execution of birds 
that was once made by the pot and market 
hunters throughout the Dakotas, Minnesota and 
Nebraska. But nevertheless there are a few 
birds left which under careful guarding have in¬ 
creased in many sections until now the painstak¬ 
ing shooter who will have patience and a fair 
dog can bag a dozen birds during a day’s hunt. 
Some seasons ago in these pages I called 
chicken shooting the ideal sport for the average 
sportsman who had a dog and shooting stick. 
At that time I was one of the great army of 
field hunting enthusiasts who could only get away 
from the grind of business about a week or ten 
days during the fall. It was easy enough to 
board the train with dog and gun, and be met 
by driver friend who would take one out to the 
chicken country to be ready for the hunting the 
following morning. At certain points in the 
sandhills of Nebraska along the northwestern 
line railway or on the Burlington along the 
“high” line or its feeders that run up into the 
sandhill country, one can still get fair shooting 
and plenty of tramping. There is more or less 
work in getting to the birds now owing to the 
scarcity of them and their taking to higher, and 
more difficult to approach, feeding grounds. 
South Dakota has a short open season on 
chickens this year after being closed for some 
time. The birds have multiplied well, so I am 
informed by those who have been over the coun¬ 
try and know the conditions. This past spring 
the unusual dryness during the nesting season 
was conducive to early mating and a perfect 
hatching season. I have been through the better 
chicken country of Northern Dakota this year 
and find that many reports of an abundance of 
birds will be ready for the clever hunter at the 
opening of the season. 
Last fall two friends and myself went to 
the central portion of Minnesota that lies along 
the Minnesota River and its tributaries. Our 
method of travel was with the outfit shown in 
the picture. The rigging that approaches the 
old-time schooner gives one a great opportunity 
for observing the country, and by going out one 
way and back another a constant change of 
scene is assured. During the fall there are 
thousands of just such outfits going and coming 
from the hunting fields all over the Central West 
and into the mountain country. And it is to 
those who travel in this manner, and who con¬ 
template it, that I am going to make a few sug¬ 
gestions. 
Those who have been there before need not 
be told that a camp stove for wood is essential, 
By AMOS BURHANS 
especially if the weather turns nasty during the 
month of September or October. A small gaso¬ 
lene stove is also handy and means quick coffee 
and meals at all times. Have a small tent and 
other necessary equipment, plenty of tinned sup¬ 
plies and lots of small change to buy little articles 
along the way. Farmers’ wives from whom you 
buy do not have change at hand to break bills. 
This little precaution has actually afforded me 
good shooting over grounds that I could not 
have entered if I had not been prepared to pay 
for all our party bought of a certain farm 
woman. The little attentions one pays to the 
farmers along the way will put you in touch 
with the best shooting in those localities if you 
are careful in acquaintances and their treatment. 
On our last trip out we did not find a farm 
that was not posted, “No hunting allowed.” Yet 
from every farmer we asked we had permission 
to go upon his land and hunt as much as we 
wanted. A little diplomacy in approaching the 
farmers, a sincere honesty of purpose in buying 
provender, stable room for your horses, feed and 
hay, will often afford you a fine camping place 
in the farm yard, a good well at hand and a 
guide to help spot the game. 
One farmer in particular I will not forget. 
We had been out on the road the whole day 
and traveled late. The farm house sat back 
from the road a half mile and we skirmished 
up that way afoot to get a stopping place. One 
of our party spoke German and he seized the 
opportunity to use it to advantage, when he saw 
that our bear host was of that nationality. After 
introducing ourselves and telling where we were 
from, we asked to buy a lodging for the night 
for the team and to camp under the grove near¬ 
by. We bought a dollar’s worth of eggs, butter 
and milk, bread and what-not, paid in advance 
for the team’s hay and stable room, and told 
him we might be gone before he was up in the 
morning. He was impressed with our honesty 
and asked us to stay and shoot out some cover 
he had watched for a couple of seasons. We 
said we would if he would go along with us. 
Having an extra gun or two we gave one to 
him and supplied the ammunition for it. He 
showed us some great shooting down in a dry 
marsh where the birds had gone to seek or be 
near water, and after a morning in which he 
was much interested in the work of the dogs, 
he told us where certain duck ponds were and 
we visited them. Three days of shooting about 
this locality gave us a nice supply of birds, and 
we shipped for home. 
This farmer made us acquainted with all 
the farmer hunters in his section and ’phoned to 
others telling them who we were and that he 
wanted us to hunt over his friends’ farms. And 
when you consider that farms in the West run 
from 6oo acres to i,ooo, you will appreciate that 
we had some excellent country to cover. The 
MINNESOTA CHICKEN HUNTING RIG. 
