- Are you guys ready?

Let's go!

On today's  "Prairie Sportsman," we head to the field with some small-gauge shotguns.

There  we go.

With the .410.

Then we get a unique look at what goes into building a  better habitat for our furry and feathered friends.

That snow inside this thicket  is just trampled, not just pheasants, but deer, rabbits, other small  game have been using it as well.

Welcome to "Prairie Sportsman."

I'm Bret Amundson.

We got a great show for ya starting right now.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by  the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, as recommended by the Legislative  Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf  of Shalom Hill Farm, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windhom,  Minnesota, on the web at ShalomHillFarm.org - So I love the pheasant hunt.

I love the  exercise.

I like getting out and being in the wilderness out here on the prairie, watching the  dogs work.

I love to eat 'em, but sometimes it's just about having fun too and the true measure  of success when you're out there hunting is just about the experience and the fun that you have  and we're with my buddy Jason Markkula today, and he showed up with this .410, and this is a  pretty wild gun.

It's called a companion and it's a backpack gun, so it folds up just like that, so  we thought it'd be kind of fun to go hunting with some sub-gauges and some smaller guns and some  different guns, so we've go .410s, and I mean, we might have a 12-gauge or two just for backups,  but to start anyway, we're gonna go hunting today with the smaller guns, the sub-gauges.

Let's  go.

All right, you guys ready?

Let's go.

- Armed and dangerous.

- [Bret] We also have Jason's  son Will and his buddy Logan, along on this hunt, and it sure didn't  take long for things to start happening.

- [Jason] Okay, up hunt 'em up.

- [Bret] That's a rooster.

Yeah.

Watch  where he goes.

There's a hen.

Well, there goes another rooster right there.

There goes another hen.

We stepped onto the  property and boom, put up a rooster right away, and now we've put up four birds, two roosters,  two hens pretty quick and they're going right where we're going, so hopefully we'll catch up to  'em.

They put one up out of there along the lake.

That looked like a rooster.

Geez.

That's good  though.

We saw eight birds on the first little- - Yeah.

- First little walk.

- It's a good sign.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause we know it's gonna be birdie in there.

- Yeah.

There it goes.

A rooster.

Dang it.

Dang it, dang it, dang it.

That was the one she was  on.

I don't have my glasses on.

Rooster!

There we go.

We got 'em.

Dead bird.

Dead bird.

Nice.

Pulled feathers off on that first shot.

Figured we got 'em.

Heel.

Good.

Drop it.

Good job.

Wow, there we go.

- [Jason] Pretty Good One.

- We got our first rooster with the sub-gauges.

What are you shooting, Will, 20-gauge?

- 12-gauge.

- Ah, dang it.

Will's cheating.

Well, one got away.

Got the old .410 bark, hey?

- [Jason] Yeah, it shoots.

- How close was that rooster?

- Not close enough.

- Well, that's a challenge with these sub-gauges.

- [Jason] Dude, I'm fumbling around with  this thing.

I'm just not used to it.

- Oh yeah, same.

Hen, I think.

Is that a rooster?

Pretty dark, hey?

If this grass is this tall- - Tons of tracks in there.

I think we should  go into those cattails again before we leave, but we might as well push this in the end.

- Okay.

- Especially if the grass looks this good.

- We could send one group down  that way and one group up that way.

- Yeah, if you want.

Dang it.

That one should have  been dead.

I mean that's kind of the fun of this, right?

It's a challenge.

It's tougher  using some of these smaller gauges, but that's what it's about, you know?

It's been a good season so far.

We've shot a bunch of pheasants, so why not make a  little bit more challenging here at the end?

- Hen.

- Hen.

- [Jason] No bird, scout.

- I think that one scared him little bit.

- Good job.

You made that one poop in front  of you.

Oh, rooster!

There we go.

All right.

That's why we pinch and that's why I set up  the way I did.

We thought we might put up some birds over here, so I tried to get down  in front of these guys, and those roosters, that rooster that hen both were running up and  they got right to where we are standing here and got a little nervous.

Will almost stepped  on that hen, and then they put up that rooster and we all shot at it.

I don't know who  hit it, but it went down.

Still running, hey?

Find it, Tiny.

Running there.

Oh,  hen.

Whoo.

That way, Tiny.

Good job.

I saw her take off running that way.

I thought  she might be on it.

Here's rooster number two.

We definitely still have a few more of 'em, but  heck of a retrieve there by the pup.

Nice job, Tiny.

Putting up hens under our feet.

Why don't  we push through, kind of kick up to the trees, push down the trees, hit this grass, hit the dike  and the cattails in the bottom one more time and then we could go back up along the field edge  or somethin Oh, rooster!

Oh no.

Good job, Tiny.

This scout right there with, rooster!

There's a  good one.

That one got hit.

Fresh tracks right here.

Oh.

No bird.

Tiny almost caught it.

Good  job, Tiny good.

Flush.

Well, there's the one we were looking for.

Most likely, anyway.

Got up  a little far, but.

What's that one?

Can't tell.

Hey!

Nice shot, Will.

Nice!

Hell of a shot.

All of  a sudden, Tiny got real birdie right away, and it was either from the one we flushed or a second  bird and I missed.

You missed twice and then- - Got it on the third though.

- There go, Tiny, good job.

- I got her.

- Good job, Tiny.

Hold, hold, drop it.

All  right, Will.

Get over here.

Come hold your bird right here.

That was a heck of a shot.

I  mean, you did miss twice before you hit it, but.

- It happens.

- That was a heck of a shot right there.

See, I missed on purpose 'cause I  wanted you to have that one.

- Oh, sure.

- Good job.

We're running out of time.

Let's  see if we can find some more.

There we go.

Well, as you can see, the sun's getting lower.

We just  have a couple of minutes left.

We're almost to the end of the walk and Jason and Logan just put one  up right there.

They knocked it down.

I don't know who shot it.

I sure hope it was the .410, but  we'll find out when we get back to the truck.

There we go, with the .410 right at the end of  the day.

Whoo!

That was a beautiful day out here walking for peasants.

It started off a little  slow, but man, what a great day.

Gotta love it.

That was awesome.

Good job, puppers.

Drop it,  good job.

Man, that was a fun day.

Good job, Tiny.

Broke out some really cool guns today,  some .410s.

We had a couple of 12-gauges backing us up and you know, it was real nice  carrying a light gun like this out here, but I'll probably go back to a 12-gauge, or honestly,  I'll probably get a 20-gauge next and carry that, something a little bit lighter, but still with  a little bit more knockdown power.

That bird ran on us a little bit.

That's the beauty of having a  good dog or the importance of having a good dog.

Tiny tracked that.

At one point I looked, she  was 164 yards away on the Garmin Alpha here on the GPS tracker, and all of a sudden I could see  her on the Garmin getting a little bit closer and and Dan spotted her with the bird in her mouth  and she brought it back, so good job, Tiny.

Been a great day with the sub-gauges out here  and we got some delicious roosters to eat now.

It is the age old question.

How do we  get more game animals on the landscape, whether it be deer, ducks, upland  birds?

Well, no matter the topic, the answer's always the same.

It's  preserving and creating more habitat.

When it comes to creating habitat for wildlife,  the key lies in the complex, a variety of grasses, thermal cover, food and water are all part of  an ideal landscape for wild critters like deer, pheasants, ducks, and even small games such as  rabbits.

A quality habitat complex will attract wildlife year round, but in the spring,  as the males and females go through their annual breeding rituals, they'll be more  visible before vegetation grows tall.

Here are a few of the things I've been fortunate  enough to film in this well-managed complex.

Surviving the harsh Minnesota winters can be  challenging for wildlife, but giving them thermal cover and shelter such as cattails and woody cover  like this can make a big difference.

Shrubs and short trees offer protection from overhead  predators, and evergreens can provide safety during winter storms.

It's recommended though  to avoid planting other trees which can attract nest predators and give aerial hunters a perch to  scout from.

Willow thickets and phragmite stands can offer suitable natural cover as well.

These  willow thickets may be one of my favorite places to target late season for pheasant hunting and  there's a reason why.

If you look right here, you can see we just had a big snowfall.

Big storm came  through and the snow inside this thicket is just trampled.

Not just pheasants, but deer, rabbits,  other small game have been using it as well too.

Wetlands in a complex can offer multiple benefits,  including something as simple as giving wildlife a drink, but cattails may be the best all-around  cover on the prairie.

If possible, a food plot situated close to thermal cover and large tracks  of grasses can be the perfect complement to a habitat complex.

A mixture of foods such as  corn, soybeans, brassicas, and sorghum benefit wildlife at different times of year with different  conditions.

As snow piles up, food is covered.

Beans and corn that grow tall feed pheasants  and deer during those long, cold, snowy months.

This complex has everything you need to help  pheasants get through a tough winter with a lot of snow.

They'll use the willow thickets  nearby, and at least twice a day, they will fly into the food plot using the tall corn as cover  as they jump up to pick kernels along each row.

Having a variety of grasses and woody  cover is important because after a big, wet, heavy snowfall like this one, a lot of  this big blue stem can get knocked down and it's unusable.

But during the spring, this  grass provides nesting cover for pheasants, other upland birds, and waterfowl  like mallards and blue-winged teal, which have been known to nest up to a mile  away from water sources in grass like this.

If you wanna build more birds  or deer or other wildlife, consider creating a habitat complex on your  property.

And there's plenty of organizations out there like Pheasants Forever, or even the  Minnesota DNR that can help you get started.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by  the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative  Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, on behalf  of Shalom Hill Farm, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windhom,  Minnesota, on the web at ShalomHillFarm.org