WeHunt Upland

07/17/2026

Working a pincher move on a Small Slice of Heaven in Northern South Dakota on November 9, 2025.
Started on the SE corner, zigzagged to SW corner, and then pushed to NW corner and zigzagged to the NE corner.

Video picks up as we are working our way from the SW corner to the NW corner. Dogs pick up scent. Pheasants are pouring out. Joy locks on edge. A rooster rockets from the edge to the East. Boom. Neil with an excellent 50-60+ yard sniper shot to seal the edge.

Another bird gets up and flies directly over me. I've rewatched the video, maybe 100 times, and still cannot determine if the bird is blonde rooster or the biggest hen I've ever seen in my life. Neil and I still debate. From slow motion, I want to call it a blonde rooster - the tail is just way too big to be a hen. What's your call?

We had a bird down, but pheasants were pouring out of the edge, and the dogs were flashing point left and right as the birds ran through the grass in front of us. As we were searching for the bird that Neil dropped, Joy pushed out in front of us and established point, well beyond the area the bird went down. Love disappeared into the grass behind us. I got an alert on my Garmin that Love was on point, but then she started moving again, almost immediately. I had a feeling we found Neil's bird - sure enough Love shows up a few seconds later dragging the rooster though the grass - puppies first blind retrieve in the heat of the action.

Neil ended up limiting out in this field this afternoon - on a trio of very impressive shots - with his brand-new Browning Citori Lightning - a legendary start.

Small Slice of Heaven in Northern South Dakota was one of the most productive properties of 2025 - 80 acres of heavy diverse cover surrounded by harvested corn and bean fields. We ended up harvesting 5 birds off of this property in two afternoons of hunting.

A lot of firsts in this field on 11/9/25:
Neil's first on his new Citori.
Neil's first SD rooster.
Neil's first limit.
Neil's first SD limit.
Neil's first limit in one field.
Joy's first SD rooster.
First SD limit for both Joy & Love.
First limit with both Joy & Love in the field.
Love's first blind retrieve.

One of those days I'll never forget, but very thankful to have portions of this afternoon on film - Neil showed up and showed out with his new Citori, the dogs worked together better than they did all season. What a day!

Working a pincher move on a Small Slice of Heaven in Northern South...

07/07/2026

Love started her freshman season strong, opening SD, OH & KS for us. Here’s a video of her first Ohio public land wild rooster, harvested on a frigid Saturday afternoon in the middle of December.

👑 ❤️

It was extremly cold with fresh snow. I had a suspicion the birds were stunned by the recent change in weather and not moving much.

The field was a long narrow rectangle. There was strong wind blowing penpedicular to the long direction, into our face. The strategy was to loop the rectangle and use the upwind edge to pin tbe birds on point and force them into the air. We buzzed the downwind side of cover to push bird towards opposite edge. Barely even stepped into cover, just wanted the birds to feel our prescence and move off the downwind edge.
We turned into cover 30 yards off the corner of the short end, then turned back into the long direction 50 yards off of the upwind edge. From there, we would zig zag the along the upwind edge back towards the truck.
Shortly after turning the corner, right into cover that looked appropriate for brutal, late season conditions, with recent snow, Love winded a bird. Video picks up just before.

Love is a tremendous prospect, but, considering this is her freshman season, she isn’t the most polished, like a Porsche that is still learning her place in the curves. She found the bird. But - we probably should have lost that rooster when Love went bird crazy on the hen flush - a puppy that hasn’t settled into their nose is easy work for a wary late season rooster.

This was the one piece of heavy pheasant cover in a field that was mostly rabbit cover. I was patient and quiet and recalled Love by toning her Garmin. The reset on that spot led to the first harvest in Ohio of 2025.

The birds crop was completely empty. He likely hadn’t moved or eaten all day. Although we found success - a lot went wrong. Under typical conditions we probably don’t get this one in the air, due to our mistakes. In an area with more pheasants, Love likely loses scent of the rooster when she went bird crazy on the hen.

We’re working through polishing the retreive. 😆 Love got spurred a couple times in SD and likes to make sure they’re nice and “finished” before bringing them back.

Love's first Ohio public land wild rooster.Early December 2025 on ...

06/19/2026

WeHunt Ohio

Ohio has wild roosters on public land, and many more than anyone would ever imagine thanks to the CREP programs and efforts by the State of Ohio and Pheasants Forever. Ohio public land roosters are exceptionally difficult - they’re few and far between, over pressured, and typically found in cover that is intermixed with impenetrable pollinators and briars. The dogs and I get torn to pieces chasing birds in Ohio.
I hiked 242 miles to put up 136 pheasants in 2025. We finished the season with 8 roosters from Ohio public land - all wild.

06/19/2026

WeHunt GSPs

Introducing the shining stars of the WeHunt show:

Left:
TGK Top Gun Gotta Have Joy (Joy) - ~7 years / 55lbs / definition of versatile gun dog / uses air and/or ground scent depending on situation / creates opportunities / follows a blood trail and is almost spotless on retreive / an extension of myself in the field.
In her 7 seasons afield, Joy has sealed her status as the “Dog of a Lifetime”. The 2025 season saw her personal best of 28 public land roosters, raising her lifetime total to 76.

Right:
TGK Top Gun x Stinger Queen of Hearts JH (Love) - ~1.75 years / 45lbs / impressive prospect, acheived her JH before 8 months, opened every state in 25 / seems to excel in a true pointer role with a spotless nose and aggressive prey drive / exceptional raw talent is diminished by extremely high top gear that outruns her senses.
Love’s Freshman season saw her produce 10 public land roosters. She matched Joy’s production in Ohio. She has the most raw talent and potenital of any GSP I’ve owned - but, will her intangibles develop in a manner that produces a prime that rivals Joy?

06/19/2026

WeHunt Walk-In Areas
A limit of golden hour roosters from one WIA field in northern SD.
Some really nice shooting by Neil Lewis and bird work by Joy and Love in bagging Neil’s first limit.

06/19/2026

WeHunt West River
A beautiful sunset to cap a beautiful day in Western SD. A limit of roosters and Joys first sharpie. Thin cover had us chasing the pheasants right up to sunset.

06/19/2026

WeHunt WIHA.
Our best day of the 25-26 season happened on running birds in SW KS.
Our 6 year old GSP, Joy, learned to switch to ground scent on running pheasants to keep from pressuring them out of range, which resulted in pictures like this: