"This year we put on 18 miles at the Sharptail Shootout,"
he said, the most unsurprising fact of the day. Each year, that
number grows into the hundreds of miles. And he and his
friends have most of the ground to themselves.
"You'll see a few guys hunting early in the season," he said.
"But I can tell you that before Covid, no one was hunting.
Now, you have to be at your spot at 4:30 or 5 a.m. on opening
morning.
"You're an hour and a half from Lincoln out here," he
continued. "A lot of guys will even come without a dog. But
once you get later in the season, there's no pressure."
Those are the times that Justin and his buddies begin their
own management strategies. "We won't hunt coveys under
10 birds," he said. "And we'll stay in touch with each other to
tell what we do at a certain place." This ensures that, given
good weather and no further loss of habitat, there will be
birds around the following season.
"The last three to four years have been really good on
private ground," he said, "but plum thickets are still being
taken out on places. This is great habitat that has to stay. A
couple of years ago, public ground was great."
Habitat remains the crucial linchpin to everything Justin
loves to do each fall. "Since I was a kid, our spots have been
cut in half for production ag. Those days, you could drive
down the road and see birds in the ditches. We had more milo
around. Better habitat. Better cover. And fencerows getting
46 Nebraskaland • December 2025
