Sleepy Eye, Minnesota — Carrying a Beretta shotgun, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz trekked through tall straw-like grass for three hours on Saturday for opening day of the state’s pheasant hunting season, but didn’t get one shot off despite his efforts.
“There’s good days and there’s great days pheasant hunting,” Walz said when the day wrapped up.
Scott Rall, a friend of the governor who he often hunts with, made the sole kill on Saturday. Recovering the body of the birds was a top priority in the instructions given to the hunting party, but no one was able to find the carcass in the thick brush that at some points grew as tall as Walz himself.
Many of the pheasants and animals that did come up out of the tall grass and straw flew backward toward the press. At one point, that prompted Walz to seemingly allude to the 2006 hunting accident involving former Vice President Dick Cheney, in which Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter in the face.