BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[cob]

Any pheasant hunters out there? I'm new to the list and have been hunting pheasants since i was a little kid. also if anybody has bird dogs i'd like some advice, check out my other post.

[bitmasher]

Hey cob, I'm a pheasant hunter. I haven't gone for several years now, but I really enjoyed it when the opportunity existed. Used to hunt them in south-western colorado and enjoyed it more than grouse hunting.

The first time I saw a pheasant running full bore through a thicket of sage brush, my jaw dropped. I had heard they were fast on their feet, but didn't appreciate it until witnessing first hand.

Not sure what to tell you about your bird dog situation. Personally I doubt that having a bird around will dull their sense of excitement in birds, but I have no practical experience with such a situation.

Welcome!

[cob]

hi, yes, pheasants are very fast and fun to hunt. I wouldn't think the bird would ruin the dogs either but I figured surely there's somebody else somewhere that has experience with this, I just can't seem to find them.

[cob]

Here's a phesant hunting story for everybody. Me and my dad were hunting last year in some CRP. It was just us two. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a line of a dozen people walking to hunt phesant efectively. Anyway, we hunted that field for a couple hours and each got 2 birds, the limit is 3. Even though i'm grown and i've hunted with my dad since i was a little kid, i'm still his son and he still makes me carry his birds. One of the birds we shot still had a little life in him when we picked him up so i rang his neck and stuck him in the bag. As you may know it doesn't matter what you do to these birds they'll squirm for a while after they're dead sometimes so i wan't worried when i felt him moving back there occasionaly. Those birds were getting heavy so i took the bag off my vest and sat it in the pickup with the window down when we walked by. We were just going across the field and back and that was going to be it for the day so i figured if we did each get another bird he could carry them. well, we did each get a bird so we went back to the pickup and he sat his vest down by mine and we drove to the house. Once again, i'm still his son so i still have to clean the birds, all six of them. When we get to the house i grab both vests and start taking the birds out. I take the two out of my dad's vest and start taking the 4 out of mine but there's only 3 there. We searched the pickup and the last bird wasn't there. to this day my family gives us a hard time about lying about us both getting our limit that day.

[bitmasher]

Wow that was one tough bird. Buck shot and a wrung neck wasn't going to stop it from blissful CRP grassing! Bet your Dad still ribs you about it...

Your right about not needing many people to hunt pheasant. We usually had 2 or 3 and I have hunted them just by myself too w/o a dog.

The problem with less people and no dog though is that the pheasant seem to hold their ground or stick to just running. Makes for more ground shots and dust plumes!

[cob]

I actually prefer hunting with just a couple people, there's just a secret to it, the pheasant call. Not many places sell them and not many people have heard of such a thing but they work great in locating and holding pheasant. you're supposed to be able to flush them also with it but i've never been able to get that to work. if you know where they are you can walk on top of them and flush them anyway.

[blacktailkiller05]

I have a pheasant dog cob. she is a english springer and is the best dog you could get for upland birds. she points an flushes and is only a 1 1/2 years old. write back for more information.

[cob]

Pheasant season started saturday and its hasn't looked good all year. Shot 1 bird all weekend. The sunday paper said the average bird per square mile was down this year from 13 to 2.5

[bitmasher]

Wow sorry to hear about the low turn out! Is the dramatic drop due to lack of moisture in your area, Cob?