Pheasant hunting tips?


Turkeygirl

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Trying to do a little more pheasant hunting...need some tips. I hunt by myself. Don't really have any 'bird dogs' so to say but I did take my sister's lab mix who does pick up scents and by chance she flushed one...well it never flew, just ran. Our one other dog is good at rabbits so I thought maybe next time I'll take both of them.

I think the downfall for me is hunting by myself, the pheasants run more than fly and I never see them. The state land is stocked with pheasants by the state, where I was hunting last week, I found more feather's from other hunters and from predatory kills than pheasants seen.

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Pen raised birds are pretty stupid. In my estimation, I'd say 98% of them are killed by hunters on the first day. The other stragglers fall to predation and hunters within the week or so.

Wild birds are pretty tough if you don't have a dog. I usually wait for a snow so that I can track them. I've been fairly successful with that strategy over the years since selling my dog.

Believe it or not, I've actually been able to pattern a few pheasants. They tend to do the same thing time and time again. 3 birds come to mind. 1 bird's defense was to sit so tight you had to nearly step on him to get him to move. Did that 3 or 4 times to him before the season started, got him on the first snow that year. :D

The 2 I shot 2 years ago would loop out 100 yards, then back track to their original spot. Got both of them when after being bamboozled 3 times, I cut them off and caught them mid backtrack. Dropped both of them on Christmas day. The 3rd one got away as the limit is 2 in Ohio.

Another one I remember was this bird that would run to the end of the property, fly across a picked bean field, land in the far fenceline and backtrack towards the field. My buddy got him as I posted him on the fenceline and slowly walked the bird right too him. :cool:

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One thing you might want to try is to walk into the wind. The birds tend to hold a little tighter and don't here you coming as well. Also, if your using a dog it's better for him to get on them.

Diddo, the birds will usually sit tighter when your pushing them into the wind. Also, cat tails and reeds, I usually always flush birds around or in them. Guess it's the water!

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