Need your help, fellow pheasant enthusiasts!

nstric

nstric

New member
Hello all –

My buddy and I had a heck of a time patterning the pheasants today, and I’m hoping you all can help me figure out what I may be overlooking, forgetting, etc.?

About me: Live in Iowa, hunt pheasants 2-3 times per week during season behind my now 2 year old vizsla, “Gunner”. Some of this seasons outings are captured here. Despite Iowa’s lower bird counts, we’ve had mostly success throughout the season until today.

About today’s hunt

Weather: Big drop in temperature compared to yesterday. A high of 61 degrees (very unusual) with melting snow yesterday, and we hit about 32 degrees today (more normal), nearly all snow gone. At 8:30 am, when we started in on our first draw, it was 22 degrees, with a 15-20 mph NW wind. Very light drizzle, sometimes freezing, sometimes sleet. The wind picked up as the front moved through, topping out near 25 mph, and really swirled once the majority of the front passed. At different times this morning, the wind was out of the NW, the W, the E, and the S. Very odd. Mid to late morning brought a decrease in wind, increase in temperature (approaching 32 degrees), and periods of light drizzle that would freeze on contact with the gun, etc. Always 100% overcast. No sun.

Terrain: Hunted ½ mile long buffer strips first, then a ¾ mile long woody draw, then 320 acres of big block CRP (mostly blue stem). Saw 0 birds, 0 birds, and 1 rooster respectively. This is of significance in that I know hundreds of birds are in the area. Just one week prior I saw over 50 birds in the very woody draw I hunted this morning (sunny that day). And the owner of the buffer strips said loads of pheasants were in the buffers just two days prior. I’d not hunted the 320 of big block before, but will share it looked very good -- variation in grass length, some cattails, some woody cover, elevation change (no flooding, wind protection, etc.), water, and both corn and soybean fields surrounding.

My Plan: I had welcomed the warmer temps the past few days as I figured the snow melt would once again open up the CRP grasses for habitat. I would have thought the birds to have gorged themselves yesterday, taking advantage of the now snow free ground. They should have basked in the sun, ate twice, and taken roost in the now available CRP. Today’s huge drop in temps, with the rain and wind, I’d have thought, should have kept them on roost throughout the morning. They should have held tight, and we should have reaped the rewards of good dog work. That didn’t happen.

On to my question
Given all of that above, the birds weren’t in buffer strips. They weren’t in woody draws. They weren’t in big block CRP. They weren’t in road ditches, under evergreens, etc. And this, again, is in an area where I know there are hundreds of pheasants.

So …. In conditions like today, where do the pheasants go and why? There’s got to be logic I’m overlooking; a pattern the birds put in play. I don’t buy today’s experience as happenstance. What say you? Can you help me solve this puzzle? :confused:

Thanks! :)
 
Wow, Great question. They flew south for the winter? they heard you where coming? LOL just kinding. I've had days like this , you think you have them figured out and nothing. I caulk it up to wrong place at the wrong time. So I can save my sanity. From your other posts, looks like you have been putting the hurts on your share of pheasants, in your part of the world. Sometimes we all get skunked.:)
 
Tough question

Along the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana we get chinook winds (snow eaters). It can go from below zero to 60 degrees above in hours. In my experience when this happens the birds scatter from dense winter cover and become very hard to find until the next cold/snow.

Not sure where your birds went. I grew up in that part of the world and sounds like you had very abnormal weather that probably doesn't happen very often.
 
You hit one of the toughest conditions to hunt there is in my opinion. The wind was swirling as I call it, coming from all over. The dog in that wind has a hard getting a clear fix on the birds. The birds don't want to fly in that wind, it takes to much energy and the wind is a hindrance. The rain in some cases in diminishing the scent. So the dog again has a hard time. The birds are holding tight alright, but if they move it is to run/sneak around behind you and your dog........Bob
 
I think one of the basic things that we don't know much about when hunting is "scent conditions". I truly believe that scent conditions can change not only from day to day, but also from hour to hour. You will see this a lot in field trials and if you talk to old time trialers they will confirm it. In fact one NSTRA trial I was at in June was a prime example. This was a national trial so the dogs there were all excellent dogs. One afternoon it seemed no one was cleaning the field and a friend was running in a late afternoon brace. After 15 minutes or so neither dog had located a bird. I went to the scoring board and looked at how the previous braces had done throughout the day. Very few got the 5 birds planted leaving quite a few in the field. By my count, when my friend ran there had to be over 30 birds in the field. In his brace the 2 dogs ran the full 30 minutes and never produced a bird. Thus I am sure there are days we hit a field and the dogs don't produce any birds and we figure there are no birds in the field. But in reality there may be plenty of birds but it's just the conditions that prevent the dogs from finding them. Anyway, that's my theory for whatever it's worth!
 
That is a good theory George. The way you presented it I can see where it is totally feasible.....Bob
 
Thanks for chiming in, guys. I appreciate the feedback and am soaking it in.

In yesterday's case, I don't think poor scenting conditions were the cause for what we experienced. A factor, sure, for reasons you all astutely mentioned, but I'm quite confident the birds physically adapted their behavior. I think they physically went somewhere, for some reason or combination of reasons.

I spent a good amount of time reading Gunner as he worked the fields. While he's only 2, he's one of the better dogs I've trained and his productivity better represents that of a 4-5 year old dog (my experiences). We've shot nearly 100 wild roosters so far this year, plus quail, pigeons, training birds, etc. I'm sure I'd have known if we were getting the constant runaround. Gunner's actions would have represented that....and logic says birds would have eventually bumped, which didn't happen.

Assuming I'm not mistaken, have any of you experienced conditions that brought about big changes in pheasant behavior, and if so, what did they do and for what reason in your opinion?

Thanks again, guys.
 
I agree that the birds would be holding very tight in those conditions, not moving around, not leaving much sent.
But I also agree that you would have found some birds with the amount of hunting you did.
The number of pheasants you took out of the area, has an impact, the survivors are extremely hunter wise by now. Hens included.
Are there a few building site groves in the area? Cattle feeding areas with good wind breaks. Such as maybe some evergreens and rows of thick woody cover.

I know lots of land owners who don't want hunters in their groves around their home and buildings or livestock. These become game refuges, food close by, predators usually not a factor.

I can give many examples of this in Western ND and MT. Once the weather gets cold, snow in the grasslands, pheasant flock into the building sites especially where there are cattle being fed.
 
mnmthunting said:
I agree that the birds would be holding very tight in those conditions, not moving around, not leaving much sent.
But I also agree that you would have found some birds with the amount of hunting you did.
The number of pheasants you took out of the area, has an impact, the survivors are extremely hunter wise by now. Hens included.
Are there a few building site groves in the area? Cattle feeding areas with good wind breaks. Such as maybe some evergreens and rows of thick woody cover.

I know lots of land owners who don't want hunters in their groves around their home and buildings or livestock. These become game refuges, food close by, predators usually not a factor.

I can give many examples of this in Western ND and MT. Once the weather gets cold, snow in the grasslands, pheasant flock into the building sites especially where there are cattle being fed.
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All exist in the surrounding area, yes. I considered the same and scouted around a few homesteads on the drive home, but not too many. I think you may be on to something here, although this means the birds would have needed to leave the roost in the morning.

As for pressure, each of the three pieces I'd hunted had only been hunted once before this season. The big block hadn't had anyone walk it for birds since Opening Weekend (late October). Some deer and coyote hunters had been through it though. These birds aren't too hunter-wise.

Thanks for posting!
 
If there is a secret, I'm certainly ignorant of it after 40 years of this. I have countless times hunted conditions as you describe, for three days of a 4 day trip, and could have sworn, except for a few forlorn hens, that the country was void of pheasants. One day of these trips, could be the 1st or the last, or any in between, hunting all types of superior cover, as you describe, birds everywhere, and several limits are shot. Must be some mojo of the divine rooster brotherhood. Sure keeps you from getting smug! Theories as to the farmstead yard bird hypothesis, I think has merit. I sure know that heaven for pheasants, late season is a farm feedlot, with a shelterbelt! Also shifting wind is problematic as been theorized, if the dog can't trust his nose, I think dogs tend to ease up, as you would expect. Snce I hunt only with dogs, never done the block and drive thing, except as a purely amatuer, " why don't you take your dog and go down to the head of the draw", kind of thing. I rely completely on the canine assistance. I do think that pressure plays a role, in two ways, 1.) i think the birds are locally migratory, in that, in an area of a couple of square miles, those roosters, roam, seek solitude, and definitely refill superior habitat. Just because you haven't shot at them on that piece of ground, sure doesn't mean that they haven't been shot at one section over. Also have to factor in the older age group birds who survived last season, and learned behavior from each other. Something is always hunting pheasants! 2.) I have witnessed ths twice. On a section of ground I had exclusive rights to, and was unpressured, late, snow on the ground, hunting in two groups of two, we had let the other guys out across the section, while we drove around the section to hunt a different piece and toward a common junction. In the time it took us to drive 2 miles or less, and before we got out of the truck, an army of roosters, we counted 57, were running and short hop flying across the road, in front of us, fleeing the pair of hunters almost a mile away, who had just entered the section. So maybe they were there in that cover, initially, but aren't now! Snow can magnify sound, and swirling wind makes birds nervous as heck, because they can't determine the direction. It all adds up to the reason that late season, or any season, pheasant is the premier trophy. It's like a lot things, when your young you want to know everything, when you get a little older you kinda enjoy the mystery, and savor it the way it is, because it's what keeps us coming back!
 
The majority of them could have been in a shelter belt you didn't hunt, or didn't have access to in the first place.

I hunted in similar conditions a few years ago. We started hunting a shelter belt, and were going to turn into a milo field afterward. As soon as we stared heading out from where we parked, pheasants started dumping out of the shelter belt. I could do nothing but watch, as at least two-hundred pheasants flew out of the opposite end. Fortunately, several flew into the milo field we were going to hunt, and we got a few out of it along the crop edges on the far side.

I too think the farmhouse/grove scenario has merit as well. On another trip we were hunting a pristine field with cedars, crp, and a few inches of snow on the ground. The wind was swirling that day as well if I remember correctly. We got skunked in that particular field. As we were heading to another spot, we seen about thirty pehasants just hanging out in a farmers back yard. Had I rolled down the window, I probably could have heard them laughing at us.
 
I probably could have heard them laughing at us.
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I only recently heard "why" roosters cackle as they're flying off.....










....'cause they don't have a middle finger!..:p
 
As the season progresses birds tend to bunch up.
They will move as a group to areas where conditions are best ie: food is available, hunting pressure is less, cover is better to protect from predation, etc.
I think you just did not go where the birds were at the time you hunted there.
They could have been on adjacent property for a number of reasons. Pheasants are where you find them , when you find them, and can be unpredictable at times.....it's part of their mystique and why I love to hunt them.
 
if the weather hasn't turned ugly, birds will move off and loaf in some unsuspecting cover, just to avoid hunting pressure.....that waterway or fence line in the middle of the winter wheat?....no one in their right mind would waste time hunting it......yep, there are probably some birds hanging out there....trick is to get up on them before they escape!
 
jsdriggs said:
About me: Live in Iowa, hunt pheasants 2-3 times per week during season
OK- I'm real jealous! Your dog must be a fine thing to watch with that much experience.
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Yes, he is :), and I'm no doubt fortunate to have an understanding wife/kids, and employer in that they accommodate my passion.
 
And for a general update:

Weather conditions turned "normal" as of late; we're seeing lows in the teens and highs in the 20s or 30s.

Gunner and I hunted a different part of the state yesterday afternoon, and found them bunched in the fourth field I stepped into. A group of 20+, and I dropped a double. Gunner then pointed a single rooster not 20 seconds later, and I proceeded to miss two rather easy shots. No worries though, as the walk back to the truck produced two more hens and one final rooster that I bagged.

I've attached a picture.

I decided to scout some unfamiliar areas on the drive home, knocking on doors, and picked up access to a nice 30 acre (or so) of big block blue stem. On the drive up to the house I flushed around 8 pheasants from the evergreen shelterbelt right to the south of the house, which just proves the theory many of you offered above about where they go. :)
 
While in SD last week we hunted an area near the horse corrals, cover was not great just some tall cane like dried out plant. First time through saw maybe 200 birds leave and fly up the draw to grass and food plot. The next day tried different tactic. Had son walk through I drove around to other side thinking I would pass shoot as they flew over my drive around was probably close to 1.5 miles but iended up less than .25 miles from son. Birds had no clue I was there because my approach was all below their site line. He shot as he started in his walk. I watched those 200 birds walk out of the cane into basically barren ground with just a little rolling hill . he walked through and flushed just 12 birds, I took several long shots and those birds thatwalked away never budged.
 
You had snow cover for roughly 30 days and then it all melts...they were out in the open fields feeding. 60 degrees out, they had no reason to be in the cover. They were HUNGRY!
 
I think irishdog jumped the gun and did not read far enough down the post. 0 degrees was what weather conditions were......

But his response was similar to what I would think is there is no mention of food sources in area such as picked corn field I assume and how tall stalkes were. With winds being what they are I would not think they would be in corn but you never know. If conditions are nasty they could be hanging up in cedars all day especially if they had a good feed day the day before.

next time take a pass or 2 thru the picked cornfields and you might be surprised.....or find some cedars.
 
Ag in Iowa is limited to corn and soybeans. No winter wheat, alfalfa, etc.

Very few farmers no-till around here anymore either, so almost all of the ground is black dirt. No cover in ag fields.

Prior to the warm up, there was snow on the ground but nothing impenetrable. It was very obvious in days prior that the birds had no trouble scratching for wasted grain/beans. I don't think they were overly hungry.
 
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