Brush Pile Bomb

[niceshot]

Went hunting this morning at an undisclosed location in SE SD nicknamed the "meth lab". Parked the Tahoe at the edge of the driveway because I was paranoid about getting high centered. I was sitting there debating the 75 yard trek thru knee to waist deep snow when I saw a lone hen near a brush pile confirming my hunch. This brush/tree pile is the remains of the grove, and is the size of the inside of your garage. Boom - 30 roosters and 10 hens - near cardiac arrest trying to close the distance in the snow, took one long shot at rooster climbing vertical over 30 ft pines, and finished up in small cattail patch about 150 yards away. Good story, but it comes with bad news, there were no pheasant tracks around the brush pile, so if I am counting right the birds have been in there for at least 9 days. I have no idea when, where, or what they are going to eat.

 

[FCSpringer]

Cool story, but as you said what are they going to eat, Today I come home from work and there is 3 roosters right in the driveway, I think they liked the fact that I plowed out my whole front yard for training, exposing all the grass. I have River sitting here with limited hunting because of surgery and could have easily went for a 40 yard walk to blast her 1 or 2. I realy wanted to. I walked in the house and took a good look at her and pondered," hemmm". But then I went outside and put out some corn for the darn things. Figured I have had enough and would try to keep the ones left close to home alive the rest of the winter. Good to see a few hens with them. I am thinking of going out to 5 or 6 places I hunt to do the same thing tomorrow. River will just have to settle for pen raised birds till next year.

 

[mnmthunting]

Pheasants won't stay in the brush pile and starve. They adapt, fly to the feeding area and back. I'm assuming there's a feeding area within flying distance. Did you notice where they flew and how far? Bad weather they will hold fast, soon as the wind dies they go for food. If the brush was fresh cut this past Fall there would be a ton of nourishing buds. Or the pheasants will go to the road and maybe find spilled grain or plant material the snow plow exposed.

If you got more roosters then hens, make sure to spread the corn over a large area, or several piles.

 

[pheasantaddict]

The pheasants around here are finding food and we have ice too. You see more birds in bean fields as there is not as much snow in them. The tops of the hills that have corn are pretty open. All the CRP and buffers are full of snow, so the only place for pheasants is brush. Pheasants rarely starve, but rather succumb to lack of protection from the winter elements or predators. I saw one person put corn by the side of the highway and there was 30 birds there. The only problem is more birds are going to get run over, shot by road hunters, and picked off by hawks than any # that would have starved.