Favorite type of pheasant hunt

SetterNut

SetterNut

New member
What is your favorite pheasant hunt?

- good sized group walking and blocking big fields
- small group hunting small patches with close working dogs
- some other type

For me I like hunting fairly large grassy areas where birds are spread out and can go anywhere. Blocking is impossible, you just have to count on the dogs finding and pointing the birds till you get there.

I am sure that it is because I like pointing dogs that this is the type hunting I prefer. Don't like the spots where there are tons of pheasant running all over. I like a few spread out in the grass. Not much better for me than to have 2-3 pointing dogs that all back in a big grassy area with a hunting buddy or two.

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I think for me it's hunting alone with my dog on those cold late fall/early winter afternoons/evenings. The harvest has just finished, clouds are low and grey, no wind, and it's spitting snow. Working the edges of corn fields and digging deep into cattail sloughs.

It's on such days birds seem sit a little tighter, and when flushed, those fast beating wings brake the silent snow muffled air, then the "pop" of the shotgun goes off and the bird drops. The the best part of all, the dog brings that wild rooster to hand and it's time to admire the his colors/beauty.:thumbsup: I love it!

Nick
 
Just with one to three old friends and our dogs. We like to walk so big fields are OK.
 
I prefer to hunt alone with a pair of my setters in cold overcast conditions, a little wind helps and don't mind if there is a little snow in the air. I may be a little paranoid but those dead calm "blue bird" days when the slightest sound seems to carry for miles never seem to be very good for me or the dogs. A little breeze and some humidity seem to help the dogs. I pride myself in hunting thick cover and rough terrain that I hope doesn't get a lot pressure.
 
Working cattails behind my lab when it's cold. Those days when the birds think that by sitting tight they have nothing to worry about.
 
Overcast day with snow falling working a field I go that's knee high grass and a creek running to one side of it just my dog and myself and my dad would be more than welcome to attend.
 
SetterNut said:
What is your favorite pheasant hunt?

- good sized group walking and blocking big fields
- small group hunting small patches with close working dogs
- some other type

For me I like hunting fairly large grassy areas where birds are spread out and can go anywhere. Blocking is impossible, you just have to count on the dogs finding and pointing the birds till you get there.

I am sure that it is because I like pointing dogs that this is the type hunting I prefer. Don't like the spots where there are tons of pheasant running all over. I like a few spread out in the grass. Not much better for me than to have 2-3 pointing dogs that all back in a big grassy area with a hunting buddy or two.
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Setternut, you and I think a lot alike.:thumbsup:
 
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SX3 said:
Working cattails behind my lab when it's cold. Those days when the birds think that by sitting tight they have nothing to worry about.
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I agree. Those quiet crisp mornings when it is ten or fifteen degrees. Three of four inches of fresh snow, sunny still day. Walking thick cattails watching the black dogs busting cover. You can tell when they are on one by the sound of the tail against the stalks. I really don't care if I am by myself, or with four or five guy's. It is nice when the birds are singles or small groups.

I don't know how many of you guy's have hunted Sand Lake Refuge in NE SD, but you have not seen cattails until you have ventured deep in the middle of that place. There used to be a lot of birds in there, some had probably never been shot at as the cattails go on for miles in places. When I was younger, my buddy and our three Labs would spend two or three day's in there. There were a few times I would get a quarter mile or so out in those and wonder if I was ever coming out. Getting a rooster out of there was tough. In places they were eight feet tall or more. Many times it started after you got him on the ground.
 
I like hunting with my brother and dad but my favorite is when its just me and my boy JP. No words need to be said, no handling the dog and walking lines. Just drop him in some good cover and follow him where ever he leads. If we happen to bag a rooster or two all the better.:cheers:
 
Shelterbelt or thick draw with one or two other guys and just my dogs. A little fresh snow on the ground or falling.

But a full section of CRP would be a close second... Just turn the dogs loose and wade on in to the ocean of grass, and let them decide which way to go.:thumbsup:

Whoever posted that they like to face-off against the old, educated birds, I agree. I like trying to figure out how to confuse and corral them so they'll hold for the dog. Nothing beats having a big, old bomber come up in front of a point. Hit or miss, the sight of that wise old rooster getting up in range always makes my day! Even better if we manage to get him!:D
 
My favorite kind of pheasant hunt is one that doesn't include what land is renting for, how much a bushel corn and soybean's are, ethanol, farm subsidies, what CRP is paying, the cost of spray's, fence line wars, land auctions, emergency grazing/haying, farm bills, crop insurance, Etc, Etc, Etc.

I just want to walk a old grown up fence line for a bird with my dog and old favorite shotgun, is that too much to ask?

Lately on this site, the first paragraph is all that is talked about. The site has kind of lost it's way IMO. Too many talking about money and not enough talking about free spirited old traditional pheasant hunting. If you have to put a cost on everything and make a buck with every turn. I'm not sure I would want you hunting with me. I want someone who thinks a potted meat sandwich, a thermos of coffee/tea your old dog and gun and enjoying some FREE hunting that the good Lord provided us a place for, is my kind of hunting partner. We don't need $15 a six pack beer and a $50 dinner in town after our day either. Inch think Porterhouses on a cement block home made grill with a wood fire will do nicely with cocktail from a $10 bottle of Canadian and off brand cola. Are there any common folks left out there? :cheers:
 
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Toad said:
Nothing beats having a big, old bomber come up in front of a point. Hit or miss, the sight of that wise old rooster getting up in range always makes my day! Even better if we manage to get him!:D
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Yeah! Those old birds with tails so long they wag as they flush:). They almost "glow" with a snowy background too.

Such sites are imbedded deep into my brain as I'm sure they are yours too!

Nick:cheers:
 
My favorite pheasant hunt involves me and my father in law and my dog Mac. Hunting a lot of private ground by their farm. Those two are both walking the Great CRP Patch in the sky now.
 
Somedude said:
My favorite pheasant hunt involves me and my father in law and my dog Mac. Hunting a lot of private ground by their farm. Those two are both walking the Great CRP Patch in the sky now.
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:10sign::cheers:
 
Very slight breeze out of the north, 4 inches of dry powder snow. It would be my 3 son's, my dad, Tom Lindeman, and myself, along with my first hunting dog Coco. Hunting a strip of milo that was left un-harvested for the pheasants.

Tom and Coco have been gone for quite a while but I would have loved for my boys to have known them in person, although they do know them from the stories told about them each year.
 
1pheas4 said:
Yeah! Those old birds with tails so long they wag as they flush:). They almost "glow" with a snowy background too.

Such sites are imbedded deep into my brain as I'm sure they are yours too!

Nick:cheers:
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YES!!! This is exactly right. When they launch, you know you have just witnessed something special.:thumbsup:

And I still have the image of one I missed years ago lodged in my brain. My best hunting buddy and I both missed the bird... I remember both of us scratching our heads and asking how we could possibly have missed a bird that big when it got up probably 20' ahead of us, with a dog pointing it no less....

I can still see the mist of snow and the sheer size of it as it came up against the sunrise, wings fully extended, grabbing for air, as it passed through the sun.:D I know I waited an extra second or two, with jaw dropped, as I watched it launch from the snowy grass. What a beautiful morning that was!

At the time we were really kicking ourselves for both missing what was probably the biggest pheasant either of us has ever seen, but I don't feel too bad about it now. That bird is almost legendary in my memory, and that memory is easily more valuable than what would have undoubtedly been one TOUGH pheasant dinner.:laugh:

Thank you for reminding me of that flush... Yep, wagging tail and glowing... That's exactly right.:cheers:
 
onpoint said:
My favorite kind of pheasant hunt is one that doesn't include what land is renting for, how much a bushel corn and soybean's are, ethanol, farm subsidies, what CRP is paying, the cost of spray's, fence line wars, land auctions, emergency grazing/haying, farm bills, crop insurance, Etc, Etc, Etc.

I just want to walk a old grown up fence line for a bird with my dog and old favorite shotgun, is that too much to ask?

Lately on this site, the first paragraph is all that is talked about. The site has kind of lost it's way IMO. Too many talking about money and not enough talking about free spirited old traditional pheasant hunting. If you have to put a cost on everything and make a buck with every turn. I'm not sure I would want you hunting with me. I want someone who thinks a potted meat sandwich, a thermos of coffee/tea your old dog and gun and enjoying some FREE hunting that the good Lord provided us a place for, is my kind of hunting partner. We don't need $15 a six pack beer and a $50 dinner in town after our day either. Inch think Porterhouses on a cement block home made grill with a wood fire will do nicely with cocktail from a $10 bottle of Canadian and off brand cola. Are there any common folks left out there? :cheers:
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This might my favorite blog of the site! I believe I was just as happy in my old blue jeans, work boots, a hand me down vest, in my old jalopy, stuffing a few shells in the pockets, with my,live with me all the time, english setter, looking for birds, that an eighty year old farmer with brushy hedgerows, and sloppy bookkepping left behind, it was all new then, and I believed we could do anything! I long for it.:)
 
Any day out is my favorite. Could be lone walk on Thanksgiving morning with fresh snow without a dog.

Could be with a buddy walking ditches with our dogs.

Could be a large group working large CRP fields.

Each is special, each holds lots of memories and each is as enjoyable as the other but I wouldn't want to do just one exclusively.

Throw on a little snow onto any and it's that much better. :)
 
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