First ever pheasant hunt-- I need to pick your brain

K

Kansan

Active member
Well, I just attempted to post a long winded post that took me an hour, and then it didn't post. So that's a kick in the nuts.

So, I'll condense my point that I tried to so eloquently articulate.

I'm from southeast Kansas, and have hunted my entire life. As you're likely aware, there are no pheasants in southeast Kansas. I mostly hunt on family land around home so I've never killed a pheasant in my life. I love to waterfowl hunt and have a 2 year old lab who is phenomenal on ducks and geese. He, like myself, has never upland hunted. So it will be just as much of a learning experience for him as me. He does have a great nose and has no trouble finding and tracking crippled waterfowl. I know if he gets a whiff of a pheasant he'll certainly have to go investigate. I suspect that as soon as the first bird boils out from under him, he'll know what the deal is. I'm currently an agronomy student at K-State, so I don't have too far of a drive to get in to some pheasants. I plan on loading up the pickup on Friday and heading west, just my dog and myself. I will be hunting all WIHA and was thinking about hunting the Osborne county area. If I don't have luck there I was thinking about trying Graham county. I have looked at aerial maps and found several tracts of WIHA with water, grass, and crops.

That said, I have a few questions for you.

1. I know better than to ask specific questions about someone's spot, so I'm asking in a very broad sense. But do the areas I mentioned seem like a decent start? If I don't find any birds, I'll try someplace else. I'll go where the birds take me.

2. I've found a few spots on the atlas that have grass and crops, which is where I've heard I need to start. What do you look for on a map that makes you want to further investigate that spot? Once you get there, how do you decide you want to try hunting it? I've heard a lot of WIHA ground isn't very good. What kind of crops do they like the best? What type of cover should I look for?

3. Since I'll be hunting by myself, thinking about hunting these giant fields is intimidating. My best guess is to let out the dog and start hunting an edge between food and cover. Do you walk in the crops or the grass? How far from the edge? Do you hunt the middle of big fields or CRP? I'd just like my dog to have the best chance of crossing paths with a rooster. I really don't know much about the mannerisms of pheasants except that they hide in grass, they have to eat, and they like to run.

4. How does the way you hunt change with the time of day? Do you start hunting at first shooting light?

Any other tips for a greenhorn are highly appreciated. If I could shoot one, I'd be tickled pink. I have several days to hunt. If I have any luck, I'll get the first ever pheasant for myself, and my dog. Regardless if I shoot my limit every day, or don't pop a cap, I know I'll have a wonderful time just enjoying creation with my dog. I know hunting pheasants solo takes a lot of strategizing, and any advice you guys have for me truly means a great deal. This will undoubtedly be a tremendous educational experience for both myself and my dog. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, but that makes it all the more exciting! Safe hunting gents!
 
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From my experiences... do the unexpected. Don't do the death marches/straight lines. Zigzag, cut corners off. Use roads or your truck as a "blocker". Hunt the edges of fields. Most importantly, just follow the dog. Chances are they will have a lot better clue as to what is going on than you realize. Even if they have never been. They can smell a lot more than you can see.
 
As Jubilee said, follow the dog.

If I'm by myself ideally I'll find a grass patch next to a crop (milo, corn, wheat stubble). I'll start out hunting the edge. Ideally pushing to a road that doesn't have a grass patch on the other end for them to run into. Ideally with the wind in my face. There are a lot of 'Ideal' situations to have, and you'll never get them all at the same time. Thats where the 'just go hunt' part comes in and the 'just follow the dog'.

I'll start out with an idea of how to hunt a field, then 300 yards in the dog veers off and won't come back, you best be following him.

Plan to walk a certain path, but come over a rise and see a weedy draw that your online scouting missed, run the dog through it. Thats a tropical paradise island in a virtual grassland desert to a pheasant.

Just be flexible as you hunt, don't overthink it.
 
Don't hesitate to knock on doors if you see private land that looks good. Being a young guy and since it is just you and the dog, you'll probably have good luck. I'm a KU guy, but I would imagine a KState cap would score some points with a lot of folks out in that part of the state. Good luck and enjoy. Hope you and your lab find some roosters.
 
A quick tip , if you get to your first spot before shooting time , just roll down the window and listen , quite a few times you will here a rooster either gliding out to feed , a group of birds getting up and making some ruck-ess .

Follow the dog is the best advice as stated earlier . Hunt into the wind or quartering wind .

Here is what I concentrate on during different times of the day , weather conditions play a factor to .

Early morning they want to go eat, so usually hunt roosting cover close to fields, Milo and wheat stubble can be good ,

Later in the morning and through the afternoon I look for loafing cover . Plumb thickets that get a little sun , weed patches , odd areas maybe a real weedy fence row or weedy area in CRP . Later in the afternoon look at areas again close to grain / wheat fields .

Don't go to fast , acknowledge the dog when he hits a scent trail and follow him .

Let's here how you did !!! By the way you are going to school with a bunch of kids that have ties to the farm take sometime to get to know them .
 
Like the others said just follow the dog. One of the biggest things is learning to read the dog which you will only get with experience. Some really birdy dogs have a tendency to take off on the bird's and run them up way ahead of you so you'll want to use an e-collar if this is an issue. If you are hunting an area where the crops are still up you'll want to hunt early and late when they are feeding. They roost in grass, fly out to a feeding area in the morning, head to standing crops during the day, then feed in the afternoon and head back to the grass late.

That's my favorite way to hunt...just me and the dog. Good luck!
 
Remember the edge doesn't always mean the edge. It can expand due to weather , hunting pressure, etc. There are multiple edges in every field. A south facing hillside, a draw, terrace, oil well road, game trail , weed patch and so on. Today was my opener. I took one bird off of a traditional edge out of a corner and missed a couple of others on the edge of feed. two birds came later in the day off of a half mile walk back to the truck. They were a hundred yards in south of an east west cornfield edge. You have to play to the strengths of your dog. I hunt a retriever also. He is never going to cover ground like a pointing dog. On a warm day like today he is a plodder and wouldnt last busting cover, but has a 45 yd nose. This afternoon we hunted thinner cover and used the wind to our advantage. picture from today. good luck to you.
View attachment 7733
 
Theres the test. That sucks, I just spent 30 minutes writing twice.

Kansan, PM your number and will call you if interested. Not gonna try to write the book for the third time.
 
I appreciate the tips greatly. I'm absolutely stoked to get after em! Ill be sure any keep everyone updated on what I find. Lord willing, I'll have some pictures of the dog in the truck bed and roosters on the tailgate.

Is there any gear besides the obvious that I should bring for the dog or myself?
 
Boots that fit. I walked 37,000 steps on Saturday.

Duct tape is your friend if you feel a blister coming in or are prone to getting a blister. Rip a piece a few inches square. Apply to skin where blister would be. Works better than moleskin.
 
One other trick I use has helped I think. Older guy I hunted with would cruise slowly past crp and look for pheasant tracks in the road. Unless he saw tracks he would usually not hunt it, unless it really looked amazing. At first I was skeptical and laughed... But I've been shocked at the correlation between tracks in the road and birds we jumped.
 
Kansan said:
Well, I just attempted to post a long winded post that took me an hour, and then it didn't post. So that's a kick in the nuts.

So, I'll condense my point that I tried to so eloquently articulate.

I'm from southeast Kansas, and have hunted my entire life. As you're likely aware, there are no pheasants in southeast Kansas. I mostly hunt on family land around home so I've never killed a pheasant in my life. I love to waterfowl hunt and have a 2 year old lab who is phenomenal on ducks and geese. He, like myself, has never upland hunted. So it will be just as much of a learning experience for him as me. He does have a great nose and has no trouble finding and tracking crippled waterfowl. I know if he gets a whiff of a pheasant he'll certainly have to go investigate. I suspect that as soon as the first bird boils out from under him, he'll know what the deal is. I'm currently an agronomy student at K-State, so I don't have too far of a drive to get in to some pheasants. I plan on loading up the pickup on Friday and heading west, just my dog and myself. I will be hunting all WIHA and was thinking about hunting the Osborne county area. If I don't have luck there I was thinking about trying Graham county. I have looked at aerial maps and found several tracts of WIHA with water, grass, and crops.

That said, I have a few questions for you.

1. I know better than to ask specific questions about someone's spot, so I'm asking in a very broad sense. But do the areas I mentioned seem like a decent start? If I don't find any birds, I'll try someplace else. I'll go where the birds take me.

2. I've found a few spots on the atlas that have grass and crops, which is where I've heard I need to start. What do you look for on a map that makes you want to further investigate that spot? Once you get there, how do you decide you want to try hunting it? I've heard a lot of WIHA ground isn't very good. What kind of crops do they like the best? What type of cover should I look for?

3. Since I'll be hunting by myself, thinking about hunting these giant fields is intimidating. My best guess is to let out the dog and start hunting an edge between food and cover. Do you walk in the crops or the grass? How far from the edge? Do you hunt the middle of big fields or CRP? I'd just like my dog to have the best chance of crossing paths with a rooster. I really don't know much about the mannerisms of pheasants except that they hide in grass, they have to eat, and they like to run.

4. How does the way you hunt change with the time of day? Do you start hunting at first shooting light?

Any other tips for a greenhorn are highly appreciated. If I could shoot one, I'd be tickled pink. I have several days to hunt. If I have any luck, I'll get the first ever pheasant for myself, and my dog. Regardless if I shoot my limit every day, or don't pop a cap, I know I'll have a wonderful time just enjoying creation with my dog. I know hunting pheasants solo takes a lot of strategizing, and any advice you guys have for me truly means a great deal. This will undoubtedly be a tremendous educational experience for both myself and my dog. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, but that makes it all the more exciting! Safe hunting gents!
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1. West from Manhattan is the right direction. Past Junction City at least.
2. You'll need to drive to the WIHA patches to look them over. The atlas has insufficient info.
3. Walk in the grass if its 9 am or later. They hold better in grass so start your hunting day at about 9. Weedy draws and patches of kochia (fire weed) are favorite pheasant hangouts after feeding and for roosting.
4. Birds usually begin feeding at first light and return to roost/loaf around nine. Hunting stubble and stalks with today's clean farming can be difficult without a big hunting party. But crop fields vary and some offer sufficient over for birds to hold in.

Pheasants are spooky so park some distance from where you plan to enter a field. Be quiet with car doors and dog commands. Begin your hunt into the wind if possible. If it's a patch of CRP with no abutting crops, start on the downwind side and move across the wind. When the dog turns into wind and seems birdy, follow. Hunt the best part of a field first because the second you step into a field it starts degrading. if you save the best for last it won't be best when you get there.

Good luck and put up a post about your hunt.
 
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First light

BritChaser said:
1. West from Manhattan is the right direction. Past Junction City at least.
2. You'll need to drive to the WIHA patches to look them over. The atlas has insufficient info.
3. Walk in the grass if its 9 am or later. They hold better in grass so start your hunting day at about 9. Weedy draws and patches of kochia (fire weed) are favorite pheasant hangouts after feeding and for roosting.
4. Hunting starting sunrise (the legal start time) is the time the birds are usually out feeding in stubble and stalks. Very difficult to hunt them there without a big hunting party.

Pheasants are spooky so park some distance from where you plan to enter a field. Be quiet with car doors and dog commands. Begin your hunt into the wind if possible. If it's a patch of CRP with no abutting crops, start on the downwind side and move across the wind. When the dog turns into wind and seems birdy, follow. Hunt the best part of a field first because the second you step into a field it starts degrading. if you save the best for last it won't be best when you get there.

Good luck and put up a post about your hunt.
Click to expand...

So I'm a little confused. I've always done relatively well in grass at first light. Am I missing something with hunting stalks right off the bat? I've always felt that around 9 or so is when they're out feeding.
 
Shooting starts at 30 minutes before sunrise. I always do pretty good at that time before the head out to feed. I with Jsmith on this, hunt grass first, then move to feed, then back to grass and loafing areas, then feed. Seems they move back into roosting area post sunset.
 
One of the best fields we ever found was a WIHA that we had just happened to finish a limit in about half hour before sunset. We knew it was decent until right at dark. Then they started pouring in to roost. If i remember, it was 2004. Think 4 of us killed 32 the first two days and four more on that Monday by 8:00. All WIHA. It was wet and I wouldn’t have walked it again if I’d had another hundred shots. We quit and drove home. Ahhh the good old days. This one particular field was good no matter the time but then again there were a lot of birds that year. It produced several years for us. Couldn’t find it this year.

I’ve had both good luck and bad early. They do seem to hold better in afternoon.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what it is on a cloudy morning especially if it’s flying straight away.
 
Jonjhawk said:
When and how do you know if a walk on field has been hit hard? And how often can you go back to the same tract?
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tire tracks, boot tracks, and dog tracks in the road are about your only indicators. Hunting WIHA its always a gamble on how hard its been hunted. On opening weekend, after the first field you hunt after daylight you're mostly trading fields with others anyway.

I'll admit to my poor navigation abilities on the opener. left a WIHA, idea was to go check out some others, didn't like them, kept driving, checked some others, kept driving, flipping between map and phone, kept driving.

Oh, this one looks good, wheat and milo. Lets hunt it. Dog gets birdy on first pass, my buddy shoots a rooster. Hey, this is a good field. Only 100 yards further before we realize that it was the same field we'd just hunted, shot birds out of, and left to go look for a different field, only to enter it from the other end of the field.

Point being, after a field has been hunted, it can still hold birds.
 
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