Hunting A Big Field

S

sloth5202

New member
Just wondering how you flusher guys approach a large piece of ground with your dog when you are hunting either by yourself or with one other guy. Do you let the dog take you to the birds? Do you break the field into sections and cover it like you would mow the lawn while the dog quarters in front of you?

I know ideally you would like to work smaller tracts but sometimes options become limited.
 
I like to prioritize sections that I think will hold birds, depending on the time of year and time of day. I also will work areas that naturally lead to a funnel, which forces the birds to flush (like a break in the cover). My thought is if they run, they'll run out of cover to run in.

If those don't break the field up enough I try to use a crosswind (keeping on the downwind side) and give my dog a little more freedom to follow her nose.

If that doesn't work, I pray for snow to push the birds into the cattails!
 
All but 2 fields I frequent in SD are large fields with a few massive fields in the mix. I'll usually start out by following the dog--at this point, he knows the game so I can follow him if that's what I feel like doing.

If I need to get him into an area where I feel the birds are in, we'll head off into that direction and hopefully have some fun;).

With that said, knowing the habits of wild pheasants is very helpful to locating birds, though in SD it's not too difficult to do. lol

Nick :cheers:
 
I tend to try and break it up into different types of cover early in the season. Can give me a real good feel for what the birds are hanging out in on that particular day. Once that tactic has been tried I tend to let the dog go where she wants to and follow her nose usually trying to give her hints on directions if we are not on a bird at the moment. Directing them to "choke" points is a very good tactic here in SD where the public land birds learn real quick that running is better than flying. Some public areas I hunt are hit with a lot of pressure early on and I may not be able to just follow the dog. Usually I am there pretty early and can be afforded the luxury of being able to go where I want with those that arrived after me getting to walk what I chose not to initially or follow behind me hoping the dog and I walked by one. Walking toward the center of big patches and then heading to corners of the field has worked well if there is nothing beyond the corner.
 
You mentioned some good points Rand. This thread can almost turn into wild pheasant habit/patterns depending on weather, time of day, type of cover, and time of season. It really does vary depending on all the above:)

Nick
 
Yeah this is great picking everyone's brains! It seems that it's really important to look at a big piece of ground as a bunch of smaller ones and you just need to pick the right one.

I do have one question from all this and that's how do you account for weather?

Next question... GPS coordinates to you honeyhole:D jk
 
My favorite is to hunt those "happy hour" birds. I mean that magic hour before sunset, when the birds are returning from corn fields, back to their roosts. That's when I hunt the edges of big fields, because I know they'll be moving from one area to another.

I tend to avoid heavy rain (it wipes away scent and I don't like being wet).
 
Weather can be a hinderance or a gift depending on what it is. I always like starting at 10 am here in SD when the season times change. usually can have a little more moisture on the grass which tends to hold scent really well. The longer the season goes I tend to head for thicker cover. Sometimes I find myself wearing my hip boots and walking through water. They are sometimes sitting on clumps of grass out in the water. High winds and heavy snow usually pushes them deeper into the sloughs.
 
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