Hunting silently and way out of gun range

[Goosemaster]

This is one of those differences we have hunting birds in different locations, habitat, bird populations and hunting pressure conditions. I hunt about half the days NDP does and shoot about half the number of birds entirely on private ground, but my experiences mirror his. The birds already know you are there, you are kidding yourself if you think you are going to sneak-up on them. Maybe in light cover it improves your odds by not talking, shooting or walking in the deep dry cover, but in my experience, you can find plenty of birds TRYING your best to be quite or chatting it up with your friends/family.....if you can still concentrate on your dog. Heck, have I called out "hen" for my dog's sake when I am solo.
26 days until the Iowa opener, how did that happen!

I think making a lot of noise can spook pheasants, but not making any noise is impossible. They know you are after them,even on private property. Wearing orange is a bad idea,because they can see you from a mile away. They have excellent eyesight,and hearing, and they are intelligent for a bird.Turkeys have better eyesight.

 

[Drew]

This topic seems to come up every so often. I hunt quietly. Most likely, from learning from my Dad, who would have given me a thump on the head if I slammed a truck door or wasn't quiet. A good dog knows what it needs to do without being yelled at or encouraged while it's hunting. All that said, I believe that hunting too slowly is just as detrimental to success as a lot of noise. The worst thing that I have ever seen is when you are noisy and move to slow. My goal is to keep pressure on the birds until they make a mistake, (hold). They are incredibly good at escaping, if you give them time to. I watched a couple of my friends jump a covey of quail and shoot one that then relive the experience and give high fives. Meanwhile two huge coveys of quail did the run 100 yards and fly 400 yards dance for long enough that we never did catch up with them again.

Silent steady pressure is my approach.

 

[A5 Sweet 16]

The number of times I've had pheasants fly way out of range (& most likely ran quite a distance first) is all the evidence I need to prove being as quiet as possible helps, especially given the fact that much of the time, they flush downwind of me, because they can hear me better. Not to mention the marked increase in success from hunting into the wind vs hunting downwind. They don't hear us coming quite as soon. By being quiet, I'm not banking on being able to sneak to within a few yards of a pheasant. I'm hoping it allows me to get 5-10 yds closer than I'd get if I WASN'T quiet, before he takes serious evasive action. Many times that's the difference between a decent shot & none at all. There's almost always no guarantee whatsoever that I'll get another opportunity that day.

And I tend to hunt relatively slowly, if only to give my dog an opportunity to hunt thoroughly. But if we're in thin/medium cover & he wants to pick it up (while still being thorough), then that's what I'm forced to do. I agree that hunting slower than necessary gives pheasants more chance than they deserve to detect you & escape. Sometimes there's a fine line between being thorough & keeping the pressure on & keeping up with birds that may be on the move.

 

[hunter94]

The number of times I've had pheasants fly way out of range (& most likely ran quite a distance first) is all the evidence I need to prove being as quiet as possible helps, especially given the fact that much of the time, they flush downwind of me, because they can hear me better. Not to mention the marked increase in success from hunting into the wind vs hunting downwind. They don't hear us coming quite as soon. By being quiet, I'm not banking on being able to sneak to within a few yards of a pheasant. I'm hoping it allows me to get 5-10 yds closer than I'd get if I WASN'T quiet, before he takes serious evasive action. Many times that's the difference between a decent shot & none at all. There's almost always no guarantee whatsoever that I'll get another opportunity that day.

And I tend to hunt relatively slowly, if only to give my dog an opportunity to hunt thoroughly. But if we're in thin/medium cover & he wants to pick it up (while still being thorough), then that's what I'm forced to do. I agree that hunting slower than necessary gives pheasants more chance than they deserve to detect you & escape. Sometimes there's a fine line between being thorough & keeping the pressure on & keeping up with birds that may be on the move.

may surprise yourself, stop, pause, walk back (in a circle) and circle round to your spot again....dog will show you the way.