Indiana Pheasant draw

70worm said:
I put in once, I got drawn once, I got shot in the face once, and never put in for a draw ever again. Nothing serious, but a handfull of bird shot peppering you in the face will give you second thoughts on running around Atterbury with that many people shooting all over the place.
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You are talking about a different hunt. That is the Put and Take hunt. These are the reserved hunt on managed pheasant property in the NW part of the state.

I've done both. I was almost killed at Atterbury back in the early 90s and never went again for that Russian Roulette. I did however go back later in the year and find a cock or two that were smart enough to evade the GI Joes. Usually on sections close to where the hunts happened but not in them.

The Reserve Hunts are a totally different animal. You get one property to yourself and up to 2 other people. It is managed to provide cover for pheasants and quail. No one else hunts it. I've gotten to do it once and I actually stopped and watched a group hunt a property for about an hour. My experience wasn't great on the property I got on through a buddy. (He was drawn, I never have been).

Was told by some guys I know in that area that the one we were going to hunt wasn't good for pheasants but had loads of deer. They were right. We kicked up ONLY 7 birds, 1 cock and 6 hens. My buddy missed an easy couple of shots and that was that. Saw more deer and rabbits.

The place I sat and watched from the road, I saw that group kick up close to 50 birds in one hour or so. That was cool.

And lo and behold, this year my primary hunting partner got drawn! Nearly 30yrs of trying between the two of us and this is the first time. To fill out the group of three I asked another guy who has a couple of dogs and he said he hunted the exact property last year.

Lot's of birds but 120ac of grass to hunt. That's a big damn field for 3 guys. You can start at 9am and have to be out by 3pm. He said they limited last year (6 cocks total) but it was really hard as the birds just ran around all day. We're going to have 3 guys and 3 dogs. I'm excited because reports are pretty good this year. Farmers are seeing lots more birds than last year.

BTW, I am 0 - 27 on the reserved pheasant hunt. First applied in 1992 and never been picked. And I am going to post some wild Indiana pheasant pics this year. Still not sure anyone has ever done that.

And today is the opener and it's raining like a Mother.......
 
We had a great time. One big-ass piece of grass, weeds, corn, and switchgrass! I am completely beat. Dog is worse. 3 guys, 3 dogs and we put up 50+ pheasants. Split the day into 3 hrs in the morning and 2 hrs after lunch.

Bagged 4 cocks between us but I passed on multiple easy shots just because I wanted to. Partners did the same. Easily could have had a limit if we wanted. We did lose one bird that we could not recover even after searching for more than 20 minutes with all three dogs. Sad.

Also saw 8 deer and one nice 10 point buck. Not huge but had good height but not width or mass. Probably a 2 - 2.5 years old or so.

Did have one nice 5 cock flush with appropriate cackling. That was good to see.

In the morning we saw mostly cocks and afternoon hens, but the 5 cock boil was almost at the end of the day.

A couple of guys could hunt that 120 acres all year and never find every bird.

Two old tired hunters
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I believe the first Indiana pheasant pictures every posted on this forum!
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and a couple of nice cocks from Illinois hunt last Sunday that are properly aging in my 45 degree garage. Ready today or tomorrow.
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Congratulations on your hunt I got drawed for the 28 can’t wait area around Monticello.
Great pictures!!!
 
When someone backs out I can go on short notice! lol. tomorrow should be great weather too. Good luck and report back.
 
Hunted with a friend that got drawed east of Fowler today seen about 30 pheasants. Wish more places like this in Indiana then we would have some birds. I seen more roost then I have seen in fields I have hunted in Kansas. I can’t imagine how many birds the person seen that got drawed for the first hunt on this property.
 
Okay, Indiana. Has anyone been drawn for the ‘formerly APPLE’ upland land yet? Curious to see how this compares to the Pheasant Habitat Areas. I have been fortunate enough to hunt 3 Pheasant Properties in the last 20 year’s and always done well.
I notice there are ‘south properties’ listed on the draw application as well, and I assume this quail only area.
Happy hunting this season!
 
I’ve hunted the GBA’s 3 times myself. All 3 times it was awesome.
have yet to be drawn for the APPLE hunt yet.
 
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