My dad, brother, father in law, and I are trying to plan a hunt for next year. Since we will have to drive 20-25 hours from NC for good bird hunting we would like to try to hunt multiple species if possible. We are pretty certain we want the main target to be pheasants since none of us have ever hunted wild ones before. How late in the year is it worth trying to target sharptails? We will probably be looking to hunt late Oct/Nov. We are not concerned with getting limits every day, just new experiences. If anyone has other suggestions for multi species hunts(without going all the may to MT, ID, etc) let me know. Thanks for the help.
Latest you can effectively hunt sharptails?
- Thread starter jbuchanan
- Start date
BRITTMAN
Well-known member
My experience has shown that generally speaking it is the weather more than the calendar.
The birds to tend to congregate as you get into October and beyond, but they are still huntable.
Calm, sunny and warm (relative) are the best days for sharptails. Windy - the birds get much more jumpy. Cloudy and cold - same thing. So back to my original comment. September has more warm, calm sunny days than October and November. December sunny days often mean cold and windy with snow on the ground.
Once snow stays on the ground, the sharptails get more difficult. They will roost in trees often. They will feed in open fields for a longer part of the day. They often fly long distances between roost and feeding areas. Most of the sharptails that we shoot late season is pass shooting. We are not setting up to pass shoot (although one probably could), but flocks passing over when you are doing other things often present decent shots.
The birds to tend to congregate as you get into October and beyond, but they are still huntable.
Calm, sunny and warm (relative) are the best days for sharptails. Windy - the birds get much more jumpy. Cloudy and cold - same thing. So back to my original comment. September has more warm, calm sunny days than October and November. December sunny days often mean cold and windy with snow on the ground.
Once snow stays on the ground, the sharptails get more difficult. They will roost in trees often. They will feed in open fields for a longer part of the day. They often fly long distances between roost and feeding areas. Most of the sharptails that we shoot late season is pass shooting. We are not setting up to pass shoot (although one probably could), but flocks passing over when you are doing other things often present decent shots.
BRITTMAN
Well-known member
Some field trial guys would go to prairie Canada in August and first part of September to train big time pointers and then head home before the season even began.
We have a saying that one bird always stays. If a group of birds gets up wild or too far out, follow up on their ground position. Always seems there is one bird that sits tight and offers a shot.
On sunny, cold and windy (N, NW wind) days the birds will sit in very light cover on the hillside just out of the wind, but in the sun. They WILL see you coming from along distance.
We have a saying that one bird always stays. If a group of birds gets up wild or too far out, follow up on their ground position. Always seems there is one bird that sits tight and offers a shot.
On sunny, cold and windy (N, NW wind) days the birds will sit in very light cover on the hillside just out of the wind, but in the sun. They WILL see you coming from along distance.