New to forum

[binner]

Hello. Great forum. Looking forward to a first time upland/pheasant hunt in the Malta area this fall with my family. Any suggestions/help would be much appreciated. Cheers.

 

[UplandHntr]

welcome and cheers :cheers:

 

[binner]

Much appreciated.

 

[crockett]

Welcome! I think that you'll find a lot of good suggestions for your first hunt by browsing around here. But if you want a bit more than that it would be useful to know a bit about the cover that you are going to hunt on that farm. You mentioned pheasants and "upland" - do you mean that there are upland birds there other than pheasants? Do the owners hunt at all? Even if they don't they'll be your best resource to point you where to go. Second key point - will you have access to a bird dog? Not impossible if you don't, just very different advice if you'll be doing the flushing yourself! Other than that, do you have much experience wing shooting anything else? Ducks? Clay targets? If not I think that would be time well spent. If you can get out to shoot some sporting clays that'll help you a lot this fall. For pheasants, remember that they look like a four-foot long bird when they flush, but you hotta hit them in here front part to know me down! The most useful way to think of that is that the white ring on their neck is your target, and you lead that appropriately. If you still miss, most likely you need to lead them more!
Dave

 

[binner]

Sorry .. first time hunting in Malta area, not first time hunter. And yes we have a well trained dog.

 

[mnmthunting]

Knowing people from the Malta area will give you an immediate advantage. Look for pheasants in the thick stuff in the Milk River Bottoms. Brush, trees and thick and tall grass, cattails etc. Most all pheasants are on private property, that's why knowing locals sure helps.
There are large areas public lands to the South and North where putting in some miles hiking will get you some chances at the Prairie birds. :thumbsup:

 

[binner]

Thanks for reply. Unfortunately we don't know anyone in the Malta area .. I spoke to the Tillmans and he said that pheasants have been hit really hard the last couple of years. So much so that he isn't taking any hunters again this year until numbers return.