PA Pheasant Season

We headed to a familiar place for this year's opener. The same gamelands where Dugan learned to hunt and where I shot my first rooster! We managed to harvest a rooster a piece! I have never seen the place full of more hunters than we saw this morning! I guess pheasant hunting is becoming even more popular than it has been even in the last few years! People got there early and headed to the fields with flashlights..these people where pumped and rightfully so because pheasant hunting in the state of Pennsylvania is simply great! We left early because there were just to many hunters coming from all directions and as we all know it's a long season and it doesn't make sense to risk anything happening. We had a blast and hope you all did as well!

Pictures to follow!
 
Dugan with the first rooster!


Me and Dugan just after harvesting the second rooster!
The spurs on this rooster were long..like wild long..was definitely not expecting that..makes you wonder! We know the area extremely well and have seen broods on nearby farms. We have even spoke to people who have told us they have seen chicks on gamelands property but nothing every substantial so we always classified the area as capable of holdovers! I guess you never know!
 
HollowWatcher,

Looks like you guys had a great hunt, and great photos!:coolpics: I agree we've never seen so many guys out for pheasant brfore, my Uncle said it reminded him of the old days.
That's a fine looking cock bird, would be neat if it's a wild bird. Do you guys get many wild birds a year? Was gamelands by your camp?

We did ok too, four of us went and we got three birds, then we called it quits because of the crowds. We're going back out this evening.
 
I've got computer and Internet issues so I'm typing this on my phone. The dogs had 6 points but 5 were on hens in a rooster only area. I did take the one rooster the dogs found. I'll add some pictures if I get my tech issues figured out.
 
Well, I'll bet the PGC is very happy, the turnout for the opener was fantastic, a little to crowded for us, but good to see all the people into pheasant hunting. Every opening day is special and this one was no exception. Dugan did well and I was happy to see him move the way he did. He marked one of the downed roosters in very heavy high cover that we would have never found. He also had an early battle with the rooster with the long spurs, the bird laid on it's back and was trying to rake him good. Hope you guys all had as good a day. It'll be Co-Ops Monday, and I can't wait to get back out already!
 
Dirt and I hit SGL 83, It looked like the Harrisburg outdoor show with all the people in orange hats and camo T-shirts.

This was Dirt's first real time out on a wild Pheasant hunt ( well as wild as I can get so far ) In the early hrs I was a little apprehensive on exactly what my role was and where my place was out there with all those people, but after a while I kinda went with the flow and I wasn't so up tight after a while about Dirt going over to other peoples dogs if the other dogs were coming towards us first. needless to say it was an experience ill never forget, almost comical in a way, we ended up just letting the dogs run around and goof off for a while, because it didn't matter there were so many people out there and birds were just darting the sky's in every direction.

After the Mass left the play time was over, we were working a hedge and Dirt flushed his FIRST "wildish" hold over, what ever Phez. I was so proud, unfortunately the bird flew to the other side and some one else got it. It was a kid so I was happy for her, I even made Dirt bring it to her, It was worth it. So that happen 3 more times but I did get one.

On our way back to the truck he was getting birdy and sure enough he busted up 6 roosters groped together but no good shots for me and about 50 more yards another 4 roosters groped together and that's when I got my second one.

Most all the Birds that were shot today by others and the 2 I got were in very very very thick sticker bushes even to nasty for Dirt to get in, Is this common ????
 
parooster said:
HollowWatcher,

Looks like you guys had a great hunt, and great photos!:coolpics: I agree we've never seen so many guys out for pheasant brfore, my Uncle said it reminded him of the old days.
That's a fine looking cock bird, would be neat if it's a wild bird. Do you guys get many wild birds a year? Was gamelands by your camp?

We did ok too, four of us went and we got three birds, then we called it quits because of the crowds. We're going back out this evening.
Click to expand...

We were in a rooster only area and very far from camp. We try to designate a couple days each year to hunt wild birds and we manage to get a few here and there! As you can imagine is not an easy task. Harvesting holdover's is more common..still not as common as that word would infer but more common than wild birds. It's really hard to say how many holdovers we harvest a year because the difference between them and released birds are small especially after they survive a week or two! In the end those things don't really matter because their really is no difference..those roosters out there can give the best bird dog fits no matter where they came from!
 
So the season started not so great but you?ll have days like this..lol Started out slow put a few in the bag but saw as many piles of feathers as we did birds sounds like they stocked there Wednesday in the am and the fox and yots must have had a hay day. It was the least amount of shooting I?ve heard there. I took a 22 yr old adult mentor and let him use my gun and he just couldn?t hit anything..lol one excited kid. So we quit for the morning and took a break and headed to another gameland for the afternoon. Buddy of mine wanted to meet us there and try to let Drake show him the ropes. As we were sitting there waiting two hens walked across the road I told the mentor now is your chance give them a few minutes to get away from the road and you walk around and I put drake on them well everything went to plan and two more misses.lol This time I even shot and missed using a side-by-side I haven?t used for 20 years good excuse.lol We meet up with my Buddy and his dog and Drake flushed 4 more with all misses..lol All in all a good day Drake had 15 flushes for the day just not so good day for the game bag. But the boy is hooked and is ready to go again. :thumbsup:
 
25ott6,
Are you sure you guys just didn't want to clean all those birds! lol. At least Drake did his job. Seriously though, anytime you can flush 15 birds it's a good day.:thumbsup:
 
Sounds like everybody is off to a good start.

I hunted for an hour after work on the gamelands. It sure was warm with temps around 70. I decided to stick close to the ponds and Blitz ended up pointing a woodcock that I connected on. After that the dogs found one hen on the way back to the truck. I'm still having computer/Internet issues so pictures will have to wait. I won't be out until Friday.
 
Here is a picture from the opening day. This was the only rooster we found on the day.
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Here are some pictures of the area that I got the woodcock from on Monday.
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The dogs were happy to cool off in the pond and mud after finding the bird.
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I think we are all happy to see cooler temps on the way for the end of the week.
 
Nice pictures! I think that's the first time I've seen your pups with mud on them. :) You're right about the cooler temps, there might even be a little snow at camp.
 
Great photos and can't wait for colder temps. Congrats on the woodcock. Probably taking Friday off to get out before the rush then sneeking up to Bradford county for Turkey and give Drake the day off.
 
looks like a good start to the season!

love the pictures!

Think I'm going to take off on friday and head on up there for a day of hunting before the crowded weekend.
 
snipet said:
looks like a good start to the season!

love the pictures!

Think I'm going to take off on friday and head on up there for a day of hunting before the crowded weekend.
Click to expand...

That's a good plan! I'll be back out Friday as well. Good luck.
 
Yet another great day in the field, it was beautiful out this morning! We planned to take it easy on Dugan today, we wanted to work some hedgerows and stay out of the thick stuff but the plans changed. We began working the hedgerows when we met a father and son out hunting who told us they saw a bunch of birds in the the thick stuff. They asked if they could hunt with us and we could tell that they were excited so we said sure. As soon as Dugan went into the thicket he got birdy and he tore it up, he was lights out and flushed about five birds. Dugan did his part but the shooting was poor. We got one bird that we would have never found after it landed in the thicket without Dugan! We had to call it a day after that because Dugan cut himself in the thicket pretty bad and we wanted to take of that. He is okay though. The father and son were pumped and couldn't believe the dog work! Too bad they didn't get a bird over Dugan but they had a few shots!



 
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