Situation opinions...

J

JHoch00

Member
So, we've all been there... walking a field, 120 yards from end, and birds start busting like crazy from the end of the field. (No blocker)

Question is... do you find that some birds still will hold tight or stop before the end? Or do they pretty much all go together. Do you rush to the end hoping to beat a straggler, or do you stay slow and really have dogs work the end?

(Good luck to anyone going to one last ditch effort, btw...)
 
What I have found in 23 years of hunting wily roosters is that it depends on on the existing conditions on whether some birds will hold tight or you should stop before the end....sometimes they all go together, it just depends on the weather, what is at the end of the field that you are walking (cut corn, milo stalk, tree row, a road, winter wheat, etc..) I don't rush to the end, instead I try to keep the dog close (and i have a pointing lab) so as not to push them out to far, a use the wind (if there is any) to my favor....so for sure work into the wind.

I have hunted fields without a blocker(s) at the end because we couldn't make it happen, hunted with several guys, and we worked into the wind, slow, with dogs and have caught some stragglers and some wise ole roosters will actually circle around you, duck their heads, and run in between you and the dog or other hunters.

The last thing they want to do is fly, because flying normally gets them killed, whether by a hunter or hawk....

Good luck....

Greg
 
Good thought on the wily old roosters. That is a good plan, because I'm a trophy pheasant hunter. I only shoot if they have half inch or greater spurs.

Kidding of course. But the thought will help bring me hope at the end of those fields.
 
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you can't out run them......focus on the tight holding, back circling birds.......take your time, you are looking for the ones that don't want to leave the property.
 
JHoch00 said:
So, we've all been there... walking a field, 120 yards from end, and birds start busting like crazy from the end of the field. (No blocker)

Question is... do you find that some birds still will hold tight or stop before the end? Or do they pretty much all go together. Do you rush to the end hoping to beat a straggler, or do you stay slow and really have dogs work the end?

(Good luck to anyone going to one last ditch effort, btw...)
Click to expand...

My experience: today's cornfields are wide open - no weeds and the birds are heading to the end well before you. The exception may be opening weekend when some of the younger birds are confused by it all. Blockers at the end usually get the shooting. Sorghum fields are a little bit different - lower, and thicker. Birds seem to hold better, but they also run quite a distance ahead.

I hold my gun to the left side due to an arm disability, therefore I am positioned on the left side of the field. My dog, with a strong prey drive, would chase said birds into the next county if I let him, stays on heel until the last 35-50 yards - then he's loose to hunt to the end of the field. I do pick up the pace the last 40 yards...

Seldom do birds take flight behind us - most are usually on the run to the end or try and sneak out on the sides.

Seems like whatever strategy one uses it's usually wrong! Without blockers at the end...the birds will try to take flight before you can manage a shot.
 
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Find pheasants in counties that have no WIA program and your good to go! I use to hunt Kit Carson county a lot until WIA started, now the birds are so danged riled up from all the pressure I hardly bother over there anymore and I even hunt private!

I've since found other places to hunt, that aren't as visited shall we say and birds act like they did 20 years ago and hold tight at the end of the fields. This is just what I've resorted to. Not as many birds but a whole lot easier to hunt.

Now I must go, I have two roosters and two quail that need to be cleaned!!! :thumbsup:
 
"Seems like whatever strategy one uses it's usually wrong!" Exactly!

Birds "always" behave "this way". Just when you think you have an idea what they will do in a particular situation, they will prove you wrong. We hunted a wheat stubble field today, and birds were running as we hunted into the wind. Got a few up a long ways away. Looped at the end of the field, and walked somewhat with the wind (had to get back to the truck somehow!), and, right where hunting partner had walked, birds started launching. I counted 16, all about 75 yards away. They may have looped or headed north on our first pass, but they were where he had already walked, once. Snow had knocked-down much of the stubble, so visibility of us was pretty clear. They just stayed away. Didn't get a shot at the birds that had already seen us, and none held as we got to the end of the field.

Other times, I have had a straggler or two at the end of a similar field. Old birds and young birds. You just don't know what a particular field may hold.
 
I do tend to pick up my pace if I see "The boil" stating to take place. I think once they start to fly it makes the rest of them nervous and they tend to all cut loose. I have found success in picking up the pace to try and get there before all of them escape. But every situation is different.
 
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