To shoot a hen pheasant or not to shoot a hen pheasant?

C

Campbell76

New member
The topic is to shoot a hen or not to shoot a hen. This last weekend I was hunting with my cousin and he shot a hen because my dog got it up. I clearly said Hen! And he told me he knew it was but he shot it for the dog. It's his land but I know rules are rules. If my dog was a pup I wouldn't of minded but to me he should of let it go but whatever. We got back to the house and his dad said how you do. Well he shot a rooster and a hen which we didn't find either. I thought his dad would be like why did you shoot a hen but yet he said that he had spoken to conservation officers before about shooting hens or not. The officer has told him that it doesn't make a difference in a pheasants and the only reason that pheasants have a hen rooster ID is that they can ID in flight but any other upland bird(quail,chickens, dove, etc) doesn't and if we the hunters would petition to shoot hens they would ok it. If it was 3 rosters 1 hen or 2&2. I would do that.

So my question is would you shoot a hen if it was legal.
 
About ten years ago we were hunting in Western Kansas on my father in-laws land and he had a couple Hispanic guys that were ranch hands for him. One of the guys came and hunted the last couple hours of the day with us. On our way home my father in-law called laughing, he said his ranch hand told him he "had fun hunting with us, but he didn't understand why we didn't shoot the hens because they taste just like the roosters!"

To answer your question, yes if it was legal I'd shoot them.
 
Generally speaking, I wouldn't. If I ever get out after quail this year I'm going to try to selectively shoot the cocks. We'll see how good at it I am.
 
matto said:
Generally speaking, I wouldn't. If I ever get out after quail this year I'm going to try to selectively shoot the cocks. We'll see how good at it I am.
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Unless quail are flying straight away, I always know if what sex the bird is before I pull the trigger. I used to hold off when I saw a hen, but since reading so much about how it has little, if any effect, I've stopped concerning myself with it.

I probably wouldn't shoot hens even if it were legal. I like the added anticipation of hoping the bird flushing is the "right" sex.
 
If it was me, I would not hunt with my cousin anymore. Shooting a hen is a game violation, basically poaching. He if thinks it is okay to violate that rule he would surely violate others.
 
Rooster pheasants gather a harem of hens, quail don't. As a matter of fact rooster quail will take over brooding responsibility after the hen has hatched her clutch so the hen can be bred again and lay another clutch quicker, the mountain quail hens will lay two clutches and her and the rooster will incubate and brood two clutches simultaneously. Rooster pheasants don't help out with brooding and they really don't need to because hen pheasants are not capable of double hatches. The more healthy hen pheasants that go into spring the more chicks on the ground, I wouldn't shoot hens if it were legal.
 
If it was made legal, I would assume it's because it was determined the population wouldn't suffer. So, I'd shoot the girls too.

But I doubt that's going to happen.

Personally, I wouldn't put any weight on what a conservation officer (supposedly) said once. It's pretty black and white in the regs -- you'll pay the price if you get caught. Not sure what he said is correct anyway.
 
Besides the fact that it is ILLEGAL! More so than any other upland game bird, you can harvest 90% of all the roosters without affecting next years hatch. Roosters are gregarious and don't mind having lots of girl friends. ;) For that reason each hen that you shoot you effectively take away her ability to nest and produce little pheasants next spring.

On top of that, during hard winters when there is struggle for food, roosters will push the hens off the food and hen mortality will directly affect next springs hatch. Shooting hens will never be allowed IMO. A healthy hen population going into the nesting season is critical for improving Pheasant numbers.
 
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Shooting wild hen pheasants is like shooting the Goose that lays the golden egg.

After a historic three year drought that reduced the wild pheasant population by 60 to 70% in some areas, and add to that shooting perfectly healthy wild hens would really put the hurt on rebuilding the wild pheasant population.

Remember aerial predators take hens more than roosters because the hens are smaller.
Any wildlife official that tell hunters that they can harvest hens with no total adverse effect on the total wild pheasant population is giving out bad advice.

Another difference is that we have billions with a "B" of wild doves in North American, and shooting both sexes will not hurt them.

You have ten times more pheasant hunters from surrounding states (Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and the Mid South) chasing wild Kansas pheasant (for three months) than quail and PC hunters. Now tell all of those out of state hunters that they can shoot hen pheasant along with roosters. If you do that you will be chasing ghost pheasants five years down the road.
 
Preston1 said:
Shooting wild hen pheasants is like shooting the Goose that lays the golden egg.

After a historic three year drought that reduced the wild pheasant population by 60 to 70% in some areas, and add to that shooting perfectly healthy wild hens would really put the hurt on rebuilding the wild pheasant population.

Remember aerial predators take hens more than roosters because the hens are smaller.
Any wildlife official that tell hunters that they can harvest hens with no total adverse effect on the total wild pheasant population is giving out bad advice.

Another difference is that we have billions with a "B" of wild doves in North American, and shooting both sexes will not hurt them.

You have ten times more pheasant hunters from surrounding states (Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and the Mid South) chasing wild Kansas pheasant (for three months) than quail and PC hunters. Now tell all of those out of state hunters that they can shoot hen pheasant along with roosters. If you do that you will be chasing ghost pheasants five years down the road.
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Preston, great response. I realize that I'm in the 1% here, but there are many reasons not to shoot hens. Your cousin put your ownership of your gun and dog in jeopardy should a law enforcement officer witnessed the incident. Since both were part of the "violation", all could have become part of the confiscation. As for the birds, pheasants are polygamous. This is the reason we shoot only roosters. On average, one rooster can service 15 hens in the spring and, thus, shooting only roosters allows ALL the hens to be available for potential production during the nesting season. Bobwhite are not truely monogamous nor are they polygamous. To some extent, whether you're short hens or cocks in the bobwhite population, the limiting factor is whatever sex is in short supply. It is much closer to the 1:1 ratio vs the 1:15 ratio seen in pheasants. If I'm as clear as mud here, let me know.
 
I don't think we would be 1% ers within the serious pheasant hunting community on this one Troy.
 
When I have been on a preserve hunt it still feels weird shooting hens. I don't know if I would shoot them or not. I am with Troy, I won't hunt with guys that won't follow the rules. I quit hunting with a guy in sd with some primo ground because he thought everything he saw was his. No fun for me to worry about getting caught the whole time I am out there.

On a side note, when I was a kid the first night we would stay with the farmer his wife would fix freshly shot hens for us he shot with a 22 in the tree belt behind the house. He said he only shot the hens so there would be more roosters for us:D. I do remember them being quite good
 
Clarification, less than 1% of the population is in law enforcement. I wasn't infering that 1% wouldn't shoot a hen. Sorry for the confusion. Thank you all for giving me hope for the future with your own ethical approaches. I can only guess you understand that as an officer the negatives often are fresher in our mind than the positives! Missouri has cemented that in the last few months. However, I am continually amazed at how cavalier some people view the law, personal rights, law enforcement officers...... Many of the neighbors of my wildlife area think that landowner rights are in effect on their side of the fence but not ours! I sometimes feel that I'm a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. Thing is, the problem isn't with me........or so I tell myself!
 
What we are not talking about is how many die anyway from winter kill. Very few pheasants survive past 1 1/2 years old anyway. I do shoot hens on game farms and it feels weird at first but after a while you get used to shooting what flies and not worrying about the sex. In the wild I would shoot hens if allowed, but it does make it more of a sport to have to identify the bird first.

How about mallards? Do you guys only shoot greenheads?
 
I try to shoot only greenheads. I have slipped before tho. They say it doesn't matter with ducks. But, there is a reason only 2 mallard hens are allowed and I figure shooting none has to be better than shooting 2 or even 1. That one I shoot could raise 8 ducklings for next year.

Since I'm not a biologist of any kind I, along with many others are at their mercy when it comes to things such as this. I can only repeat the things I read which may or may not be true.
 
Exponentially(sp) because of the lifespan a duck has the potential to be responsible for so many more offspring. The math is beyond me but its probably hundreds maybe a thousand.
If hen pheasants were legal I'd probably shoot a few. Maybe once or twice a year. Maybe a few more if I was working a young dog.
 
Preston1 said:
Shooting wild hen pheasants is like shooting the Goose that lays the golden egg.

After a historic three year drought that reduced the wild pheasant population by 60 to 70% in some areas, and add to that shooting perfectly healthy wild hens would really put the hurt on rebuilding the wild pheasant population.

Remember aerial predators take hens more than roosters because the hens are smaller.
Any wildlife official that tell hunters that they can harvest hens with no total adverse effect on the total wild pheasant population is giving out bad advice.

Another difference is that we have billions with a "B" of wild doves in North American, and shooting both sexes will not hurt them.

You have ten times more pheasant hunters from surrounding states (Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and the Mid South) chasing wild Kansas pheasant (for three months) than quail and PC hunters. Now tell all of those out of state hunters that they can shoot hen pheasant along with roosters. If you do that you will be chasing ghost pheasants five years down the road.
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I agree with all of that. Don't shoot the hens please! Even if the birds are on private it will hurt populations in the surrounding areas especially since many birds find refuge on private land during the hunting season.
 
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