When was the golden age of pheasant hunting?

[gimruis]

The snow goose population in North America is pushing 15 million. Knocking a flock of 10,000 out won't even remotely make a dent. In fact its barely even measurable from a mathematical standpoint.

 

[remy3424]

Dad talked about going out at night clubbing pheasants in the 1950s because they were digging up all the corn seed.

Lots of oats raised in those days, that enabled pheasants and jack rabbits to raise young after seeding and before harvest.

They shot jack rabbits by the pickup load, sold them over a scale to mink farms.

My father talked about shooting rabbits around corn piles at night, by car lights I believe, and selling them to the local mink farms also.
He talked about shoot their limits of pheasants driving between farms, that would have been in the 50s as he was born in 36. They chased and shot lots of fox back then too...I haven't seen a live fox for a few year now. Even longer for seeing a jack rabbit in this area. In 20 years our kids or grandkids will not believe we once had wild pheasants like we do even now....if CRP is not continued.

 

[BRITTMAN]

Snow geese are one of the more vulnerable species to bird flu. Likely a combination of their extremely high congregation rate and something genetic in the species. Canada geese, whitefront geese, and sandhill cranes are stage in large flocks, but seem a bit less susceptible. It seems like springtime has a higher incident rate.

Then again maybe it is because once can see large groups of dead and dying white birds easier than other species.

 

[BRITTMAN]

My dad killed a lot of pheasants in ND in the late 30s and early 40s before he went into the service. His family lived on canned pheasant for much of the year.

 

[Bob Peters]

My dad killed a lot of pheasants in ND in the late 30s and early 40s before he went into the service. His family lived on canned pheasant for much of the year.

This was the impression that I got for the golden age. It kinda mirrored what Dakota Zeb said two pages ago. The high point for overall bird numbers was the late 30s through the 40s.