When, Where, and How did You Shoot Your First Pheasant?

Same old story for me too, 12 years young, 410 single shot, hunting with mom and dad near Tuthill SD. The only difference is I'd been at it for 7 or 8 years --not shooting mind you but lots and lots of field blocking at uncle Ken's farm north of Salem SD or hunting along with dad--I vaguely remember a BB gun--in those early years. Caught my very first rooster after chasing it around and around a hay stack after dad knocked it down--I was five. It's been about 60 years of upland hunting for me and I'm finally getting a bird dog this summer, just another chapter in a wonderful story of childhood thru old age and it's all been good--so good --how can one have been blessed so much.

This last season was about as good as it gets standing in a field you worked so hard on to provide the birds a place to live and hearing them crowing at the sun set---sharing that with new friends and old--it is as good as it gets.

JIM
 
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SDJIM said:
This last season was about as good as it gets standing in a field you worked so hard on to provide the birds a place to live and hearing to them crowing at the sun set---sharing that with new friends and old--it is as good as it gets.

JIM
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As good as it gets is right Jim. What a great time.

 
I can't believe I didn't post on this thread when it was new.:confused:

My first pheasant was shot at a preserve when I was around 19. We cleaned house on those pen birds... I missed a lot, more like a LOT of shots at the wild birds that followed. I've always been a dog lover, so that's what really got me hooked on pheasant hunting.
 
My first was this past winter. It was a preserve bird, so nothing super special. The best part about it was the staunch point from my puppy followed by about a 50 yard retrieve to hand...I was hooked!

I look forward to making it out west one day to hunt wild birds
 
Thanks for resurrecting this old thread!

I was 18 in NC Kansas and it was my first pheasant season. I grew up quail hunting in the eastern part of the state and would sit and talk with my dad after every one of his outings but never made the trip west until I was in college. Was blocking at the corner of this old plum thicket and a rooster got up about 100 yards from me out in the middle of some corn stubble. If I wasn't in shock, I could have taken about 5 steps forward and caught him as he dropped to the ground. Have a picture of me with that rooster hanging in my office.
 
I was hunting in Norton, Kansas when I was eleven with a single shot .410 when a rooster flushed straight up in the air trying to gain elevation over a tree. The bird was stalled out trying to get over the tree and that is the only reason I hit it back then. I've been a pheasant/upland hunter ever since. I still have my .410 which has become my puppy training gun.
 
I was a 28 yo quail hunter in NW Missouri. Never hunted pheasant. Passing thru a tree line when a rooster flies over me. Missed. When I cleared the trees another rooster flushes. This bird was a gymnast. As soon as it hit the ground it did a couple of somersaults and took off running.

Luckily, Charlie, my britt found it after a long search. Will never forget my first rooster. I was proud of my dog.
 
I'm going to preface this story by saying this is my first wild pheasant, and my current springer's first wild pheasant. I was 26 at the time... She was 7 months old.

We were hunting a WMA near St. Cloud, MN. We had been walking for a little over an hour and we started back to the car because the pup seemed to be getting tired/was starting to walk beside me. We stepped out of some willows and into a field of native grasses when my pup ran off. A couple seconds later a hen and a rooster flushed. The rooster flew left to right (my hardest shot). I missed on the first shot and connected on the second. I was so excited I ran to the bird.
 
SDJIM said:
Same old story for me too, 12 years young, 410 single shot, hunting with mom and dad near Tuthill SD. The only difference is I'd been at it for 7 or 8 years --not shooting mind you but lots and lots of field blocking at uncle Ken's farm north of Salem SD or hunting along with dad--I vaguely remember a BB gun--in those early years. Caught my very first rooster after chasing it around and around a hay stack after dad knocked it down--I was five. It's been about 60 years of upland hunting for me and I'm finally getting a bird dog this summer, just another chapter in a wonderful story of childhood thru old age and it's all been good--so good --how can one have been blessed so much.

This last season was about as good as it gets standing in a field you worked so hard on to provide the birds a place to live and hearing them crowing at the sun set---sharing that with new friends and old--it is as good as it gets.

JIM
Click to expand...
Wow! pretty much the same as my story which I will post below. First season was 1958 with the Model 37 .410. I had 80 acres south of Fedora which I developed in the '90s but had to sell when wife became ill. Shot a lot of birds there and waterfowl too. Still hunt it late season and in 2013 still held a lot of birds. This season not much. Hunted with George and he shot the only rooster we saw.
 
My first season in SD was 1958. You could carry at ten in those days. Of course I had been tagging along for a few years already.
When in a larger group, Dad made me go shell less in the Win. 37 .410 and it was aim and click. There is nothing safer than a hammer gun, particularly an empty single shot!
When ditch hunting with our best friend neighbors, I was loaded and ready to go. Had some opportunities but there were generally multiple birds and shooters. I was given credit for a rooster after my Dad questioned who might have shot at it, but I never was positive that it was"my bird".
The following year, early in the season Dad took the afternoon off and we went northwest of Mitchell a few miles. It was a perfect October day and he sent me down a treebelt. At the far end it opened up into a small dry slough with a small willow thicket. A single rooster burst straight up out of the willows and seemed to be painted on the bright blue sky until the .410 spoke with authority. I was beyond proud of my accomplishment when I walked the short distance to the road and my waiting father.
When cleaned it was found to be largely headshot, with 3-4 bbs in the shoulder area. It was frozen and given to my Grandfather who lived in St. Paul. I went on to shoot a fair number of birds with that gun the next two years before graduating to a 20 ga. 870.
 
My first opportunity to shoot an upland bird came to me in Indiana hunting with my dad in 1976, I was 8 and carrying a buffalo bill bb gun. Our Brittany pointed a covey and my dad flushed them, I was not allowed to shoot only mount and aim. One silly quail lit in a tree and my dad told me to shoot him, I questioned my dad as to why he wouldn't shoot the quail and my dad replied, " it ain't sporting to shoot a bird in a tree", I said I wouldn't do that either. I threw a rock towards the bird, it flew and dad missed.....we moved to the northern edge of Indiana and we were dog less I carried an HR topper jr 20 ga, shot a lot of flying corn cobs but no birds, we finally got another Brit in 1982 and I got an 870 wingmaster and in the fall/winter of 1982 I shot my first wild pheasant over her (Brooke) point, she was a helluva dog. We made our first trip to Iowa in 1985, two guys and dog in a Honda civic hatchback, we only killed two birds but it was the start to over a decades of trips to Iowa with my dad.

My son shot his first pheasant, pen raised, with my Topper jr in 2008. His first trip out west was to SD in December 2012 and we both harvested birds off Kaci's point, my dad just watched. That trip we missed way more then we harvested but it was a great hunt. The three of us hunted Iowa in 2013 and last year we didn't get to due to a hockey injury and knee surgery for my son. I'm hoping this year we will take birds from Kansas hunting over my younger two dogs.
 
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To whoever revived this thread, thank you. I am enjoying the recent posts as well as the old ones.
 
A group of us were hunting on PA State Game Land 242 with a pack of beagles, of which I owned 2. I think it was '87. The dogs were on the trail of what we thought was a rabbit when out popped a nice rooster right in front of me. He looked at me and I at him and then he ran and took to the air. When I regained my composure I fired my 1100 and down he came. Then the dogs came out of the thicket right where the rooster had popped out and my 2 dogs were leading the pack. I was both surprised and pleased as this was the first time they were hunted in pheasant country. Some guys don't want their beagles to run pheasants, just rabbits. I was glad mine liked to run both!
 
My first was a wild SD bird; I was 40. Dad: "that's cackling, get him!" One shot with my new gun... who ever said daughters can't shoot too? Now a couple of years later, I have my own dog and am looking forward to our next hunting adventure!
 
1958, Deer Lodge Valley Montana (which was then full of Pheasants, but alas - no longer.). Dad had a fine Springer - Duke. Dad had borrowed a bolt-action .410 for me to use & took my older cousin Chuck & me along on opening day. Duke was working a willow-lined depression when a rooster erupted in all his glory, cackling raucously as it exploded into the crisp fall air. Dad later told me that he was never more proud as he watched me release the safety, bring the gun quickly to my shoulder, make a smooth swing . . . and watch the Pheasant fly-away without firing a shot . . .

When the next rooster flushed a little while later, I finally managed to shoot my first bird and the rest is history . . . a life-long passion was launched.
 
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starter duck said:
What a blast. First bird at 48. what a time. 12 ga. athena o/u behind short hair pointer on the public land. real challange. Thank you Kansas72.50 for thousands of acres.
Lodged at the public park. not a slaughter, kinda tuff for an old man. scenery was out of the world. no trees, flat hills , dorothys house , the storm cellars, how big those white tail, mule deer and groves of turkeys were, sun rise and sets, imagining my indian pony, or wagon train, the mules that pulled before all the machines.
A few famous qoutes from the 4 southerners. "That cow would starve to death at our house." "There's dorothys & toto's house" "at least 25o pounds" "ain't no bird there....coo coo ccooo...roooster" "We can hunt all that!" "No mam, sweet tea". What a beautiful state. I am proud to be an american. I am new to the sport. It was kinda tuff pulling up and seeing tire tracks beer cans and foot prints, but we jus went on to the next place and walked, and walked. Then the overlooked spot? blind hog syndrome? Hey We got some roosters and it was fine Please allow me to apologize now for all the stupid questions I will ask between now and the next time I come. Like is it better with snow on the ground, I dont' think i will like the big push hunt, Me and my gang seemed to do alright. We minded the rules, picked up the trash (even if it wasn't ours) and tried to respect yours and ours. We look forward to coming again. Thank you kansas for the hospitality. Roll tide Roll:10sign:
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Thank you to you and your group for hunting honorably while visiting Kansas, my home state. You and your kind are always most welcome here. Sincerely, BritChaser
 
It was 2007. The husband of a lady I work with asked me if I wanted to go pheasant hunting with him. I had just bought my first hunting dog, a Deutsch Drahthaar, and I wanted to go bad. He took me to his secret spot in Coldwater, Ks. We got to his favorite field and when we got out he said I am going this way and you go that way. I was on my own. So after about a day and a half I started to figure it out. I realized I needed to follow my dog and trust her. I followed her into the wind down into a big bowl with a dead tree that had fallen over. She approached it and went on point. I walked up and sent her in. A huge rooster came out of the dead tree. I dropped it with the first shot. Before I knew it my dog had retrieved the bird and was standing next to me waiting to deliver it. It was perfect.
 
I would guess that it was about 1975. Down around Council Grove KS.
Had an Irish setter that went on point in the ditch next to a old road. We had just pointed and shot at a covey of quail, so when I walked out in front of my dog I was expecting another quail. The pheasant came up right under my feet, surprised the heck out of me. But up came the Remington 1100 20 ga Light Weight, and it was all over.

I went and hunted that same spot last year. It has so many trees in the area there are almost no quail or pheasants there any more. A chain saw and some fire would really help that area.
 
2010, my first in North Dakota with my 11 month old GSP, Buster. It was the first time hunting birds in eight years and this was my first time ever hunting wild pheasant.

I collared my dog, turned around, grabbed my shotgun and shells. Turned back to release my dog...but he wasn't there. After 10 minutes of walking around the other trucks he was nowhere to be found.

I proceeded to walk in a line to push a 1/4 section CRP field, no dog. About 50 yards from opposite side of the field, a rooster jumps up and flies straight away and I hit him with one shot. He lands on the road, dead. Unfortunately, no dog still.

We found Buster about 3 hours later...chasing pheasants all over the countryside. There was so much scent on the ground, he went wild and just went where his nose took him. Memorable trip which is why have gone every year since.
Buster ranges a bit better now.
 
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