Wild Birds or not?

D

Dunkin Donut

New member
After reading so many ads about "100% Wild Birds" or "Only Wild Birds", can one assume that if an ad does not mention "Wild" that their birds may not be "Wild"? Other than, 'they don't fly as lively' and the 'hook marks on their beek' can anyone tell me a distinctive physical difference(s) between a wild pheasant and a pen raised pheasant, either alive or in the bag? Thanks!
 
The issue I have is places that charge $300 - $500/day for wild birds and a true South Dakota experience, but supplement with pen raised birds to keep hunters happy and guns blazing.

Now if the client does not care, then I guess it really does not matter.

But that said say 4 guys at $300 each or $1200. That is 60 birds or more at most hometown / local pheasant preserves.

If you are paying to hunt and are walking "strips" and most every (all) birds you see are roosters I would highly suspect it is a put and take operation. The later the season gets, the higher the hen to rooster ratio should become - right ?
 
BRITTMAN said:
The issue I have is places that charge $300 - $500/day for wild birds and a true South Dakota experience, but supplement with pen raised birds to keep hunters happy and guns blazin.
Click to expand...

If you are paying 3-500 a day at a pheasant ranch, I believe you are not getting a true South Dakota experience. Hunt public land, or ask permission and get a true experience. As far as pen raised goes, there are alot of them out there. You can usually tell which ones they are by their nostrils. There are guides out there that do not raise birds, I believe UGuide is probably the most notable, but they are relying on good areas, and bird numbers. The big ranches want you to shoot alot of shells and see alot of birds. This is only possible all the time if they are supplemented. The amount of birds saw/shot is how many gauge successfull hunts, and I guess when they pay exorbant fees I can somewhat understand. I will stick to walking with my dog and kids, and if we shoot some great, if not, at least we were together. Hope you all have a great and safe season.
 
pen raised birds usually have a pretty gnarly tail. Wont be very long and wont be as smooth as a wild birds tail, This happens when they get there tail into the netting of the pen or in the cage they transport them to the field in. You wont be keeping the tail feathers of a pen raised bird
 
and there are those that want the "clouds of pheasants" experience.....i could never understand that, as long as i get 4 or 5 shootable birds daily, i have had my experience to shoot a limit and i will take 1 or 2 and be just as happy if they are wild birds...that is the true pheasant hunting experience, for me.
 
How does the SD suplementation work? Ive heard that any commercial operation that sells a pheasant hunt must suplement their land with however many birds are killed. Ive been told most places will release the birds in the spring so those birds can acclimate and reproduce. Can anyone tell me exactly how that works??
 
Most spring release birds are hens. They are cheap, which is the first part of the equation, and they meet the requirement to release birds, in order to take advantage of the extended season. I'm sure they release roostersduring the season, aclimation in my opinion is a joke, since most are harvested within hours of release, or risk being hauled off by predators. Best operations produce a high quality presentation, if you squint your eyes and use your imagination, you might even believe it's real!
 
Wild birds are just that WILD, if you push them to hard they will find someplace to hide and return to the good quality cover to roost overnight. I have seen birds fly into roosting cover after shooting hours then loaf there until shooting hours and then just fly or run back to the place they hide in---just think outsmarted by a bird with a brain the size of a #5 shot.

That is why taking a wild bird on his terms is so satisfying:cheers:
 
I have only hunted pen raised birds once. That was when my dog graduated from college. There is no question in my mind that it is easy to tell the difference, at least if you are used to hunting wild birds. If you have a preserve then the state makes you put out so many roosters before the season starts, then you have to replace the ones you shoot as the season goes on. The guys that come here that have hunted pen raised birds know right away that they are hunting wild birds. They usually say something like "How do you kill these things" or "Can you slow them down a little"? If you really want to know come hunt here in late Nov. or Dec. Those are trophy birds.
 
Well, Ill agree, and disagree. Yes, late season birds are definately wild. But early season birds hold pretty well. As a matter of fact, Ill be hunting released birds in 3 weeks in PA. However, they are the nicest released birds you will ever find, and they act exactly like early season SD pheasants. The place we will be hunting is not put and take, rather they "stock" the fields all season long starting about 1 month before the season starts. They have a fair amount of hold over birds and they actually do get some reproduction because they do so much work on the habbitat. The place we hunt has a 3 acre by 40 ft tall bird pen and those birds never see humans. I was skeptical the first time I went up there to hunt them, but afterwards I was pretty amazed.. Im from WA, and have hunted put and take pheasants and P&T birds from back home SUCK! Now, with that said the PA birds aren't late season SD birds. We hunted SD last Dec and those birds were hell on our pointing dogs, even though we did get some great points. They were a LOT more wild then the birds my dogs sees at camp in August and September and it took a lot of pushing and blocking to get within gun range. In the heavier cover though, our brits did a nice job pinnig them. But if the birds had a chance to run, it was all over.
 
Jet
I yield to your experience, as I said I have only hunted pen raised once. I am just going on what I hear from the guys that come here. Even late season birds will sit. I have hunters that start hunting a field and have alot of birds fly away at a distance but still find birds that would sit. As you said it depends on the cover.
 
well because i am bored i will share my little bit of experience on this subject. I have friend that owns a large hunting operation in south dakota. He explained to me that if you run a preserve, you must supplement for birds taken. All fee hunting places are not preserves. A preserve has liberal bag limits and extended seasons. I suspect many of the commercial hunting operations supplement, but he does not. He ran a preserve area for awhile, but closed it a few years ago. As far as pen raised birds, they come in all types. If they are raised in large flight pens, i have seen huge ones, and forced to fly periodically they can be good to hunt. If they are raised in small pens and fed power food to mature quickly, they suck. Some of the better preserve areas here, breed for flight and their birds are good. I do agree that once those birds get shot at a couple times, they learn pretty quick. Some years ago i came across a commercial operation north of abeline kansas. They catered to high end ceo's and such. Would release hundreds of birds every week. We used to pay his neighbor to hunt, 50.00 a day, let me tell you there were " clouds" of wild assed pheasants. They would group up in 20-50 bird coveys and would be wild as hell. Good times.
 
At times pen birds can look very much wild. In many cases it just takes time and experience to tell wild birds from pen birds. An example would be my cousin whom last weekend I showed pictures of wild vs. pen birds. He pointed to most pen birds pictures as being "wild". He's been hunting pheasants 16 years or so and he couldn't tell the difference between most.

Besides the obvious marks that pen bird often have on their beaks/nostrils from peepers/blinders, a pen bird will often lack the sleek look, movements, posturing, preend feathers, shorter length of beak, shaped/rounded beak tip, and strong fast flight of a wild bird. Even the beat of the wings in flight varys between wild and pen birds as they do between a hen and a rooster.

Below are a few videos. The first one is a pen bird. The second video is a wild bird flushing (posted in our dog forum from Zbirdman). In Zbirdman's video the bird is sleek, strong, has a tremendous will to keep moving even after being hit, and the beat of his wings screams "wild".

Pen bird flush. Skip up to 50 Seconds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqatmaxURvc

Wild bird flush (Zbirdman vid) Skip up to 40 Seconds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdMssoW4vQ0never mind! Zbirdman filled me on this bird. It's a pen raised bird. Goes to show you how tough it can be to tell the difference between the two. As I told ZB, I've never seen pen birds fly like this pen raised bird! Outstanding!! The flight characteristics are dead on to how wild pheasants typically fly. Thanks again ZB for letting me use your Video

Lol....most definitely a pen bird! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoO8kCTQjg0
 
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Part of this equation is simple. If the ground is open to hunting before the 3rd Saturday of Oct. in SD, it has at least some released birds as only a preserve can be open before and/or after the regular season. Many of your larger operations(and usually higher test) have preserve and non-preserve ground and you will find a mix. Most would not "supplement" the non-preserve ground, but could be a bit of movement back and forth.
 
1pheas4

The kid with the gun to his shoulder right over the dog's back was scaring me. And most definitely a pen raised bird. I've used pheasants for training and had trouble with them running and not wanting to fly - a lot, so much so that I tied their legs together to keep them in place until I came in to flush. that last bird didn't even really want to run away. Wow.
 
ranger rick and kevinj do you take 212 or 7 in min ? picking up my son there and heading for sd first week of nov.
 
I know I'm late to the party on this one. I posted videos of pen birds during flight in an earlier post.

Here's a quick video that displays good "wild" characteristics of a wild rooster in flight.

Notice how fast he flushes and quick his flight compared to the pen birds in previous videos from youtube :)



http://youtu.be/GF3b6qvfHzA
 
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