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Pheasants:
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Rabbits:
Tips for Taking More Pheasants
Source: Outdoorsite.com
by Phillip Bourjaily
1) Choose the right
time and place to hunt.
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The right
cover is essential to finding pheasants.
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Pheasants roost in thick, heavy grasses, walking or flying
out to grainfields to feed in the morning. At midday, they hang around in light
cover near food, then hit the fields again in the afternoon. Sometime late in
the afternoon, birds will come back from the grainfields into heavy roosting
cover.
Many people believe
pheasants linger on the roost on freezing cold winter days. Over the years I've
wasted a lot of time getting up early on subzero mornings trying to kick-start
sleepy pheasants out of their beds. In fact, when it's 20 below and days are
short, pheasants head for the fields at first light to load up on high-energy
grain, so hunting the bedroom on a bitter cold morning is a waste of time. A
nasty, windy, wet morning is a different story: Hunt the roost early when it's
spitting and blowing, and you may well catch pheasants reluctant to leave their
warm, weedy roosts.
By the same token, hunting
good roosting cover at midday when the birds are still feeding yields poor
results.
Be there in the last 45 minutes
of daylight, however, as pheasants return from the grainfields. Empty fields
fill up with birds in a few minute's time, and the hunting can be absolutely
spectacular.
2) Don't assume all
public lands are "shot out" after opening day.
During the early part of the
season, when party after party tramples public land, birds move out to nearby
private acres where the pressure isn't as intense. Gun-wise birds sometimes use
the public area as a bedroom, returning around dark to roost, then leaving at
the crack of dawn.
Hunt a public area the day
corn is picked on private land across the road, and you'll be amazed. Last fall
I walked a small and heavily used county area on a whim, thinking I'd give the
dog a good run if nothing else. Unknown to me, the corn had been picked across
the road the day before. Suddenly without a roof of cornstalks over their heads,
the pheasants had retreated in confusion to the marsh grasses of the public
land. What I thought was going to be a quiet dog walk turned into one of the
noisiest hunts of the year.
Late in the season, when
heavy snows have flattened sparser cover on private lands, public areas
(especially wetlands) often hold birds again.
3) Don't forget to
block the exits.
Neglecting to post a blocker
is one of the errors I commit regularly. I'm usually too eager to start chasing
birds to wait while a blocker moves into position at the far end of a field.
Every once in a while I hunt with someone who firmly believes in blocking, and
I'm always impressed at how well it works. If you hunt any kind of strip cover
such as ditches, rows of unpicked corn, or a grassed waterway without
a blocker, hunter-wise pheasants will run to the far end and flush. When
pheasants know someone is watching the back door, they don't run or flush wild;
they hunker down and take their chances with the hunters working the cover. One
solo hunter I know actually walks noisily to one end of a field and pretends to
stand there blocking, then sneaks around to the other side and hunts towards,
well, himself.
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A
good time to plan a trip is several days after opening weekend.
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4) Don't make too much noise.
A slammed car door or a
slide-action smacking shut can put pheasants to flight before the hunt begins.
Sometimes you'll be treated to the impressive sight of pheasant flocks taking
off in sympathetic waves across a field, each mass flush triggering the next
one, all of them leaving the field you had intended to walk.
Late in the season,
especially, when cover is sparse and birds have grouped up, try to approach
cover quietly; it doesn't take much to spook the whole flock. On the other hand,
there's one place I hunt late in the year where the birds are always in the same
corner of the field. I know they're there, they know I'm coming, and the best I
can do is put the dog at heel and hustle down to the pheasant corner, hoping to
catch a straggler when they all flush wild.
Once in the field, I'm not a
stickler for silence. It's my belief that pheasants can almost always hear you
coming, no matter how quiet you try to be. They're out there in the grass,
monitoring your approach by the crunch of your footsteps, basing their decision
to sit, run or fly on precise knowledge of where everyone in your party is at
all times.
Take advantage of the
pheasant's hearing by using the dogless hunter's trick of pausing every once in
a while. When birds suddenly can't hear you coming they sometimes lose their
nerve and flush.
5) Don't overdress.
Too many pheasant hunters
bundle up in heavy clothes, then overheat after an hour of chasing the dogs
chasing the birds. You want to feel a little chilly while you're standing by the
truck getting ready; you'll warm up soon enough.
Pheasant hunting rarely
requires heavy boots or briar pants. It's better to don something lightweight
and easy to move around in. Wear a number of lighter, thinner layers up top
rather than a heavy coat. You can add and subtract layers as you warm up and
cool down, tucking unworn clothes into your game bag. I choose a lightweight
ballcap and keep a warm knit cap in my pocket should the weather turn colder
than anticipated.
Any color hunting clothes
are fine, so long as they're orange. I glow like a Chernobyl pumpkin when I'm
pheasant hunting; I want the people I hunt with to do the same. Orange helps
prevent accidents (most bird hunting accidents are of the "hit another
hunter while swinging on game" variety), and it allows you to verify
quickly where everyone in the party is when a bird's on the wing and you want to
be sure you're taking a safe shot.
6) Don't plan a trip
for opening day.
If you travel to hunt
pheasants, wait and make your trip two or three weeks after opening day (unless
of course you've already leased a section of South Dakota pheasant country, or
married into an Iowa farm family, in which case, you don't need my advice). Too
many people think opening weekend, with its uneducated, unhunted birds of the
year, is the best time to hunt pheasants. In fact, the weather can be hot,
cutting your dog's endurance and scenting ability. Many years, the fields aren't
harvested by opening day, either. Pheasants will hide among the standing crops
where you can't go after them. If you don't have a place to hunt lined up long
before opening day you might not find one, and public lands will be very
crowded.
Two or three weeks after the
season begins, the crops will be in, the weather cooler and the crowds gone.
There will be lots of birds left, too.
7) Don't ignore the
woods.
We all know pheasants are
birds of grassland and marshes, not timber. Watch a rooster batter upwards
through the branches on stubby wings, his long, graceful tail totally useless as
a rudder in close quarters, and you'll see why ringnecks usually avoid the
woods.
Nonetheless, pheasants will
hide in the woods if they can't go anywhere else. When heavy snow flattens the
grassy fields pheasants prefer, look for birds in the woodlots. The best
pheasant woods have creekbottoms, bushes or brushpiles to hide in. Years ago I
read somewhere that when you find pheasants in the woods, they will usually be
roosters. I've paid attention ever since and found it to be true, although I
have no idea why.
8) Don't go
over- or undergunned.
Pheasants don't follow those
neat rules of behavior printed on ammo boxes: "early
season/close flushes skeet/IC, 6 or 7 1/2 shot; late season/ wild flushes,
modified or full, magnum 4s or 5s."
I've seen opening weekends
where the wind blew and birds turned skittish offering nothing closer than
35-yard shots. By the same token wild-flushing late season pheasants usually
jump up a good 100 yards out of gun range; the birds you actually kill on those
frustrating late-season hunts are the few who try to sit tight and let you walk
past.
Pick an early-season gun --
say a skeet choke with 7 1/2s -- and you'll be undergunned if birds
turn wild. Likewise, if you load up for long flushes with a full-choke and
magnum 4s, you'll be handicapped when the birds sit tight.
Rather than trying to guess
day by day what the birds will do, I shoot the same IC/M 12-gauge double from
day one to the season's end. I'll load either gun with 1 1/4 ounces of 5 shot
(or 1 1/4 ounces of high-velocity bismuth when non-toxics are required). In
either gun, those loads will kill a pheasant about as far away as I care to
shoot one, yet my pattern isn't too tight to make hitting close birds difficult.
9) Don't shoot
too soon.
Most pheasants are shot
within 15-20 yards of the muzzle, and many more at missed at even closer range.
Stifle the urge to shoot immediately. At 10 yards your pattern is the size
of a fist, and you don't really know where the bird is going. Three
feet of squawking, psychedelic game bird blowing up at your feet is always
startling; when you're not paying attention, it's downright scary. If you jump
back and shoot in self-defense whenever a pheasant flushes, you're going to miss
a lot.
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Give the
birds a chance to level off before shooting.
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Take a second, read the pheasant's angle, swing the gun at
the white ring, and shoot. Trapshooting, with its varying, going-away angles,
is wonderful training for pheasant-type shooting.
While you're at it, give up
trying to beat your buddies to the shot. Take turns: everyone will shoot better,
you'll lose fewer birds, and those you bag won't be mangled.
10) Don't take
pheasants for granted.
The real trick to successful
pheasant hunting lies not in bagging more birds, but in deriving more
satisfaction from the ones you do shoot. Even in the best pheasant country, we
don't get 'em every day, which is exactly as it should be.
When my own focus narrows to
the tail end of a bird dog in the weeds, I try stop at the top of a hill, take a
breather, look around and ponder how lucky we are to still have wild pheasants.
Think about it that way, and every single bird becomes cause for celebration.
Doves
A
dove's diet consists almost entirely of seeds from cultivated fields and
weeds along fence rows. Dove generally do not feed in areas containing
heavy, densely-matted vegetation. Instead they prefer bare
ground on which seeds are plentiful.
Dove are primarily
farm game birds that thrive where grain crops are grown and require open
or semi-open lands. Dove can travel considerable distances in search
of food, water, and gravel, but prefer easy access to them. Since the dove
is a migratory species, local environmental changes generally do not limit
their ability to survive.
If you are hunting
in the afternoon, it is usually advantageous to hunt near a body of water.
Dove will normally feed in the morning and afternoon and are notorious for
heading to the nearest watering hole for a drink prior to going to roost.
This strategy, while not fool proof, can help a hunter get their limit.
Normally the best
times to hunt dove are early in the morning when they are leaving their
roost in search of food, or in the evening after they have fed and are
heading to roost.
Some of the most
ideal hunting areas are large, open cultivated fields containing several
bodies of water.
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Common
Dove
Mourning Dove
(Zenaida macroura)
White-Winged Dove
(Zenaida asiatica)
White-Tipped
Dove
(Leptotila verreauxi)
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Tips for Rabbit Hunters
Source: Outdoorsite.com
By Keith Sutton
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To find a limit of bunnies, think
like a rabbit. |
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Rabbit hunting is a
great way to get afield and put some good-tasting meat on the
table.
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Although most rabbit hunters bag a few cottontails or swamp
rabbits on each trip afield, certain techniques can bolster your success.
These 12 tips should help you better enjoy the experience of rabbit
hunting this season.
Leapfrogging
As
farming operations and urban development encroach on prime rabbit hunting
areas, large contiguous blocks of hunting territory are harder to find.
This has caused many rabbit hunters to abandon the traditional method of
hunting all day in one large swath of brushy territory.
Instead, many now opt for "leapfrogging, " where hunters cover
one brush patch or overgrown fencerow in an hour or so, then drive on to
another rabbit hideout. By
leapfrogging throughout the day, hunting first one spot then another,
chances are good you'll locate more rabbits.
Farm
help
Savvy
rabbit hunters know that farmers are an invaluable aid for finding
cottontail concentrations.
Since they work their land daily and see rabbits regularly, farmers know
where huntable populations are likely to be.
Most are eager to keep cottontails thinned out so they don't cause crop
damage.
It's
a simple matter to cultivate your own contacts in farm country.
Remember these things. Ask permission before hunting, every time you
visit. Follow all rules the
landowner asks you to abide by, like passing up shots at the coveys of
quail he's nurturing. Leave
everything just as you found it, and always take time to thank the farmer
personally. Offer to share your game, and follow up with a thank-you
note and a token of your appreciation.
Make these easy-to-follow guidelines part of all your farm visits, and
you'll always have prime rabbit lands on which to hunt.
Sunrise
and sunset scouting
Driving
rural roads near dawn and dusk is another good way to find potential
hunting sites. Cottontails
are most active early and late in the day, especially along the fringes of
fields and roadside cover, where briars and thickets provide sanctuary
near favorite feeding areas.
Drive
slowly, and note any spot where you see several cottontails.
Then inquire at nearby homes for the name of the landowner so you can
request permission to hunt.
Dress
for success
Most
good cottontail thickets have one thing in common -- thorns. Whether
you're hunting behind dogs, kicking up rabbits yourself or retrieving
downed game, some type of sticker will be clawing at your ears, fingers,
thighs and other tender parts.
Wearing protective clothing can do wonders to make your trips afield more
enjoyable and less painful.
Blue
jeans are preferred by many rabbit fans, but offer little protection.
A good pair of briar-busting breeches with thorn-proof material covering
the front should be considered essential equipment no matter where and how
you hunt. It also helps to
wear a briar-resistant hunting coat, gloves and some type of hunting cap
with flaps that can be pulled down over your ears.
Remember
the orange rhino
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A good pair of
briar-busting breeches with thorn-proof material covering the
front should be considered essential equipment.
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A buddy of mine often describes dense rabbit cover by
saying, "You couldn't see a blaze orange rhino in there."
In some locales we hunt, this is darn near true.
Cover is so thick, you can only see a few feet.
For this reason, we wear hunter orange hats and bodywear on every trip.
Safety
should be the foremost consideration on all your rabbit hunts.
Remember the orange rhino, and make hunter orange clothing a must for
everyone in your party.
Barrels
and bullets
When
stomping for cottontails in thick cover, use a shotgun with an improved
cylinder choke and No. 6 or 7-1/2 shotshells.
Since cottontails jumped in thick cover usually are close and moving fast,
a wide, yet sufficiently heavy, shot pattern is needed to put a rabbit
down without excessive damage to the meat.
When
hunting cottontails with beagles, you may want to switch to a modified or
full choke. A pack of dogs
will push rabbits across fields and woodlots, and the shots you'll make
are usually farther than those presented when you flush rabbits yourself.
Use the tighter patterning choke and increase your shot size to No. 4s or
6s.
Icy
weather equals hot hunting
Cold,
miserable days often provide the best gunning.
Rabbit fur has poor insulating qualities, so rabbits are forced to take
shelter from the weather, making them easier to find and less likely to
flush wildly.
To
find bad-weather bunnies, think like a rabbit.
Where would you go to escape the cold if all you had to wear was a light
jacket? Hunt places that are
sheltered from wind and open to warm rays of sunshine, then move to other
locales offering protection from adverse conditions.
Look
'em in the eye
Stalking
rabbits as they sit in their forms is great sport, especially when hunting
with youngsters not yet adept at bagging running rabbits.
The trick is to spot the rabbit before it spots you.
Considering the rabbit's superb camouflage, this can be tough.
Old
hands at this endeavor have a rule: look for their eyes instead of their
whole bodies. A rabbit's
round, dark eyes look out of place against the crisscross of cover, and
are easily spotted by a hunter who walks slowly, carefully examining all
brush and weeds. You may
overlook rabbits huddled in their forms, but you'll also bag a few at
close range after spotting the eye.
Watch
over your shoulder
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Look
for cottontails and swamp rabbits in brushpiles, honeysuckle
patches, fallen treetops, cane brakes and other forest cover.
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In isolated patches of cover, a cottontail may head
directly away, disappearing from sight, then circle well behind the
hunter. Others sit tight
until the gunner passes, then squirt out behind.
Look
over your shoulder every few minutes, and you'll glimpse some of these
renegades before they make good their escape. Snap shooting is a
must, so be careful to identify your target before shooting.
Stop-and-go
hunting
A
veteran nimrod taught me a rabbit hunting technique that has proven very
effective over the years.
It's based on the idea that rabbits are highly nervous animals, and
suspense is something they can't handle very well.
It works this way. Enter a
covert and begin walking very slowly.
Walk ten paces, then stop for at least a minute, then repeat the process.
The sound of the approach is sometimes enough to make cottontails flush,
but it's just as often the silent period.
Apparently, the rabbits think they've been detected and decide to make a
run for it.
Woodland
rabbits
Most
hunters think of thickets and field edges as the places to go for a rabbit
race. Some fail to realize
woods harbor rabbits, too. Look
for cottontails and swamp rabbits in brushpiles, honeysuckle patches,
fallen treetops, cane brakes and other forest cover.
Because such areas usually receive less hunting pressure, they often hide
extraordinary numbers of rabbits.
Take a
kid hunting
To
get the most out of your next rabbit hunt, take a kid with you -- a son, a
daughter, a niece, a nephew, a grandchild or maybe a neighbor's child.
It was in the cottontail fields most of us were trained as young hunters.
We may have dreamed of deer or more exotic game like grizzlies and lions,
but with cottontails, we learned the crucial basics about hunting, nature
and ourselves.
Share
these things with children.
Share the fun and excitement, the triumphs and disappointments, the
barrage of wonderful sensations experienced on a rabbit hunt.
Our heritage of hunting is a priceless treasure.
Do your part to pass it on.
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Shooting tips of the
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Shooting tips of the
Century...
The most committed win!
Yes...
you can!
Go ahead risk it, say hello!
There's always Today!
"If you think you
can, or if you think you can't... you're right!"
Do it big, or stay in bed.
Be anchored to
some ideal, philosophy or cause that keeps you too excited to sleep.
Practice being excited!
Have the guts to go!
More powerful than the will to win is
the courage to begin
Do one thing after
another, one at a time.
Never try to catch two frogs with one
hand
When one must,
one can!
Change your thoughts and you change
your world.
Your friend is
the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.
Shoot as if it is impossible to fail!
When things go
wrong, don't go with them!
Forget tomorrow, today is the day!
Don't fear what you
want.
He conquers who endures!
Big shots are only
little shots who keep shooting!
The real sin is to persuade
oneself that the second best is anything but second best.
Success seems to be
largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.
"To be what we are, and to become what
we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life"
Robert Louis Stevenson
If you always do
what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got!
“Far
better it is to dare mighty things,
even though checkered by failure,
than to live in that gray twilight that
knows neither victory nor defeat...”
Teddy Roosevelt
Gun control is not
about guns;
it's about control!
Press on!
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not:
Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will
not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not:
the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination
alone are omnipotent!
Hit just one more
target, why not!
The squeaky wheel doesn't always get
greased, it often gets replaced.
From self alone
expect applause.
Some Brain food:
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then is not an act, but a habit...
Aristotle |
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