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Tips for Taking More Pheasants

Source: Outdoorsite.com
by Phillip Bourjaily

1) Choose the right time and place to hunt. 

 

The right cover is essential to finding pheasants.

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.

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. 

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

Tips for Rabbit Hunters

Source: Outdoorsite.com
By Keith Sutton

To find a limit of bunnies, think like a rabbit.

Rabbit hunting is a great way to get afield and put some good-tasting meat on the table. 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      A good pair of briar-busting breeches with thorn-proof material covering the front should be considered essential equipment. 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      Look for cottontails and swamp rabbits in brushpiles, honeysuckle patches, fallen treetops, cane brakes and other forest cover. 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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