Hunting Pheasant
Wild pheasants follow a schedule as routine as your daily commute to and from work. Understanding the pheasant's daily movements can increase your odds of flushing a rooster.
Pheasants start their day before sunrise at roost sites, usually in areas of short- to medium-height grass or weeds, where they spend the night. At first light, pheasants head for roadsides or similar areas where they can find gravel or grit.
Pheasants usually begin feeding around 8 a.m. An hour later, the birds are still feeding, often in grain fields while cautiously making their way toward safe cover. Look for them on the edges of picked cornfields at this time.
By mid-morning, pheasants have left the fields for the densest, thickest cover they can find, or standing corn, brush patches, wetlands. The birds will "hunker down here for the day until late afternoon."
It's next to impossible to work large fields of standing corn or large marshes. Hunt smaller blocks of cover instead. Eventually, pheasants have to eat again. During the late afternoon, the birds move from their loafing spots back to the feeding areas. As in the morning, birds now are easier to spot from a distance and are more accessible to hunters. Thus the first and last shooting hours are often the best times to hunt pheasants.
Pen-reared Pheasant are less predictable:
A good wild bird hunter might know the preferred haunts of the pheasant on the properties he hunts, and be aware of the daily schedule pheasants follow. However, that knowledge is not useful in pursuing stocked birds. Unlike wild pheasant, pen-reared pheasant are not tied to resources and therefore wander rather than go from resource to resource. Sometimes within a few days they move more than 5 miles from the point of release. On the other hand, some may not move far and those that have left may return.
From a strategic perspective there are rarely specific locations within release sites that birds gravitate to; therefore pheasant hunters are also prone to wander themselves. However, from a logistic perspective; even though these pheasant can be anywhere, on some sites there are land and plant characteristics that are more favorable to hunt. If nothing else, following a predetermined course gives the hunter a physiological boost in that he is following a plan. Grouse and woodcock are tied to resources found on field edges and blocks of trees inside fields; and a good strategy is to pursue those birds and take pheasant incidentally to them. You are required to register in the Harvest Information Program (HIP) to hunt woodcock in all states.
Pheasants start their day before sunrise at roost sites, usually in areas of short- to medium-height grass or weeds, where they spend the night. At first light, pheasants head for roadsides or similar areas where they can find gravel or grit.
Pheasants usually begin feeding around 8 a.m. An hour later, the birds are still feeding, often in grain fields while cautiously making their way toward safe cover. Look for them on the edges of picked cornfields at this time.
By mid-morning, pheasants have left the fields for the densest, thickest cover they can find, or standing corn, brush patches, wetlands. The birds will "hunker down here for the day until late afternoon."
It's next to impossible to work large fields of standing corn or large marshes. Hunt smaller blocks of cover instead. Eventually, pheasants have to eat again. During the late afternoon, the birds move from their loafing spots back to the feeding areas. As in the morning, birds now are easier to spot from a distance and are more accessible to hunters. Thus the first and last shooting hours are often the best times to hunt pheasants.
Pen-reared Pheasant are less predictable:
A good wild bird hunter might know the preferred haunts of the pheasant on the properties he hunts, and be aware of the daily schedule pheasants follow. However, that knowledge is not useful in pursuing stocked birds. Unlike wild pheasant, pen-reared pheasant are not tied to resources and therefore wander rather than go from resource to resource. Sometimes within a few days they move more than 5 miles from the point of release. On the other hand, some may not move far and those that have left may return.
From a strategic perspective there are rarely specific locations within release sites that birds gravitate to; therefore pheasant hunters are also prone to wander themselves. However, from a logistic perspective; even though these pheasant can be anywhere, on some sites there are land and plant characteristics that are more favorable to hunt. If nothing else, following a predetermined course gives the hunter a physiological boost in that he is following a plan. Grouse and woodcock are tied to resources found on field edges and blocks of trees inside fields; and a good strategy is to pursue those birds and take pheasant incidentally to them. You are required to register in the Harvest Information Program (HIP) to hunt woodcock in all states.
- Expect Hardship – heat, sun, bugs, mud, heavy brush and vegetation including thorns. Ivy, hogweed, parsnip, creeper, its all out there. Get yourself and your dog into shape.
- Get quality hunting clothing such as Filson, Orvis, LL Bean, Carhartt, or Dan’s. Waxed or Oil Finished Cotton pants and coat with a game bag. Wear a lot of orange. Get high top waterproof boots and apply extra waterproof spray to them. Thin, uninsulated leather gloves protect your hands from thorns while allowing you to shoot. Wear an orange cap.
- Take shotgun shooting lessons from a certified instructor. We do not like the term “wing shooting”; however, that is the word instructors use for shooting technique used in hunting. Find an instructor certified to teach “wing shooting”. After instructions, practice at the range and also practice your gun mount. Don’t expect to hit every bird, but increase your odds in making hard earned flushes count.
- Carry water for you and your dog to drink. Keep more water in your truck.
- Don’t be greedy, a game hog, or competitive.
- Don’t follow or “flank” other hunters, even if you don’t have a dog. This is both unsafe and unethical.
- The NY State DEC’s pheasant webpage says this: Respect other hunters’ space. Don’t crowd. Share the hunting areas and the opportunity to harvest a bird.
- Don’t shoot at low flying birds. Practice: “If its low, let it go”. Never shoot over someone’s head.
- Use a double barrel shotgun. An over under is better than a side by side. Make sure you are buying a field gun not a target gun. Ejectors send your spent shells flying when you open your gun and are not desirable in a field gun. Extractors prevent the spent shell from sticking in the chamber, but do not launch them. Chose a gun with extractors or have a gunsmith install them. Don’t litter with spent shells, this hurts the image of hunting, gives away where you hunt, and encourages others to litter.
- Plan your route, don’t just wander around. Change your pre-planned route as needed to avoid other hunters.
- Use a pheasant call to locate birds.
- If you do not have a dog that retrieves do not take your eyes off the spot the bird fell and walk directly to it.
- Except to get from point A to B, stay out of cover that is impossible to shoot in. If you are hunting with others they should wait ready to shoot until at least one member of the hunting party gets through the cover.
- Work through the cover slowly.
- Although pheasants readily run through the thickest grass, they will use paths worn by hunters or deer. Watch these paths for birds and tracks. Do not be concerned if your dog runs paths through dense cover because it is likely he will catch pheasant scent on paths and he won’t wear himself out.
- Talking and other noises encourage pheasant to run or flush out of range.
- Woodcock season overlaps part of pheasant season and they are common around pheasant release sites. However, it is not legal to hunt them unless you are registered in the Harvest Information Program (HIP).
- If you are not occasionally seeing a cottontail rabbit you are probably moving too fast and not paying enough attention. Slow down, work the cover more thoroughly, and use your eyes and ears more.
- Trust your dog. Don’t hesitate to move into shooting position if your dog signals birds.