Wild pheasants

[nikegundog]

I hunt wild pheasants in Minnesota and South Dakota. I'm just seeing if many people on this site hunt wild pheasants, especially if its late season pheasants. I've always owned flushers but am interested in how the pointers have done on late season pheasants. So please let me know about any of your experiences. I'm not interested in people who just hunt reserves, I have nothing against them, its just a totally different hunt.

[ACooper]

I hunt wild pheasants in OK and KS with GSPs, from beginning to end. Our season ends a week from tomorrow, I hope to make it out 3-4 more times. I find that just like most of the year some birds hold, some birds flush wild, as season goes on the number of birds holding gets far fewer and the wild flushes seem to get further and further out. We win some we lose some.

[Birddogz]

A savvy pointing breed is the best phez medicine out there. I hunt them in ND, SD, NE, KS. Usually ND now. Shooting a rooster over a point is far easier than a dog pushing them to fly. Just my opinion.

[gittrdonebritts]

I hunt them in Illinois over pointing dogs all season long and here the hunting gets better as it gets later cause of how much snow we have and the cold but like coop said there is always some that hold and some that flush wild way out infront of you.

[Dakota Swede]

Have hunted wild pheasants in South Dakota for over 4 decades. Have owned flushers & retrievers. Currently have a Vizsla & a GSP/Vizsla cross that I hunt with (they are sleeping at my feet right now).

Wild birds are just that - WILD! Unpredictable - that what makes it such a challenge.

My pointers retrieve. And they run hard - but I keep them within gun distance. Most wild birds would rather run or fly than hold for a point - but when they do, there isn't too many other things like it! Fun stuff.

[ymepointer]

Yep I hunt wild birds only in ID and Southeast Wa and Eastern Oregon. Good pointers can handle them, it works much nicer if there is a little snow(which is often the case in late season).

[Birddog3412]

I go with a group of friends to South Dakota every year. We hunt all private ground. A combination of CRP, corn fields, cattails. Ill agree with most everyone as far as "some hold, some flush wild" in the open ground where you can see a dog. Most of the cattail patches we hunt, the cattails are 6 ft++ and you cannot see a dog that is more than 5 yards away from you. So a dog on point in that option is worthless unless you have a gps on them.

[prairiefirepointers]

I live in South Central Kansas and have hunted here all my life. I've never been outside of Kansas for a hunt. When I hear people talk about how lucky we are to have wild birds here because they don't have any, I almost don't know what to think? It sounds dreadful..

We have two CSA's here in my small rural town of 500. I shake my head at all the people that come to Kansas to hunt pen raised birds. You might as well be plinking cans with a red ryder bb gun. Its about as much sport.. Just a heck of a lot more expensive though.






Why do I always find my typos AFTER I hit submit.

[rkappes]

Have hunted wild pheasants in South Dakota for over 4 decades. Have owned flushers & retrievers. Currently have a Vizsla & a GSP/Vizsla cross that I hunt with (they are sleeping at my feet right now).

Wild birds are just that - WILD! Unpredictable - that what makes it such a challenge.

My pointers retrieve. And they run hard - but I keep them within gun distance. Most wild birds would rather run or fly than hold for a point - but when they do, there isn't too many other things like it! Fun stuff.

Any pics of that Vizsla/GSP cross?

[tommyboy72]

I just limited out a couple of hours ago with 2 EP's, one of them doesn't turn a year old for about another week. I took a friend from work who is new to hunting. Today was his first day to shoot at anything besides targets and clay pigeons. We had about 10 solid points and he missed a few and a couple were hens. I shot at 5 birds and downed 3 of them for my limit. We also saw 4 or 5 wild flushes and one wild flush was of about 15 or 20 birds. In all we probably saw a total of 40 birds or more in about a 2 1/2 or 3 hour period in 2 different fields. My pointer even retrieved all 3 birds to hand. It is much easier to shoot over a solid point than a surprise flush. JMO

I also hunt wild pheasant throughout the season with pointing dogs just like Cooper and on top of that I hunt blue or scaled quail with pointing dogs which is just like hunting a miniature pheasant. They act like a pheasant and like to run like a pheasant but give off a heck of a lot less scent than a pheasant. I try to throw in some bobwhites to take it easy on the dogs as well.

[windswept]

Nearly all of my pheasant huning is wild bird and I POUNDED them in the last month of the season this fall.
Nothing better than late season pheasant hunting.

[nikegundog]

It is much easier to shoot over a solid point than a surprise flush.

I get about 50 hunting days to pheasant hunt, although some days its just an hour or two of hunting. Very seldom do I have a surprise flush, maybe 1 in 30. When you watch your dog work there is almost always at least a slight indication your dog is on a pheasant before the flush. I only run one lab at a time so its easy to pay attention, very seldom do we have a flyaway. Yes every once in awhile someone brings out a very disciplined dog that run uncontrolled busting pheasants out front, but they are politely asked to kennel there dog. I am talking about surprise flushes not birds flushing wild.

[scmelik]

one thing I have learned hunting wild pheasants my entire life is that if you slow down ALOT the birds will sit allowing the dog to do its thing. I guided for a lodge for awhile that had a couple of English setters that the other guides hated using, well when my groups got done early I would take those two out by myself and hunt them. I found that the slower I took the pace the more I could get birds to settle in and let the dogs work them into a postion where they would try and hunker down and try to hide and got a lot of points that way. Almost everyone hunts pheasants way way way to fast. Take it nice and slow and you will get your points trust me even on very wary birds.

[jetjockey]

I don't know. We hunted S. Dakota the second week of December. We got a few good points, but for the most part, dogs were useless. We got most of our birds while driving and blocking. We had some great points on hens, and a few good points on roosters, but for the most part, the late season birds were heck on our Brits. However, growing up in WA state it was much easier to get decent points even on the later season birds. I think it has everything to do with how much pressure the birds get. Some of them just aren't going to hold for a point. With that said, I hunt in PA every year with a group my Father In Law sets up on a great farm that releases birds all season. Its not the typical pay as you go farm. We have gone up the last two years and after every hunt the owner seems amazed that my brit has absolutely no problems pinning and holding those birds. But then, she also spends all summer in S. Dakota at summer camp, so shes had TONS of wild pheasant, chicken, and sharptail experience. But late season pheasants that have been hunted heavily are a totally different bird. Without any snow to hold them, its tough on pointing dogs.

[nikegundog]

Scott, Brookings, SD not that far from my hunting grounds, probably hunt less than a hour from there. There's nothing better than lake season pheasants buried in a cat tail slough.

[Dakota Swede]

rkappes - here is a pic of my dogs last summer. The dark pair are 3/4 GSP & 1/4 Vizsla. All weigh in under 50 pounds and will work their hearts out.

[jarbo03]

I hunt nothing but wild birds here in Kansas with brits and my recently passed lab. Have no problems getting late season birds to hold, as stated earlier, i hunt really slow, the faster your dog moves the faster the birds want to run. 90% of the points my brit has had he was within five feet of the bird, sometimes it took some good tracking to get there. I also had great luck with my lab, with a good upland flusher there is no such thing as a surprise flush, and majority of birds were flushed towards me. Neither one of my dogs worked more than 20-25 yards from me, they didn't need to find every bird in the field, just four of them and have them be close.

[ezzy333]

one thing I have learned hunting wild pheasants my entire life is that if you slow down ALOT the birds will sit allowing the dog to do its thing. I guided for a lodge for awhile that had a couple of English setters that the other guides hated using, well when my groups got done early I would take those two out by myself and hunt them. I found that the slower I took the pace the more I could get birds to settle in and let the dogs work them into a postion where they would try and hunker down and try to hide and got a lot of points that way. Almost everyone hunts pheasants way way way to fast. Take it nice and slow and you will get your points trust me even on very wary birds.

This has always been my experience also whether hunting with a dog or without.

Ezzy

[Crashola]

one thing I have learned hunting wild pheasants my entire life is that if you slow down ALOT the birds will sit allowing the dog to do its thing. I guided for a lodge for awhile that had a couple of English setters that the other guides hated using, well when my groups got done early I would take those two out by myself and hunt them. I found that the slower I took the pace the more I could get birds to settle in and let the dogs work them into a postion where they would try and hunker down and try to hide and got a lot of points that way. Almost everyone hunts pheasants way way way to fast. Take it nice and slow and you will get your points trust me even on very wary birds.

I grew up in S.D. and I agree. When you get larger groups of hunters, they tend to tromp through the fields way too fast. My best luck in late season was just slowly following my dog as she methodically worked the cover.

[prairiefirepointers]

I grew up in S.D. and I agree. When you get larger groups of hunters, they tend to tromp through the fields way too fast. My best luck in late season was just slowly following my dog as she methodically worked the cover.

I hunt with alot of people who don't have dogs, or are not used to hunting behind dogs... You'd think we were in a Mall-walk-a-thon! They'll be tromping grass at break neck speed. When you do that, all you're doing is pushing the dogs. They don't have time to work the grass, and track. Then, they wonder why birds get up behind them or they don't find any. :roll:

You've got to SLLLOOOWWW way down and let those dogs work. When my dogs are extremely birdy I usually stop. That makes them birds nervous as well.

[rkappes]

rkappes - here is a pic of my dogs last summer. The dark pair are 3/4 GSP & 1/4 Vizsla. All weigh in under 50 pounds and will work their hearts out.

Dakota Swede, good lookin' dogs!! I would bet that they do hunt hard. I always like seeing what crosses look like. Thanks for sharing!

[Birddogz]

I grew up in S.D. and I agree. When you get larger groups of hunters, they tend to tromp through the fields way too fast. My best luck in late season was just slowly following my dog as she methodically worked the cover.

I hunt with alot of people who don't have dogs, or are not used to hunting behind dogs... You'd think we were in a Mall-walk-a-thon! They'll be tromping grass at break neck speed. When you do that, all you're doing is pushing the dogs. They don't have time to work the grass, and track. Then, they wonder why birds get up behind them or they don't find any. :roll:

You've got to SLLLOOOWWW way down and let those dogs work. When my dogs are extremely birdy I usually stop. That makes them birds nervous as well.

You and I hunt very similarly. I used to get abused on this forum for suggesting this hunting style. I guess great minds think alike.

[dan janssen]

I hunt late season pheasants in southwest Minnesota and feel the late season birds hold alot better than the early one do. I have 4 Vizslas and if you want to come down here next year I would always injoy hunting with another Vizsla. Dan Janssen aka Bookem

[nikegundog]

South Western MN , where do you hunt?

[Neil]

I hunt both pointing dogs and flushers, though rarely together.

Mostly I pick my ground, pointing dogs for open areas with edges; flushers for the thick, nasty stuff.

There is a real place for both dogs,

Neil

[ACooper]

I hunt both pointing dogs and flushers, though rarely together.

Mostly I pick my ground, pointing dogs for open areas with edges; flushers for the thick, nasty stuff.

There is a real place for both dogs,

Neil

Adding a flusher or two to my mix of dogs is on the agenda very soon. cattails and stubble = flushers... grass and bigger areas = pointing dogs.

[dan janssen]

Southwest Minn. Hunt ; I live at Lake Wilson MN. It is 18 miles east of Pipestone or 10 miles west of Slayton. I hunt pivate ground CRP and RIM when the crops get out it very good. Dan Janssen