A late fall New England Pheasant hunt.........

[GrayDawg]

A chilly November morning, a crisp wind & a hard-hunting pointing dog all caught up with this wiley hen pheasant today. The point was hard & unmistakeable, the flush explosive & the shot true. The retrieve was "just about" to hand! This is late fall bird hunting in New England..........



Just so you know- here in MA, we're allowed to take hens......... and they taste even better than roosters!

Rob

[proudag08]

great pic! I can only imagine the thrill!!!

[Don]

That is a beautiful photo! What shotgun is that? Nice looking!

[GrayDawg]

Don,
It's a Huglu 12ga. Model SO. A wonderful gun that shoots an ounce of 7.5's just swimmingly.
26" barrels, straight grip & screw-in chokes (I use the cyl, I/C alot). A very good value for the money.

Rob

[tdhusker]

Shooting hens just seems like a bad idea. Wonder why they allow that?

[Don]

I would suspect that in New England the vast majority of pheasant's are game farm birds. If they didn't shoot the hen's, what would they do with them? Many of the preserves out here offer roosters only, wonder what they do with the hens? Seem's to me that hatcching out 10,000 egg's and then destroying all the hens would make the cost of the rooster skyrocket. In fact the cheapest place I know of here to shoot rooster's they cost $28 per birdd and you can't get hens! Another place will put down rooster's for $34 or hens for $28.

So if, I don't know, the pheasant hunting in New England exist's by put and take only, shooting hens keeps the cost of birds way down and provides much more opertunity for the hunter, pretty smart move!

[GrayDawg]

While I can't speak for the Mass. Dept. of Fisheries & Wildlife, I believe Don has captured their school of thought with all of his points............
FWIW- this bird was taken on a Mass. WMA, not a game farm.

Rob

[jimbo&rooster]

Yeah i had the same conversation with a guy from PA I guess since the pheasants are all released in those states and they dont really have any native birds anymore, then they just shoot whats there, due to there not being much year to year hold over. At least thats how it was explained to me.

On a side note my father grew up about 20 mins outside of Boston and can remember shooting wild pheasants in the marsh behind his parents house in the 50's Grouse hunting.
Jim

[ymepointer]

While I can't speak for the Mass. Dept. of Fisheries & Wildlife, I believe Don has captured their school of thought with all of his points............
FWIW- this bird was taken on a Mass. WMA, not a game farm.

Rob

Rob, was it wild or a released bird???

[Dave C]

Well done mate, love the lay out of the picture.

ATB
Dave.