Pheasant Hunting page 2

Ego

The pictures at the end of each of these pheasant hunts, drive & individual, typifies these two pheasant hunting methods.

The drive pheasant hunt stacks the birds up to show quantity. Conversely, the individual bird dog do it yourself pheasant hunter takes pictures setup to highlight the dog and the serenity of the hunt. Another pheasant hunting subtlety that will be lost on some that read this article.

Fortunately, the drive pheasant hunter is a single hunt per season pheasant hunter that does so to boost his ego as those that participate can claim great hunter status as they are pictured with a pile of birds they may or may not have shot.

After that one ego picture is displayed that pheasant hunter rarely sets foot in the field again that season. He will wait until next season’s pilgrimage of spending the day with the boys under the rigors of field conditions.

This pheasant hunter does have a singular advantage over the do it yourself upland bird dog hunter. That advantage is that pheasant drive hunter can wear the same clothing from season to season for many seasons to come as at the rate of one weekend a month his field clothes are more typically for image than function. This is the case until the belly expansion of these pheasant hunters exceed the extra size they were purchased at as just in case additional warm clothing is required on the cold years when the pheasant hunting is tougher.

Tranquility

Pheasant hunting as an individual or with a close companion be he youth in training or a seasoned pheasant hunter/friend and doing so behind a bird dog or two brings a serene sense of tranquility of being outside, in the field and watching an animal, the dog, work his heart out for the hunter. Without the dog these pheasant hunters probably would not be hunting. And, because of the dog, and the special connection that exists, these pheasant hunters hunt their dogs every chance they have and in doing so typically wear out a pair of boots and pants each season. It is not the pheasant hunting, it is the dog hunting. The pheasant only a required element for what is truly desired. Again, another subtly frequently lost on the not so dedicated pheasant hunter.

Spring Pheasant

We, your Association land staff, Jon Nee the owner/operator and John Wenzel partner (grunt), are on the land a lot throughout the year. This is a spring pheasant photographed on such a land run.

Our field time is not hunt time. Our field days are ensuring our current contracts are complied with through landowner land usage, scouting potential lease land and in general keeping an eye on what we have paid for. This translates into knowing where our hunters need to hunt for what they are after. We also enjoy pheasant hunting and do so behind our own bird dogs that we train ourselves. Add this difference to all the other intangible fine points of what our organization is structured for and the true bird dog loving pheasant hunter finds much value.

These individual and small group pheasant hunters ambling along behind the dogs require little coordination. A drive pheasant hunt with its convoy of vehicles, various undisciplined dogs and those that may be a just a bit too quick to shoot piling out to stomp the fields while closing in on those on stand require contro9l equal to a kindergartner class. The pheasant hunting methods dissimilarity is as dramatic as the words make it appear.

The small group hunter will spend twice as long and walk much further to cover the same size field as the drive hunt. Moreover, the small group bird dog pheasant hunting hunter will be far more efficient at it moving in concert with the wind, habitat conditions and in response to the dog with its powerful nose at finding birds hidden deep in the cover. The drive hunter must rely on the luck of stepping on the birds to get them to fly for shot.

By this point anyone sticking with this article must be a good hunter as all others would have been sufficiently insulted to have quit reading. To those still reading give us a call to discuss in detail that hunt you may expect.

The individual do it yourself bird dog pheasant hunter seeks to enjoy the day in the field for his dog not the birds. The pheasants are a means, the end is the pheasant hunting activity itself available through a bird dog. One particularly tough running pheasant causing the dog to relocate and point 4 to 6 times with the hunter in tow a quarter mile down a tall prairie grass field brings a sweat and satisfaction the drive hunter would never understand. That one tough pheasant will bring a quiet smile to the hunter’s face just as a quick limit of several roosters pointed or flushed by his dog in quick order, single shots fired and camera retrieve from pocket in time to catch the bird in mouth dog on retrieve. That is quality pheasant hunting!

After many such picture taking attempts to capture a well composed picture of the dog with brightly colored pheasant on retrieve one will be especially lucky to have captured that one with all the right elements and that pheasant hunting picture will go on the wall. A single dog with a single bird, retrieving to its pheasant hunting partner. That is the picture that will bring a smile to the hunter’s face 10 years from when it was taken and long after the drive hunt dead bird stack picture has been regulated to a storage box.

First Hunt

Attached are a couple of photos from our first bird hunting trip as MAHA members. My wife, Donna, killed the three roosters in [location deleted] and my first eastern wild turkey was taken in [location deleted]. We hunted and viewed a number of properties last week on our trip and were impressed by their diversity and quality, although disappointingly, several CRP fields had been mowed by the landowners, I assume under emergency drought measures.
Bill

Thank you Bill and Donna for sharing your hunt account. New member's first hunting trip always brings a bit of pressure on us. This year being a tougher than average pheasant year didn't slow you two down much.

Our response to Bill's observations.

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your courtesy at sending in pictures and hunt feedback. Every one counts and helps keep the ball rolling. It is certainly enjoyable for us and the others that will read your account and see your pictures. They also help develop reasonable expectations and filters out the less dedicated hunters that seek to hunt with us only during prime years. Those less dedicated hunters are also the ones we do not like to work with either as they will tell of seeing many birds, shooting a lot and complain in the same conversation they did not harvest what they think we should be able to deliver to them. A parallel with the less dedicated hunter includes part of our screening process for upland bird hunters that started many years ago was to identify if the applicant has spent most of his time on preserve hunts. Those hunters we found best to leave on the preserve and not include in our organization. Look for your update next week as we have some ahead of yours and we simply publish in the order received.

The NC & NE CRP cutting was not part of the first release as it was in NW Kansas where we held back on contracts as we knew it was coming. The NC and NE Kansas release was not due to drought as my alfalfa in NE Kansas while down did just fine. The NC & NE Kansas release was developed more out of motivation other than farm use. Most of the CRP owners sold their grass to other farmers rather than harvested for their own use. Texas and Oklahoma buyers took entire alfalfa harvest and wanted even my junk round bales for grinding. Most of the prairie grass went the same.

The reports out of SC Kansas also have drought impact lessening the quality of CRP pheasant cover. What we experience is that the lower quality cover holds birds, just not the 20, 30, 40 birds at a time in a small spot as it does during up years. The secondary effect is that pheasant will not hold for as long for flushing dogs or pointing dogs with short standoff in the shorter, thinner grass. Even on these "bad" years, my good dog continues to out perform my two lesser dogs and he as a 6 - 12 foot standoff on a single rooster in grass with a 5 - 10 mph wind. The bottom line is the thick tall grass will concentrate the pheasants and the drought years disperses and distributes them across a range of cover making them more difficult to find.

Quail hunter reports up in Iowa and in Missouri, however the better quail hunters have not hit the fields hard at all yet this season due to the warm temperatures. With the cold snap coming Thursday, we will see and hear more from the quail hunters.

Good luck with the rest of the season.

John

MAHA Do It Yourself Hunts

Know yourself, know who we are and then decide to call us or not for the only kind of pheasant hunting experience we provide.

Continue this pheasant hunting article

Kansas quail and pheasant hunting

Iowa pheasant hunting

Missouri's limited pheasant hunting

Pheasant Hunting page 2

How To

Upland Birds

States

Of Interest

Ego

Tranquility

First Hunt

MAHA Do It Yourself Hunts