Fool's Errand....

[morcey2]

Also known as the Pheasant opener in Utah. My son (in his early 20's) finally got a license and we're going tomorrow. At least my family has lots of land to hunt. We'll at least come home with some cottontails. Pheasant populations are supposed to be up some this year and my brother, who owns some of the land we'll be hunting, has seen more this year than he has in quite a few years. No where near the glory days of the late 80s and early 90s.

The last time I went, about 5 years ago, we saw 2 roosters: one wouldn't fly, and the other flew at about 100 yards out and landed in an area we couldn't hunt.

I doubt it'll be worse than that. If it is, I've got fishing poles to fall back on. Anyone else headed out for pheasants soon?

Matt

 

[Lennyjoe]

Good luck. I miss pheasant hunting in Ohio back in the 80's.

 

[3212]

My earliest hunting was for pheasants,rabbits and squirrels in PA.This was in the 50's and 60's.Since then the pheasant population collapsed.They were wild birds,now its a few stocked birds and I leave them to the kids.

 

[morcey2]

Just a follow up. We wandered around for a couple of hours and didn't see a single pheasant. There were about 10 hunters that had committed to come. 4 of us showed up. The two guys that had dogs didn't show up. I did get a rare aquatic pheasant! (actually a carp) I did get a couple of opportunities at some Eurasian collared doves, but only took one shot, and I missed.

It was fun, though. The roads on both ends of the fields were very dry and covered with beaten-to-powder dirt that showed evidence of lots of birds, just none that we could see. That or there was one bird that was very, very busy wanting to confuse us. We almost got a deer with the truck on the way home. Thankfully, that one was a miss, but not by much.

I need to invest in a good dog.

Matt

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Good luck to you. My family raised 500 Pheasants a year for 15 years for the PA Game Commission and I know what you mean about pen raised birds that won't fly up for you.

After the birds were caught and boxed for stocking we would end up with up to 50 birds in our yard on the first day of season because they knew where they got their food while they were growing up and would come back home to our farm and try to get back in their 1 acre pen.

It wasn't even fun. hunting them. We would have to kick them in the A$$ to get them to move and there was no sport in it. When they saw us coming they thought they were going to be fed. They were more like pets so we didn't hunt them except for the outreaches of our farm.

We went after Grouse instead and constantly kept running the pheasants out of our yard and garden trying to get them to leave.

It ruined pheasant hunting for me to the point I never hunted them again to this day, because I know they were all pen raised birds at one time and their not wild like a grouse is. (around the area where I grew up anyways)

The pheasants we see are all the Japanese species and they live on the ground. They will never really make it here in the U.S. unless constantly stocked. Coyotes will make sure of that.

If all the pheasant farms would have raised the Chinese variety instead, those birds may have made a good go of it. They roost in the trees and are much more wily than their Japanese cousins.

Their must have been a good reason why the PA Game Commission decided to go with the breed we all know of today. I just never knew what it was.

 

[BK]

Went pheasant/quail hunting in the Texas panhandle a handful of years ago. There were close to twenty hunters in the group, mostly my family. I got one quail. Cousin got the sole ringneck of anyone, but he also got a couple Bobs.

That trip cost me roughly $600 too. I've never been back.

I remember when pheasant hunting in the panhandle was legendary. We have pictures from the 80's where most all of us were tagging out and there were dozens of cocks lined up on a tailgate for the photo.

The family tells me that each year now, one maybe two is all that gets harvested from the entire group of hunters.

I'm going to try Nebraska next year.