Opinion Needed First Time Hunting Pheasants

[ArizonaNative]

I'm thinking about going for a walk Sunday morning in hopes of an opportunity to shoot a pheasant or two. I have never been pheasant hunting so questions abound - I hope you all can humor a rookie's questions and respond with some knowledge.

So here we go:

Guns:
12ga. up to 3 1/2". Full and modified chokes.

20ga. 3". Full choke.

.410ga. 3". Full choke.

Loads:
What shot and shell length would be a good all around load?

12ga: "Standard" field load 7 1/2 shot, 2 3/4" but also have some 3 1/2" mags in #2 steel shot that I've used for waterfowling and some 3 1/2" mags in 6 copper-plated 6 shot which according to the box is for turkey.

20ga: 3" #4 shot

.410: 3" #4 and 7 1/2 shot

Location:
I was planning on going for a walk in some public land somewhere in Pawnee County most likely, but would also consider a short drive over to Gage County and Johnson County is just North of me. Anyhow, there is some CRP-MAP land around and also some WMAs I could try.

Tactics:
So what do you do? Just walk around and hope a pheasant wants to fly at that time? I don't have a bird dog or any other additional means of locating birds. Are they typically in shorter grass? Longer grass? I have seen quite a few birds in what I'd say is 2' tall grass, but that's when I'm driving by them. Any tips on hunting tactics is greatly appreciated!!

Precautions:
Anything to be aware of?

So that's about all the questions I have for now. I'm sure there will be more. I'd like for Sunday to be "successful" where I can bring home a bird or two but I'll have a good time just being out. Thanks in advance for any help!!

[flatcoats]

i would stick with the 12 ga. probably the most common shell would be a 2 3/4" 6 shot, but anything from 2 3/4 6's, 5's, 4's..or 3" 4,5,6 will do fine. If I didnt have a dog, Id lean more towards shooting a bigger load so that I kill the bird stone dead. Roosters merely winged in grass without a dog are typically as good as gone if you dont find them immediately.

As far as cover, birds can be anywhere, but tend to be somewhat patternable in what theyll be doing based on the time of day. Theyre even more patternable with crappier weather, which we dont have, but you can still try to pattern their movement. Normally, theyll roost in some pretty thick medium to tall cover overnight (but Ive seen them roosting even still in stuff that isnt much more than ankle high..you just never know.) Once they wake, many times theyll either walk or fly into the foodsources. At some point many birds will be present around the gravel roads and ditches to pick up some gravel for digestion. Typically after they eat and fill their crop, theyll loaf in a little lighter cover relatively closer to the food source, which theyll hit again once more before heading back to the roost at night. You can see where birds are roosting when your walking around because you'll find piles of crap where they spent the night. I would say without a dog that getting on the birds right off the roost might be your best bet. Many times afternoon hunting can be good, but Ive found that its more about following good scent trails laid down by the birds. Even without a dog Id walk into the wind, you'll have far fewer birds bust out early on you from hearing you walk. They have amazing hearing and eyesight. While walking, especially without a dog, Id walk kinda in a zigzag motion through a field so that you have a higher chance of bumping the birds up and confusing them, and Id walk for awhile and then stop for awhile. Birds will hear you coming easily, but when you stop it can make them nervous and sometimes theyll get up for you. Good luck with it. Dont get too frustrated if you dont do overly well. Rooster hunting without a dog can be done, but usually can be very difficult especially in really fair weather like we have now. Those birds are so carefree right now that they can literally roost about whereever they want. Id say Ive seen some bunching up of the birds with these sub 20 nights we've had recently, but not really in terms of what will come with the snow and ice and frigid temps.

another thing that might help is try to pinch the corners of the cover. For example, if youre walking 200 acres of CRP the chance of you consistently getting birds up by just walking around arent that great. But if you walk the edges, or push them into a corner (in an effort to try and take away their cover for running) sometimes you can get birds to choose to fly instead of running in the open.

[dlwilson]

Flatcoats gave you some great advice, I'd go by what he said. The one thing I'd stress that he already mentioned is to walk slow and stop often. Work a zig-zag pattern and after a few minutes stop. Make lots of stops in the field, you don't have to stop long, 1 minute at most but when you stop, the birds think you are on to them and will flush. If you keep walking without stopping, the birds will just run in circles around you and you'll never get them up. Stopping causes them to get very, very nervous and they'll take flight rather than run.
Without a dog I'd for sure shoot a larger load to make sure you don't get a cripple. Going down south like you are don't be surprised if you don't see many roosters but you should see plenty of quail. Also, don't depend on all that CRP land being good hunting. Some have good cover all around, some have a few decent spots and others have nothing at all so make sure you look at a few places. Hopefully the public areas haven't been hit too hard on this holiday weekend, my guess is that they have so don't be afraid to knock on a few doors if you see a promising spot.

[tjm]

I like copper plated #5's. The stopping and zig-zags have already been mentioned. Without a dog, I would tend to stick to field edges and waterways. Try and "coral" them to a corner them so they flush rather than just run around you. I like to hunt at first light, that is when they will more likely be in the heavy CRP roosting.

[Red]

I like Winchester Super X 5's. I've used steel 4's while walking on creeks, incase a duck jumps, and they seem to work just as well.

Also with the wind I advise walking tree line, they'll usually run to the very end of the tree line until they're out of cover and then they'll flush. Don't be scared to "Arkansas" them, but always have a positive identification before squeezing off the shot.

Hope you get a few.

[Carnivore]

Some great advice already given.Make sure you mark the bird well.I tend to start looking for other birds and don't always get a solid mark where the bird went down.Good luck!!

[Alex T.]

Shoot a bird..find a bird.


Alex

[OldBaldGuy]

Hunting alone without a dog means picking your spots carefully. Don't waste time on big fields or big patches of anything, no matter how "birdy" it looks. Find relatively narrow grassy draws that dead-end in cultivated fields, small overgrown weedy corners, plum thickets that end at a field access lane, etc. Walk slow, stop often, and keep looking WAY AHEAD because Mr. Rooster almost always prefers to run rather than fly. Good luck.

[Spaniels]

Its semi-tough to hunt roosters with a dog on public. Takes a bit of knowledge/experience. Hunting for roosters without a dog on public is pretty darn tough. You can really increase your chances by following the advice given. That is years of hard work and days in the field summed up into little gems of advice. Best of luck out there, and try not to crap your pants the first time a rootie explodes under your feet....pretty exciting.

[Catfishsteve]

Originally Posted by tjm

I like copper plated #5's. The stopping and zig-zags have already been mentioned. Without a dog, I would tend to stick to field edges and waterways. Try and "coral" them to a corner them so they flush rather than just run around you. I like to hunt at first light, that is when they will more likely be in the heavy CRP roosting.

I agree.

Copper or Nickel plated #5's in 12 or 20 gauge with a mod (or IC if over pointing dogs) choke is really tough to beat for pheasants.

[dlwilson]

ArizonaNative, how did you do? I hope you made it out this morning. Your chances should have increased with the little bit of snow on the ground and not having a dog you can key in on their tracks. If you didn't get out you may have missed a good opprotunity. Light snow and fresh pheasant tracks= dead roosters Hope you got some.

[ArizonaNative]

Originally Posted by dlwilson

ArizonaNative, how did you do? I hope you made it out this morning. Your chances should have increased with the little bit of snow on the ground and not having a dog you can key in on their tracks. If you didn't get out you may have missed a good opprotunity. Light snow and fresh pheasant tracks= dead roosters Hope you got some.

I didn't get a chance to get out this morning due to work but will try again tomorrow morning. There wasn't any snow on the ground around here but with the cold front maybe they'll be a little more predictable. We'll see! I'll post a report one way or another. Thanks for asking, though!

[Alex T.]

I didn't get a chance to get out this morning due to work

Slept in huh??

Alex

[ArizonaNative]

Originally Posted by Alex T.

Slept in huh??

Alex

Yeah, I did actually, but only because I was working until 5am. Working again now and hopefully will get this project done in time to get out in the morning.

[Eric]

I've been chasing pheasants dogless, and often as not solo, for about 25 years. I think I can add a few thoughts...

Small pockets strategy is alright, but do not fear the big fields if you are alone. They have more total birds. Choose the high percentage parts of a field according to time of day/weather(the best cover, or a wind-protected area, or a "sunning" area, or a travel area between cover and food/gravel) and use corners etc as Flatcoats already said.

Hunt the snow, especially fresh snow, and "study" the tracks left behind to determine where they hold, and if/how birds are escaping you. As you learn their ways of escape you can devise strategy to beat them. As you learn the sweet spots of a particular field, you can find the stealthiest ways of approach. Tracking in the snow is what taught me much of what I know of pheasant strategy.

Be quiet always. Get out of your vehicle, load your gun, move through the cover- One of the few advantages of solo/dogless is it's easier to go stealth mode.

Don't be afraid to go outside the box of traditional thinking. I regularly run ahead to areas that have birds flushing, and pin down/flush/shoot a rooster that would have flushed at 100 yards or ran ahead if I had continued walking slow. Look ahead of you, even to the point of leaving the cover occasionally to scan for birds running ahead along the outside edge of the cover. (they do this all the time)

Use the 12ga...I always use 2 3/4" 4 or 5 shot, 1 3/8 oz loads... That is exactly as Flatcoats posted, to avoid losing knock-downs. Aim for the head when it's possible. Watch after the shot for damage assessment. If the bird falls but is not dead, don't shoot at any others-get running to where #1 fell, fast, and you might still catch it if it runs. I've had dead birds come to and take off running right before I was gonna grab 'em. Though they are fast, you can catch a running cripple, even in switchgrass I've ran some of 'em down. Losing shot birds does happen more often when you don't have a dog, but with good shooting ethics and good effort after the shot, you won't lose many.

[huskerbowhunter]

Originally Posted by Eric

I've been chasing pheasants dogless, and often as not solo, for about 25 years. I think I can add a few thoughts...

Small pockets strategy is alright, but do not fear the big fields if you are alone. They have more total birds. Choose the high percentage parts of a field according to time of day/weather(the best cover, or a wind-protected area, or a "sunning" area, or a travel area between cover and food/gravel) and use corners etc as Flatcoats already said.

Hunt the snow, especially fresh snow, and "study" the tracks left behind to determine where they hold, and if/how birds are escaping you. As you learn their ways of escape you can devise strategy to beat them. As you learn the sweet spots of a particular field, you can find the stealthiest ways of approach. Tracking in the snow is what taught me much of what I know of pheasant strategy.

Be quiet always. Get out of your vehicle, load your gun, move through the cover- One of the few advantages of solo/dogless is it's easier to go stealth mode.

Don't be afraid to go outside the box of traditional thinking. I regularly run ahead to areas that have birds flushing, and pin down/flush/shoot a rooster that would have flushed at 100 yards or ran ahead if I had continued walking slow. Look ahead of you, even to the point of leaving the cover occasionally to scan for birds running ahead along the outside edge of the cover. (they do this all the time)

Use the 12ga...I always use 2 3/4" 4 or 5 shot, 1 3/8 oz loads... That is exactly as Flatcoats posted, to avoid losing knock-downs. Aim for the head when it's possible. Watch after the shot for damage assessment. If the bird falls but is not dead, don't shoot at any others-get running to where #1 fell, fast, and you might still catch it if it runs. I've had dead birds come to and take off running right before I was gonna grab 'em. Though they are fast, you can catch a running cripple, even in switchgrass I've ran some of 'em down. Losing shot birds does happen more often when you don't have a dog, but with good shooting ethics and good effort after the shot, you won't lose many.

All of this is great advice..I usually run a dog, but that doesn't mean the birds are always going to miraculously hold for us so I have to use some of the same techniques. Along the same line, as far as shells go, we usually shoot Fiocchi because of its killing power. If you have access to different cover hunt it according to the weather. If its snowing or high winds look for creekbottoms or terraces that shield the wind from that direction. The birds will just flood to deep creek beds and cane as soon as it snows. Bluebird days I often find em out in the shorter stuff sunning themselves. If you can find a buddy to go I'd say your chances go up quite a bit without a dog. Find a way to either push the birds to a friend or have your buddy predict a good ambush point. Remember to be safe when doing this and know the locations of each other. A lot of the birds right now are being shot by the blockers because the birds are started to get jumpy.

[slakline]

I love hunting solo/dogless/fresh snow. Especially, during the weekdays. I don my snow camo and only wear an orange cap if I think someone is around. I prefer my 20 O/U on zero to moderate wind days. Only breaking out the 12ga when the wind is substantial. Otherwise...it's "sneaking around" in the snow. Quietly and slowly I walk around any available cover or areas I think birds may be hunkered down. Ain't no better rush than catching birds in the open or suprising them in their hideouts ! Once the rooster limit is filled, then it's "Rabbit" time.

[tc_topshot]

I shoot my 12 with 2 3/4'' #5 made by winchester, they are cheap and work great. Almost all the pheasants I shot were with Mod or Full (make sure the lead is sufficent with full, I have seen alot of tails blown off birds). check small areas with overgrown weeds, shelter belts, basicially anything one man can walk. if a big field, zig zag back and forth. if snow on the ground, look for tracks and possible hideouts.

[Double28]

Originally Posted by Catfishsteve

I agree.

Copper or Nickel plated #5's in 12 or 20 gauge with a mod (or IC if over pointing dogs) choke is really tough to beat for pheasants.

I agree, I use a Fiocchi Golden Pheasant (GPX) 2 3/4", 1 3/8oz. at 1485 f.p.s.. Maybe I'm dreaming but I really think the nickel plated 5's pattern and penetrate better than non-plated lead. Been using them for a few years, no problems and lots of birds!
I personally like Lite Mod as my main choke with I.M. or Lite Full on top for a follow up.

[flatcoats]

I really believe the Fiocchi's are the best on the market. I used to even shoot the 3" 6s later in the year, but got away from that when they went to $17 a box.