# Pheasant hunting 12-29



## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

Got out yesterday for an 1.5 hrs for some wild birds. We've been trying to get the 3 year old Brittany on as many birds as possible this year, hoping he could figure things out on his own; the wild birds have been pretty tough so far. We had to cover some ground, but he found 2 roosters and had solid points on them both. My son & I got both birds, so it was a GREAT day.

If we can just get more travel corridors between the pieces of good cover, the birds would be so much more plentiful. The lack of fence lines, grassy ditches, & buffer strips leave those birds exposed when traveling & we see too many piles of feathers when we're in the field.

Now for some bacon wrapped, marinated pheasant nuggets on the grill !!


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## Waterline (Jan 20, 2007)

Good job on the wild birds. Sounds like you'll have many more fun hunts in the future with the Brit too. Good luck


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## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

Thanks. The one rooster had a 23' tail & almost 3/4" spurs ; think he'll take a little slow cooking to tenderize!! Saw a couple roosters yesterday while out with the muzzleloader ....... should have gone after the birds instead as the deer were nowhere to be found.
I think we're going to go buy a few birds & set them for the dog to reinforce what he did the other day. He just gets a little too excited sometimes & bumps the birds out before he should. Seems he may have finally slowed down a little.


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## Hendershot (Dec 27, 2014)

Used to hunt some wild birds in north central Ohio back in the mid 90s. I'm sure like most other small game hunting numbers have dropped drastically. Glad to hear there are still a few lingering around 


Hendershot


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

Hendershot said:


> Used to hunt some wild birds in north central Ohio back in the mid 90s. I'm sure like most other small game hunting numbers have dropped drastically. Glad to hear there are still a few lingering around
> 
> 
> Hendershot


I second that emotion! Used to be a ton of wild pheasant around. I haven't seen one in 30 years! Nowadays I hunt stockers at the game club I belong to. Whoever we buy these pheasant from, they give us good, strong flyers, and they can run some too. They're fun, but, they're not like real wild pheasant!


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## Sciotodarby (Jul 27, 2013)

I saw zero pheasants last fall during harvest and maybe two the year before. Got good cover on some farms and I take care of the predators fairly well so there should be pheasants there but they're not.


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## supercanoe (Jun 12, 2006)

I see and hear pheasants around my house all the time. They just need the right cover and enough of it. I have them walking around the yard once in awhile.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Got a bunch of them at the metropark next to my house. Huge fallow/crp style fields. I hear them calling all the time. 

I agree T180, we need travel cooridoors. Wooded streams brought deer and turkey to every corner of Ohio (along with stocking). Ditches, and CRP ag field edges would do a lot for the pheasant. Million dollar question is.....who is going to pay the farmers to do that on such a large scale? $200 pheasant stamps?? I'd be tempted to pay it..

BTW, nice work on dem birds.


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## Sciotodarby (Jul 27, 2013)

CREP helped the pheasants around here in certain areas, but not all. There's 70ac of CREP about 200 yards from where I'm sitting and you could walk all of it with the best bird dog in the country and not see a single bird. Filter strips along ditch banks will be the next big program to hit and it'll be interesting to see if it'll help the birds any. Predators are the biggest issue around here. I do my part to control the 4 legged ones, but the hawks are taking their toll.


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## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

I'm working with a few of the local farmers I know to plant simple buffer strips along the ditches & woods where the yield isn't worthwhile anyhow. There are scattered CRP fields but not nearly as many birds as they should hold due to the distance between plots. Those birds try to fly 200-400 yards to another field & those redtail hawk will have a feast.
My son & I did jump a hen & rooster in a new location this past few weeks & that land owner is quite receptive to ideas to improve the habitat as he loves seeing the pheasants and is old enough to remember when we had birds around. However, a large portion of the expense & all the work is on me !!!


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