2021 Pheasant Reports

Definitely not good for upland birds. Won’t be hunting until next week again, will report back.

I am switching to 3″ #3’s and a full choke for the rest of the season.

What are you guys using?
I finally found some ammo in store, and can stop using my catch all box that has about 10 different combinations of shells in it.

3 inch 2s have worked great for me but everyone’s gun is different.

Are you shooting steel or lead? I shoot #5 bismuth since my favored pheasant gun is a 1920s vintage 16 gauge sxs.

Mookie Blaylock wrote:

What are you guys using?

I use 2 3/4 inch prairie storm lead #6 shot in lead with an IC choke all season. I couldn’t find any prairie storm so I have been using Wing Shok instead, which is essentially the same round.

My shotgun doesn’t handle 3 inch rounds very well. Its so light weight that the recoil is unbearable.

All of my 3″ shells are steel. Left overs from Waterfowl.

2 3/4″ Fiocchi Golden Pheasant in #5 is my go to. I like Prairie Storm, too, but I figure I will shoot up what I have rather than search for new shells.

I’ve shot at a few this year from behind that dropped a leg but they flew off a long ways or onto another property. Hoping the extra power can stop that from happening.

Steel you want #2 or #3 size pellets. Lead you want #4 #5 or #6. Steel patterns tighter so a modified choke is fine. Lead go I.C. or mod. Payload of the shell I usually stick with 1 1/4oz. I wouldn’t go any lighter for a 12 gauge.

crawdaddy wrote:

Steel you want #2 or #3 size pellets. Lead you want #4 #5 or #6. Steel patterns tighter so a modified choke is fine. Lead go I.C. or mod. Payload of the shell I usually stick with 1 1/4oz. I wouldn’t go any lighter for a 12 gauge.

Agreed, these are what I found to be best as well for loads, but I just stick with modified choke. Unfortunately my season didnt really get a start. Went once, then youth deer hunting and I blew the motor in my wife’s truck (still in shop no date on backordered motor). I had sold my pickup just before this and then two weeks later my wife dislocated and fractured her ankle in 4 places and now cant drive. So I am home bound because she cannot do anything on her own regarding groceries, etc.

Ill go out for a drive tomorrow, but 4 hours of downpour followed by below zero temps and snow……I don’t think the birds fared very well in West Central. Hopefully they were able to find thick, wooded sheltering areas. Wouldn’t have wanted to be a bird last night.

Tuesday in Iowa, My shooting’s been off this year, should have had a limit. Good day anyway. 16 gauge 2 3/4″ B&P F2 5’s

That’s a happy pup, KwickStick!

I love all the dog-with-pheasant pics. They all seem to have the same stoic expression on their face, usually looking toward a nearby field, as if to say “Yeah, I flushed these birds. Why are we standing around? Let’s go get some more!”

Dennis Anderson has a nice story on Steve Grooms. Grooms wrote “the book” for pheasant hunting. I reread it every few years.

https://www.startribune.com/steve-grooms-outdoorsman-minnesota-iowa-oregon-dies-more-than-being-in-the-field-covid/600127998/

Today, for the first time in about a decade, I got out pheasant hunting with my Dad. Without exaggeration, we must have put 120 or so birds up. We saw waves of wild flushes as we worked through heavy cover. Incredible to watch. We did manage to find a few that would hold tight for us.

Nice, where do you hunt E4mo? They can be bunched up this time of year for sure.

Gimrius, we were near Willmar.

E4mo wrote:

Gimrius, we were near Willmar.

Cool

Nice, @e4mo! Private land? Heavy cover = cattails? Man, I hate hunting cattails.

Hoping to get out 1-2 more times.

It was public!!! And yes, it’s certainly a love/hate relationship with cattails.

Almost all the birds were stacked in the cattails adjacent to the picked corn. If the cattails were not next to corn, no birds.

Thanks for the tips. I normally hunt the Willmar-ish area but haven’t this year. We’ll be in Belgrade after Christmas, be so I’m hoping to sneak out for a few hours.

Had a pretty similar day in the field yesterday to E4mo. Hands down it was the most birds I have seen on public ground in a long time. I think we saw over 100 if I had to guess. I think it really helps to hunt midweek if you are hunting public ground. We hunted a large WMA about 2 hrs SW of the twin cities that was primarily cattails that have finally firmed up to walk on them safely. 3 guys and 2 dogs and we got 7 hard earned roosters over about a 6 hr time frame. Probably walked about 4 miles. We had a lot of wild flushes and groups of birds getting up way ahead of us. I have never hunted with a pointer before so it was cool to watch wild birds hold tight with the dog locked up on point. Definitely a day I wont forget for a long time.

Here is the two dogs that made it happen

Good day!

dhpricco wrote:

I think it really helps to hunt midweek if you are hunting public ground.

Definitely! Weekend hunting public land is an absolute last resort for me.

Can’t go wrong with a Vizsla! I love hunting with them.

I made it out with a friend near Windom yesterday. We got 5 birds in the first hour in the cattails, but as the sun warmed things up they were all spread out in the picked corn and impossible to get at. We put on another 6 miles to scratch out the last bird.

We didn’t see another hunter, or even an orange hat on a dashboard.

You bastages are driving me crazy. Im done hunting pheasants for the year so I thought all of you would stop hunting them to support me?!

I will probably get a chance or two to chase some Ruffled Grouse (kind of the upland game) next week but chances of success will be a lot less than your ditch chickens.

I’ll also add that we walked 4 different pieces of public land. Here are the numbers of birds put up to underscore the fact that not all habitat is equal.

Spot 1- Approximately 50 birds. 3 miles walked
Spot 2- 0 birds. 1.5 miles walked.
Spot 3- 0 birds. 1.7 miles walked.
Spot 4- 2 birds. 2 miles walked.

@suzuki take away the birds and I think a stroll in the woods beats a slog through the cattails. My hip flexors are preparing a lawsuit against me.

dhpricco wrote:

I have never hunted with a pointer before so it was cool to watch wild birds hold tight with the dog locked up on point. Definitely a day I wont forget for a long time.

I may be a bit biased since I have hunting with Shorthairs for well over 30 years, but hunting with a good pointing dog makes upland hunting much more pleasurable. They are amazing to watch. I owned a flusher and pointer for periods of time together and it was a nightmare. The flusher kept pushing the pointer and birds would easily get out of range in a hurry. The best is when you have multiple pointers and they honor each others point.