Pheasant Hunting
Long ago in prehistoric times there was a bird like creature that stood five feet tall (Grooms).That thing was the ancestor to the pheasant. Luckily they are not that size because we would need much bigger guns like a rocket launcher in order to kill them. I have only gone pheasant hunting a few times and I haven’t shot one yet but the day I do it will be nice. I love hunting and I hope I can the rest of my life.
Pheasants can not sing like regular birds so they had to find a different way to appeal to the hens (Grooms). They ruffle their feathers and stand funny. That is like a sexy pose. Pheasants are just a fancy chicken. The male is called a rooster like a chicken. The female is called a hen also like a chicken. When a pheasant is flying away from a hunter, it flaps its wings as hard and as fast as it can. This is called flushing (Grooms).
There are a lot of pheasants in South Dakota, but a lot of people come to hunt them from all around. With that many people pheasants get shot at a lot. They aren’t made to fight off a shotgun because they only have small talons for fighting off the other animals that attack them. So how do pheasants get away from so many hunters? They fly like the wind, and they are fast learners (Pheasant hunting basics).
The type of gun used to kill pheasants is usually a shotgun. The shotgun was a deadly weapon to the first pheasant because they had never seen them before, but now pheasants have been through years of being shot at, and they have learned not to fly away from hunters. Now they run away from people, and they are not slow when it comes to running. They can weave in and out of weeds without a problem. The dogs that try to get them usually get caught in the weeds or in a fence line (Pheasant hunting basics).
Roosters have a reddish brown chest, along with a blue patch of feathers by their butt. These bright colors make them attractive to hens. Their tail is about eighteen to twenty-five inches long. (Pheasant Hunting Basics) The hen has a beige color throughout its whole body, and a much shorter tail. They have a dull color so they are not seen as easy as the roosters so they can hide from predators.
Pheasants mate in the fall. Once the have found a partner they have babies. Most of their nests are destroyed by hay movers. Even if ninety percent of all roosters were shot there would still be enough pheasants to mate with the hens. The hens stay and guard the nest until the babies are big enough to fly.
Some people like to hunt with dogs because they can help find pheasants that are sitting tight which means that they do not fly unless they are right next to a person. People with dogs lose fewer pheasants because the dogs can sniff out the pheasants when they are hiding in the weeds. Some dogs are trained to just point at the direction of the pheasants. Then the hunter can go walk in the direction and not be surprised when the pheasant pops up. That is how most pheasants get away is to catch the hunter by surprise. The hunter will then have a better chance of hitting the pheasant.
Other people say that dogs can scare away the pheasants. That is only if they are untrained and inexperienced.
The best gun to use for pheasant is the twelve-gauge shotgun because it has the power to put down most if not all pheasants. That is only if they have a good enough aim to hit the bird. Some people such as me use a twenty-gauge shotgun because they are generally lighter than the other guns, and when hunting pheasants the person has to be able to pull up their gun, aim, and fire in a matter of a few seconds. The lighter gun has the advantage on speed but the twelve-gauge has the power to be able to take longer (Pheasant Hunting Basics).
Safety is a very important part of pheasant hunting because if you shoot your best friend nothing is fun. The main part of safety is to know where your partners are at all times because if a pheasant pops up and flies toward the direction of your friend and you fire, the rest of the day can turn into a nightmare. One way to avoid most accidents is to wear hunter orange clothing like a hat to show people not to shoot there. Hunter orange is nowhere in nature no matter what (Pheasant Hunting Basics). When hunting with a dog always, know where it is at all times because one way to lose a dog is to shoot into the wrong place at the wrong time.
Weather is a main component in pheasant hunting because if it is cold, the pheasants usually will be where it is warm. My dad told me when he was young that he could just walk up to a snow bank and reach in and pull out a pheasant. I want to try that, but we have not had enough snow to get big snow banks. Snow can also make pheasants concentrate to smaller areas to keep warm.
Time can affect your hunt because some pheasants do not move until later in the day. Pheasants need gravel to help digest their food, so later in the day they go out of the corn and pick up little pebbles off the road. This is a very good thing for road hunting. Early in the day is also a great time to hunt because the birds have been sleeping and they need some food (Pheasant Hunting Basics).
There are a few different ways to hunt pheasant. There is road hunting where a person drives down the road and looks in the ditches to find a rooster. The second way to hunt is to walk fields. That way is self explanatory.
Pheasant hunting is a sport and skill that is mastered by few. When hunting, use common sense and wear orange clothes. The use of dogs may help your outcome, but it depends on the person.