Goodmorning Yall I've been wanting to go pheasant hunting for several years now and never had the time or money to do so. But this year things are looking up! I am going on my first hunt on the 23rd in a put/take pheasant hunt. Does anyone have any tips for pheasant hunting without a dog? Thanks for your time!

the more people in a line the more birds we seem to kick up

when we can walk 4 wide about 25 yards apart we seem to do better , the birds will run and try and go around you it is my though when they get to the next person they are more likely to fly
stop and listen for cackle every few yards , also it seems if you stop the bird is more likely to think that you are on to them and they need to fly.

shake brush , or send in a "driver" when you don't have a dog you are the dog we get more birds in brush and fence rows than open fields although you can get birds anywhere

not sure what a put/take pheasant hunt is

here the DNR releases birds , 99% of what we get are farm raised and released

I have had the opportunity to shoot clean up on some youth hunts at game farms with dogs , man is that nice hunting with a dog after the kids missed or wounded them I would do my best to drop them the kids kept the bird

full choke and #4 of #5 lead is my go to, I know guys with pointers often say they run an I/C and a mod without a dog you get less warning when a bird goes up , by the time you ID it as a rooster it is further out yet , if your not allowed to shoot hens and you have hunting partners going with we shout hen as soon as someone has an ID on it , sometimes you are looking into the sun and they are not
now that I think about it we should probably have something to yell if it is a rooster for the same reason to get them shooting before it is out of range.

don't get discouraged you will see some birds and shoot a lot fewer

both the boy and I were out yesterday evening and each shot at one , both were rather far out and no birds

wear orange , I know it isn't required but when we have people in brush and walking in fence rows it is so much easier to see each other and keep track of where we are.

Mark your down birds and get on them quick! Even some pen raised birds seem to think they are as tough as wild birds and RUN. 5 lead is a good phez shot size. I shoot mainly 6s but have quail also and hunt with a friend that has a dog. If pheasant was only opportunity, I would be breaking them down with 5s 100%. Not sure I would go tighter than MOD choke, but I shoot a sk/mod 12 o/u and a ic/mod 20 sxs.

Any bird you aim at, swing with the beak.

Osky

This is great advice. We hunted some wild birds in Kansas this past year while scouting geese. Flushed them and killed on my first shot, hit the second one a little far back and he sailed, rushed and tried to shoot a third and missed. Didn't get a good mark on bird #2 and dang near lost him. He sailed over 100 yards away, took me quite some time to find him. He was stone cold dead when I found him, but I could have saved a lot of headache if I wouldn't have worried with the third shot and got a good mark on him. Needless to say I was excited when I found him, don't get too many of those in NC

Thanks for such the detailed response. The place we are going is limited to only having 3 in a group, as of right now we only have 2 including myself. Also has anybody used a pheasant call? Or is it just a gimick? Thanks!

good advice and shoot them to the ground like coondagger said

a bird in the pot is worth more than 2 lost in the field

I shot one last year I knew I hit it , feathers everywhere so I didn't try for a second on it well it kept flying and flying one #4 pellet went through the thigh and up through the gut and through the lung and was lodged in the rib cage on it's back

all the rest hit the tail it flew about 100-125 yards then ran out of steam and sailed down dead when it hit the ground

it isn't a bad idea to have the shooter stay where he/she is and send the partner to go look while the shooter directs them to the location

if you can't do that mark where you where when you shot , piece or orange ribbon tied to the tall grass then shoot an azimuth to the location that way you can reverse the compass and line back up when you get there

a mile of grass all starts to look the same with little else for features

I think the call isn't going to be of much use to you. As a kid in the 50's I can remember playing dog for the grownups as we walked the fields near home on opening day. The pheasant hunting in Michigan's farm country was nearly as good as anywhere in the nation in those days. There were zillions of birds. By the time I was out of school the pheasant numbers had plummeted to such a low that I can remember going several days between shots! They came back a bit in the early 90's and I travelled back downstate and enjoyed some decent day-trips. Now, once again, they are nearly as rare as hen's teeth. Your best tactic will be leg work....lots of it. The stop/start thing can help a dogless hunter, but in all honesty, pheasants that are even remotely pressured can have PHD's in avoiding being flushed. These birds, even pen reared, have nerves of steel.

have never heard of a call

I have thought the shaking of brush sounded some like the beating of wings on take off , if a bird heard another bird taking flight close it might make it take off

can't say I have any proof that the sound made vs you just shook the bush they were near is one or the other but shaking brush has sent birds up.

my buddy's dad will kackle if he a hears a kackle more to get a fix on where they are and then we go shake that brush

please don't take me as too serious of a pheasant hunter we are really just a bunch of rednecks with no other season open or at least not one we have time for that live a few minutes from where the DNR plants birds so we go chase them for some shooting action and meat.

we take Thursday afternoons off work during pheasant season from start to gun deer and maybe get out once or twice after gun deer

sometimes we get out after work if it is a nice day ,

like I said red necks chasing birds with no dog

bring some bottles of water , it's hard work being the dog

if you have thick pants I have some with double knees wear them man the thorns can tear you up , also gloves leather gloves that you can still get to your trigger with , I chasing one last night ran into a patch of thorns and came out bloody and picking thorns out of my hand

I hadn't dressed for it at all , jeans and a shirt toss my jacket and hat on no gloves with hadn't exactly planned on running through a field when I left the house

shooting pen birds is not like wild birds. you about have to kick them to make them fly. most of those places will rent you a dog

if it is a game farm you are going to , most have dogs and handlers see how much it is , remember tip them if you get birds

hunting over a dog is very nice

pheasants love to hide in cattails, at least the wild Iowa ones.
Dennis

You will have three different issues to deal with. 1) Finding and getting birds to fly. Work heavy cover in heat and low/no wind, light cover in wind. If you are flushing only hens head into heavier cover. In cold/snow birds get wild but will hold in heavy cover such as cattails. Work slow and close if you do not have a dog. Many will run but some will try to hold. 2). Hitting flying birds. Pheasants are long birds and the back 2/3 of the flying bird is not a killing shot. Concentrate on one good shot per flush and shoot in front of the birds beak.3) Recovering downed birds. Concentrate on marking down each bird and proceed directly to the exact spot. Even dead birds can be tough to find in heavy cover and wounded birds will hit the ground running if they are still able or dig under thick cover if badly wounded. Previous based on 65 years of pheasant hunting in South Dakota only. No experience elsewhere.

Thank you guys for the responses. I will be hunting at the Willow Slough in Morocco Indiana. You can't rent a dog there but hopefully we will be able to get a limit each. From my understanding the area I have to hunt is pretty heavily wooded but also has fields with some lines of timber in between them. There is also a heavily covered spot by a pond that has had some good luck for some folks in the past I might give a shot at.

If the pheasant release is on public land, don't be surprised if it looks like a Civil War reenactment, with dozens of people present and lines of people marching in all directions. I used to go when I was in my twenties and stopped after getting hit with falling buckshot multiple times. I saw kids as young as about 8 carrying 12 guage shotguns, guns held pointed straight out, finger on the trigger. If a pheasant flushed, several different people would often shoot it.

Once 3 guys, in different parties, all shot the same pheasant. It landed in a multi flora rose bush. They started arguing over whose shot actually killed it. The third shot hit after it was clearly dead. Finally one guy said that if he went in and got it, it was his pheasant. The other 2 guys agreed. When he finally got out of the bush, with the badly mangled pheasant, he said he didn't want it anymore and offered it to the other 2 guys.

Keith

i dont know how it works in IN. but here in KS there is no limit when your hunting pen birds. The owner sets out how ever many you pay for. The ones that dont get shot pretty much all return to the pens in the evening to be sold again.

http://www.walkergamebirds.com/fieldhunts.html

Is this what your doing?

this is what the pens they get raised/fed in look like