I think there's more to it than that Pete. We had a huge breeding population of pheasant here in southeast PA during 40's 50's, and 60's. By the late 70's they were all but gone.

Increased predation from raptors and coyotes certainly contributred but, here in PA at least, there was much more to the story. Clean farming techniques effectively removed most of the cover for them to hide in. Gone were the cornfields thick with foxtail grass and other ground cover thanks to the increased use of herbicides. Gone were the thick hedgerows between small fields of crops. Trenches were dug and they were pushed in creating one vast field with no cover where there used to be a half-dozen or more fields bordered by those wonderful fencerows we grew up hunting alongside.

With the drastic decrease in cover they became easy targets for the increased predator population.

The development of hybrid hay grasses allowed much earlier cuttings than ever before. Tens of thousands of hens were decapitated by mowers driving over them while sitting on their nests, the chicks then perished as well.

The avian flu of the early 70's took a huge toll on the wild pheasant population here. I'm guessing hundreds of thousands died.

The population never recovered and it remains a mystery as to why not. Our Game Commission set aside thousands of continuous acres dubbed Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas. For more than a decade hens and cockbirds were stocked in ideal habitat. Hunting was prohibited in these areas as was dog training. No viable breeding population ever established itself and the program was eventually abandon.

So now we have all stocked birds. They are still fun to hunt. They are raised with minimal human contact and the ones that survive a few days wise up quick. Still, very few, if any, make it to the following spring.

I kinda wonder if they have explored captive breeding and stocking the prairie chicken instead of pheasants

Being part a Pheasants Forever chapter for almost 30 years means I gto to know many guys with dogs And with no natural birds in the wild many would go to the game farms Because I Iam from the1960'S I remember the way it used to be and therefore the game farms did not compare to the 1960'sOver time I came to accept that some times we need to adjust to continue to do what we like After so time I got 2 hunting dogs my self and Said IF you can't beat them join them

In the 50s around Green Bay WI, around Pamperin Park . There were breeding populations of pheasants. Had hundreds of hens and roosters. They came into garden and ate insects. Had bb gun , put meat in pot with head shots, only roosters.

SD has great pheasant hunting and they have a hawk on every power pole as well as all the other predators.

I'm not sure why we can't get sustainable wild pheasant population in areas of WI. Although, they are doing OK in NW WI. I've hunted there and it's tough, but they don't plant pen raised birds.

I'm heading to SD, bright and early Sunday morning. We limited every day on my first trip, only hunting public land. Hopefully we can do it again this trip!

Alot of the birds you shoot in SD came from Wi. Check their nostrils and you can tell if they had a guard on prior to release.

They typically release on Wednesday, I usually get a few on my driveway walking around lost. Watched a hawk put the attack on a rooster the other day, put up a good fight and got away, for now.

Wrong. We shot our 45 last trip and none were pen raised. It's surprising when we come across one that was pen raised.

Last year we shot 100+ had found 2 released birds.

We did see a couple haulers taking birds to various places. They must release a lot of birds on the high end ranches.

Great day

Looks like a great outing Pete.

Imo the reason pheasants are struggling east of the big muddy is the loss of proper habitat, loss of fence rows, tree rows and crp. When just about every available inch is rolled over for row crops it's gonna have a negative affect on game numbers, there's plenty of areas out here where they suffer from the same conditions.

South Dakota has it figured out where cover and habitat is concerned. Headed that way in an hour or so to hunt for a few days.