Cosmo and I had an awesome pheasant hunt yesterday in the fresh snow. We raised over 40 birds and got 3 roosters. Luckily the area I hunt only got 2 inches of snow, so walking was still easy. Roosters really have nice color this time of year and stick out like a sore thumb in the snow.

Beautiful birds and i love that dog!

Good job Cosmo. I guess you to Gimruis ?. Beautiful birds

Man, I LOVE hunting pheasant. Too bad my connections are gone. Now it would cost me an arm and a leg to go.

 

BTW, also the best tasting game out there IMO.

13 hours ago, jbsoonerfan said:

BTW, also the best tasting game out there IMO.

Pheasant stew is absolutely the best thing I've had

On 12/12/2021 at 10:08 PM, jbsoonerfan said:

BTW, also the best tasting game out there IMO

You’d be surprised how many of the landowners that allow me to hunt do not want any of them. I even offer to clean and vacuum seal them and they still say no.

 

I also offer venison or walleye. The same landowners that decline pheasant often just decline everything. I still offer it every year though.

I remember seeing ring-necks quite often as a child here in PA.   Stocked birds are available to hunt but I can't recall the last time I encountered a wild pheasant.  Appears that the population has declined significantly over the last 30 years or so.  

 

Thanks for sharing those photos!  

1 hour ago, rtwvumtneer6 said:

Appears that the population has declined significantly over the last 30 years or so. 

Habitat removal has been the primary driver of grassland loss. Most of it has been turned into agriculture production. Even marginal land. It’s unfortunate that upland birds like pheasants and quail have suffered because of it, but the agriculture industry has tremendous power.

39 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Habitat removal has been the primary driver of grassland loss. Most of it has been turned into agriculture production. Even marginal land. It’s unfortunate that upland birds like pheasants and quail have suffered because of it, but the agriculture industry has tremendous power.

People always think we are losing the forest but really we lost the grasslands, just like you said . 

11 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

People always think we are losing the forest but really we lost the grasslands, just like you said . 

Not all forms of wildlife have declined.  Deer and wild turkey populations are thriving.  But they need a different form of habitat than upland birds.  Obviously deer can thrive even in a suburban environment.  The wild turkey population here is an amazing success story.  Just 40 years ago, Minnesota had NO reproducing population.  Now we have an 8 week spring season with 50,000 hunters that fills up to 12,000 tags.

10 hours ago, gimruis said:

Not all forms of wildlife have declined.  Deer and wild turkey populations are thriving.  But they need a different form of habitat than upland birds.  Obviously deer can thrive even in a suburban environment.  The wild turkey population here is an amazing success story.  Just 40 years ago, Minnesota had NO reproducing population.  Now we have an 8 week spring season with 50,000 hunters that fills up to 12,000 tags.

Kind of similar here. Deer and turkey are doing great. Grassland birds not so much (bobwhite, grasshopper sparrow, henslow’s sparrow, etc) 

Revisiting this as I went pheasant hunting one more time on Dec 29, before the season ended on Jan 2.  We went from about 1 inch of snow on the ground to about 8 in a week and it made for some tough walking.  The temperature was about 4 degrees, but once I start walking, I work up a mild sweat.  Trudging through that deep snow really saps my energy quick (and the dog too).  Luckily, I was able to hunt 3 spots and raise enough roosters to fill another limit.  The deep snow had them holding tight and when they would flush, it presented an easy shot.

 

The last spot presented an interesting situation.  I had 2 in the bag already.  I parked on the field, loaded my gun, and started walking towards the treeline/fence line I was going to hunt, with Cosmo next to me.  I look up, and there's 2 deer running out the other end.  Well they must have spooked up a rooster because it was flying right at me.  A volunteer!  It just kept coming and when it flew over, I dumped it with the Benelli.  Never even had to hunt that spot.

 

It makes me a little sad to say that my dog Cosmo has lost a step.  She's 9.5 years old now and she doesn't have the endurance that she used to.  I have to give her several days of rest in between hunts and limit the amount of hunting time to a few hours.  She still has the drive and the nose for it but I can probably count the number of seasons she has left on one hand now.

I had a lab that looked just like her named Tempe (go Vols).  She was the rarely seen rabbit Lab - I taught her to point rabbits (and quail, but public land had waaay more rabbits). She was too smart or lazy to chase them but it was very similar to pheasant hunting but flightless. 

There was a point in here - Our time with them is too short and they leave too early. And labs, especially yellow, are the best.