Pheasant Hunting Methods - One Is Our Way, The Other Not
Pheasant hunting methods encompasses two basic types.
The first and the one that appears to be the most common are the drive with or without dogs that may or may not be on wild birds.
The second pheasant hunting method is the individual or small group upland bird hunter with one or few dogs seeking only wild birds. We cater to only this individual or small group that seeks do it yourself hunts and loathe the pheasant drive hunt.
Pictures Shows Well How Association Hunters Pheasant Hunt
Kansas pheasant hunting of one dog and one Association hunter - a common practice. Hunters who enjoy their dogs, pictures of their dogs, hunting their dogs with the wild pheasants only a tool for their dogs.
Drive Hunters
The drive hunt piles up dead birds for those that measure pheasant hunting quality in terms of a score card numbers mentality. Frequently, one bird will get up and two to three hunters will fire one or more times at it. How would that rooster make for a pheasant dinner?
Hunting Dog Work
The individual or small group bird dog running method of pheasant hunting quality is measured in dog work. Birds harvested with one shot. A more clean pheasant hunt. The ideal all strive for in this second method is on each pheasant hunting day a limit of roosters, off the dog (either pointing or flushing), a single shot per rooster and every pheasant shot at goes in the bag. That is a good hunting day.
Measures Of Success
The pictures at the end of each of these pheasant hunts typifies these two methods.
The pheasant drive hunt stacks the birds up to show quantity.
The individual bird dog pheasant hunter takes pictures setup to highlight the dog and the serenity of pheasant hunting. The pheasant is only a part of the hunt. Not the reason for hunting.
Iowa Pheasant
Spring rooster photographed by Jon Nee, the Association owner and operator.
Taken while on a land run scouting a potential new Iowa lease land.
He pheasant hunts just as his partner John Wenzel does and they both do off pointing dogs they train themselves.
When first year Association hunters seek a good pheasant hunting experience they will first talk about where to go pheasant hunting. The conversations with these two Association partners will be from first hand experience of where to hunt. That is a year round experience based recommendation, not just during the pheasant season exposure to the hunting land we lease.
Their motivation is to insure all have good pheasant hunting. That is what brings the hunter back to renew his membership. This customer service attitude is frequently expressed in the hunter testimonials found on this web site.
Once A Season Pheasant Hunter
Fortunately, the drive hunter is of a single pheasant hunting day or two per season type hunter.
His hunting but once a year is a boosts to his ego. Those that participate can claim great pheasant hunter status as they are pictured with a pile of birds they may or may not have shot. After that one ego hunting picture is displayed that hunter rarely sets foot in the field again that season or even sees a pheasant. He will wait until next hunting season’s pilgrimage of spending the day with the boys under the rigors of field conditions.
This once a hunting season hunter does have a singular advantage over the bird dog hunter. That advantage is that drive pheasant hunter can wear the same hunting clothes from season to season for many pheasant hunting seasons to come. At the rate of one weekend a year pheasant hunting his field clothes are more typically for image than function. This is the case until the belly expansion of these hunters exceed the extra size they were purchased at just in case additional warm clothing is required on the cold years.
Hunting Value
Pheasant hunting as an individual or with a close companion and doing so behind a bird dog or two brings a serene sense of tranquility. It comes from being outside, in the field and watch an animal, the dog, work his heart out for the hunter. Without the dog this hunter probably would not hunt. And, because of the dog and the special connection that exists with the dog, these do it yourself hunters hunt their dogs every chance they have. In doing so typically wear out a pair of boots and pants or two each season.
These individual and small group pheasant hunters ambling along behind their dogs require little coordination. Unlike the pheasant drive hunting with its convoy of vehicles, various undisciplined dogs and those that may be a just a bit too quick to shoot. They pile out to stomp the fields while closing in on those on stand. The dissimilarity is as dramatic as the words make it appear.
The individual or small group pheasant hunter will spend twice as long and walk much further to cover the same size field as the pheasant drive hunt. Moreover, the small group bird dog pheasant hunter will be far more efficient at it moving in concert with the wind, habitat conditions and in response to the dog with its powerful nose at finding birds hidden deep in the cover. The drive pheasant hunter must rely on the luck. The luck of stepping on the birds to get them to fly for shot.
The individual bird dog pheasant hunter seeks to enjoy the day in the field for his dog not the birds. The birds are a means, the end is the activity itself. One particularly tough running bird causing the dog to relocate and point 4 to 6 times with the hunter in tow a quarter mile down a tall prairie grass field brings a sweat and satisfaction the drive hunter would never understand. That one tough rooster pheasant will bring a quiet smile to the hunter’s face just as a quick limit of several roosters pointed or flushed by his dog in quick order, single shots fired. Most would have a camera retrieve from pocket in time to catch the brightly colored pheasant in the dog's mouth on retrieve. That is a pheasant hunting day that will make the memories and bring that hunter back to the field for years to come.
After many such picture taking attempts one will be especially lucky to have captured that one with all the right elements. That picture will go on the wall. A single dog with a single rooster, retrieving to its pheasant hunting partner. That is the hunting picture that will bring a smile to the hunter’s face 10 years from when it was taken. Long after the pheasant drive hunt dead bird stack picture has been regulated to the storage box.
Know yourself, know who we are and then decide to call us or not for the only kind of hunting experience we will allow.
For those that seek our do it yourself hunt approach we offer the links at the bottom of the page. They will gain the reader ever increasingly greater detail about what we offer. If all the links on this web site have already be reviewed then it is time to call us directly to discuss and application for membership. We rarely disappoint any one hunter that has his own bird dogs seeking a do it yourself hunt on wild birds.
Kansas pheasant hunting trip during the last week of January
One dog, one hunter and a friend with a camera.
The dog remains steady to flush. He can be seen at the right. This is a medium quality tall grass field with pasture to the far ground and milo to the rear. All our upland bird hunts are over grain farms. This hunt is deep in the middle of winter and a clear blue sky day making it feel warmer than it was. Even with the cold it is rarely too cold to hunt Kansas. A bad weather day is far more likely due to high winds.