In the accompanying photo (below), you will see a typical cut corn field. This photo does not accurately depict the strength of this cover, but imagine a heavy thick corn stubble, maybe even with foxtail and other weeds scattered through it, although not necessary. Let me first say that I always hunt with a dog under control and I usually hunt with only one other person and many times by myself. Now first off, most guys when pheasant hunting will mainly hunt CRP or other heavy cover, assuming the birds will hold better (which they will) and seldom hunt the harvested row crops. But, I am here to tell you that you can be successful out here in this type of cover and sometimes with a minimum of effort.
Generally, you will find the birds out here in the morning and evening feeding. For me, I like to work these fields between 0930-1130 and especially between 1430-1630. Next, most of you are now thinking, how can you get pheasants "up" in a 160 acre (or larger) cornfield with only 2 hunters much less by yourself. Well, it can be done with some degree of success and here is how I get it done. First off, you need to to survey the whole field and "size it up" so to speak: you are looking at the shape of the field, contours, if any, wind direction and most important the adjacent cover. Now, assuming I am looking at a typical square or rectangular dry land corn field here is my battle plan. I want to hunt a corner of the field bordered by the road I drove up to it on and a side that is either plowed, planted in winter wheat, hay ground or pasture, etc. In other words I want to hunt the corner where the road and the adjacent side of the cornfield is without cover, allowing the birds no avenue to "run out" on me and escape. From that corner of the cornfield, about 50-75 yards (this distance will vary, depending on how many hunters are involved) up the road I will begin a march straight ahead into the field, weaving back and forth a few rows for a distance of about 100 yards. Then depending on which side the edge of the field is on, I will turn either right or left, making an L pattern if you will, and walk all the way to the edge of the field. At this point I may or may not have flushed any birds. No problem. Because when I walk back from the edge and start back down the field, from the direction I just came, that part of my walk, all the way back to the truck is where I expect to find the birds. What I have essentially done is forced the birds (that chose not to run ahead of me) to "leak off" to the side and hold, thinking I have passed through and have left the field. Again, on my way back to the truck, using the cornfield border (with no cover) and the road ahead as my "blockers", that is where I expect to find the birds and as I get closer to the road, ie. the end of the field, that is where many birds will jump.
Illustration by Bernie W.
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This technique works even better with 3 hunters, 2 to walk and one to block, back on the road where you will exit the field. The beauty of this little maneuver is this: you can make this jaunt with as little as one hunter or as many as 3 or 4 hunters and make it work, either way, but granted with varying results. The best part is the time involved, as little as 25 minutes invested in hunting a part of the field, not a marathon walk through an entire cornfield from one end back to the other and the results can be much more rewarding. I have shot many birds using this technique and not expending a lot of effort. What makes it so affective is you have used the natural surrounding cover (or lack of it) to help you "corral" the birds and get them up within gun range. And you can hunt many different cornfields in different areas and still have time to get "back into the weeds".
