At its core, pheasant hunting is a simple pursuit. You, plus maybe a couple of buddies, and a dog tromp through the uplands and lowlands flushing roosters. You walk until you shoot your limit and then you go have lunch at the local diner.
Or at least, that’s how it might have been in the good old days when birds were everywhere, permission was easy to attain, and hunting pressure wasn’t quite as intense. These days, pheasant hunting can be more challenging.
Successful pheasant hunters target prime areas with strategies that help ensure they flush birds in range. They run experienced dogs that can work out a wily pheasant track across hundreds of yards. And, they hit far more birds than they miss.
If you want to be one of these consistently successful hunters, then follow these 22 pheasant hunting tips. I’ve learned a lot of this wisdom through hunting with expert hunters, the rest of it I learned the hard way — by putting plenty of miles on my bird hunting boots.
Tips for Finding Pheasants
The real secret to pheasant hunting is to simply hunt where the birds are. If you’re in an area with a high density of birds, everything gets a whole lot easier and a few mistakes won’t really matter — you’ll just get ’em on the next one.
1. Scout with your phone. Digital scouting isn’t just for big-game hunters. Use Google Earth and mapping apps like onX to identify prime food sources and likely cover. Look specifically for areas where tall native grasses run alongside agricultural fields. Also look for strips of cattail marshes or brushy, grassy hedgerows. Remember, pheasants like to hang out around edges where cover meets food.
2. Scout from the road. In many places, you can’t start pheasant hunting until 9 or 10 a.m. in the morning. Use those pre-hunt hours to drive around the area and look for birds. Ideally, you’d spot something like a big group of pheasants feeding in a private ag field and then filtering back into the cover of a public hunting area. Bring optics. If you look closely, you’ll spot roosters other hunters miss.
3. Listen early. If your area isn’t set up for easy scouting from the road, you can still do some early-morning recon. Simply get to your hunting area around sunrise and listen for roosters crowing. You might be surprised by how many roosters are actually in the area. If you can, get to a high spot where you can watch birds fly from their roost area to their feeding and loafing spots. That’s where you’ll want to target them.
4. Know their routines. Pheasants wake at dawn, preen for a bit, then walk or fly to breakfast — usually in a grain field. They’ll eat for an hour or two before moving into loafing cover. This could border the feed field or be a half mile away, but it will be dense and undisturbed. An hour or two before sunset, they’ll make another grocery run, fill their crops, and head to roosting cover, often in surprisingly short grass in expansive fields. —Ron Spomer
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Permission. During your scouting missions, you’ll probably end up seeing lots of birds on private land. Don’t be bashful about knocking on the landowners’ door and asking to hunt. Just know that you’ll have a lot better chances when deer season is over (most folks will not give bird hunting permission during deer season), and if you’re by yourself and plan to only hunt for one day.
Tips for Hunting Pheasants
Here are a few tactical maneuvers that will help you put up more roosters in range.
5. Keep quiet. When you roll up to your hunting spot try to be stealthy. When hunters are loud in a parking lot — slamming doors and hollering for dogs — older pheasants take note and slink into heavier cover. Roosters that have experienced a lot of pressure might simply fly out of the field. Of course, you can’t be totally silent while pheasant hunting, but you don’t have to put every rooster in the county on high alert, either.
6. Zig when everyone else zags. If you notice that all the other pheasant hunters seem to park in the same area and push the field in the same way, then do the opposite. Pheasants learn quickly where the danger comes from and how to escape it. By approaching a hunt exactly the opposite of everyone else, you can sometimes surprise birds at close range.
7. Work into the wind. Whenever possible, hunt your dog into the wind. If you can’t angle directly into the wind, quartering into the wind can be just as good. This makes it easier for the dog to pick up scent and it also makes it easier for the shooters, since pheasants like to flush with the wind at their back for extra getaway speed. If this means walking a big loop so that you can hunt your prime spot into the wind, then do it.
8. Don’t push into the setting or rising sun. The only thing worse than having the wind at your back is having the bright sun in your face. This makes identifying roosters nearly impossible and you’ll end up flushing birds that you won’t be able to shoot.
9. Trust the dog, always. There will be times when you’re approaching what looks like a perfect spot, but your dog will want to hunt an adjacent patch of cover. Just follow him. Trust me, you’ll thank us both later.
Bird dogs, especially the veteran ones, have a lot better idea of where pheasants are than we do. If it turns out that the spot your dog wanted to hunt holds no roosters, then come back and hunt your spot after. When I hunt big fields with only me and my lab, Otie, I’ll walk right to the middle (going into the wind) and then simply follow the dog from there. It’s my job to get us in the right field. It’s her job to find the birds.
10. Be willing to run. Roosters run and if you have a flushing dog you might have to, too. The key is to keeping your dog in range at all time. You can do this by whistling him to a stop or by hurrying your ass up there. All dogs hunt at different speeds. I like to let my dog hunt fast, which means that I have to hunt fast too. If you’re hunting without a dog or with a pointer, you have the luxury of walking as slowly as you like.
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11. Identify likely escape routes. Pheasants like to run to the end of cover and then flush when they hit a break or field edge. That’s why it’s smart to have an idea of where they’re going to run and then cut them off. You can do this with a blocker (have one person stand at the end of the cover) but that means you need to be extremely careful with shooting lanes. You can also do this when hunting by yourself (and your dog) by beelining for the likely escape route when your dog gets birdy. For example, if I’m pushing a thin cattail slough and my dog starts to get birdy in the middle of it, instead of trying to follow right behind her I’ll slip out of the slough and hustle up ahead 40 or 50 yards. That way when she does put birds up ahead, I’ll be in position to shoot.
12. Remember, some roosters will hold tight. Inevitably, some pheasants will flush wild and you won’t get shots at them. No worries. Mark where it landed and then head for the area that they flushed from and work it over thoroughly. There’s a good chance that one rooster will hold tight. There’s also a chance that the rooster will decide to run instead of flush and your dog will have a chance at tracking that bird down. If you don’t put up any birds in the flush site, then head in the direction that the bird flew (if it was a rooster). Oftentimes you’ll be able to put that bird up again, and a rooster will sometimes lead you to more birds.
Tips for Shooting Pheasants
Pheasants are relatively easy to hit, but hunters still miss them all the time. Here’s how to avoid whiffing on those hard-earned flushes.
13. Pattern your gun, choke, and load. Before the hunt, it’s wise to shoot your gun/choke/load combination on a wide piece of patterning paper so that you can confirm your shotgun’s point of impact and evaluate the density of your pattern. Do this at 30 and 40 yards and if you don’t like what you see (low density of pellet strikes or gaping holes in the pattern) then switch up chokes and loads.
14. Stay ready. Carry your shotgun in the port arms position (or what hunter’s safety manuals would call the “two-handed carry”). This ensures that you’ll be ready for a bird that flushes randomly, but it’s also for safety. With dogs on the ground and other hunters moving around you (sometimes quickly), your muzzle should be pointed skyward. This is one of the real benefits of shooting a 20-gauge for upland birds — because they’re usually much lighter, they’re easier to hold in the port arms position all day.
15. Don’t rush. When I miss a rooster, it’s almost always because I rush the initial shot and get rattled because the bird didn’t fold as it should have. The key is to remember that you have more time to shoot a flushing rooster than it feels like. Identify the rooster, mount smoothly, swing through his head, and fire. On straightaway shots, put it right on him. Make sure that vests, gloves, and e-collar remotes won’t hinder a smooth gun mount.
16. Pass long-range shots. Most of us cannot consistently hit birds beyond 40 yards, so it’s best to just pass on these shots. If a shot feels like it’s too far, it is. There have been several instances where I’ve taken hail Mary shots at far birds only to have a rooster flush at my feet while I’m holding an empty gun. I’ve learned to avoid those long shots and make the most of the close ones.
17. Get on hit birds right away. When you drop a rooster, walk to the spot that it fell immediately. Do this even if you have a good retrieving dog. Pheasants are surprisingly tough, and even one that looks well hit can run like a rabbit. It’s your job to get to the spot the bird fell and it’s the dog’s job to track down a wounded runner. When you get to the spot the bird fell, look for the dead bird (obviously) but also listen for wing flutters or rustling in the cover, which can give away the bird’s position. If you or the dog don’t find the bird right away, give the dog plenty of time to hunt through the area and if he gets on the scent of the wounded bird, let him work. Old Otie dog has run down wounded roosters over the course of a few hundred yards (remember what I mentioned about trusting the dog, always).
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Tips for Hunting Pheasants Without a Dog
Even if you don’t have a bird dog, you can get in on the action with these pheasant hunting tips.
18. Plan a solo hunt carefully. If hunting pressure has been heavy in the area, feeding and loafing schedules might be off. Other hunters could bump birds out of feed fields early. Regular traffic through dense cover can encourage birds to hide in odd places, like small clumps of weeds in a barren field. Observe, keep an open mind, and take the road less traveled.
19. Attack huge fields. Vast chunks of CRP grass don’t require an army to flush effectively. Walk their edges 10 to 30 yards in. Zigzag now and then, pushing right to the barren edge. Be ready at all corners. Birds often run there, then hold and panic. Ignore the wild flushers — one or more roosters will usually hold tight. That’s the one with your name on it.
20. Maintain the perimeter. Walk the remaining edges of that big field, staying within shotgun range of the fringe. Persistence unnerves birds. They’ll eventually give up their hide and take to the air.
21. Hit the middle. After you’ve circumnavigated a big field, cut across it diagonally. This course will put you right through a host of crafty birds that have doubled back huddled in the center.
22. Sneak up on them. As the evening feeding session nears, birds begin easing toward the edge of main food sources. An hour before sunset, 98 percent of any field’s pheasants could be sitting within 20 yards of the edge between dense cover and the smorgasbord. If you stay just far enough into the grass so that it blocks their view of your approach, you should be able to walk right up and say “surprise.” —Ron Spomer
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Final Pheasant Hunting Tips
One of the things I like about pheasant hunting is that you can make your own success. If you keep hiking and hunting hard, eventually you will put a bird in range and you’ll fold him. It really depends on how much effort you are willing to put in to fill your game bag. This roster of tips will certainly help, but it’s still up to you (and your dog) to make it happen.
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