Hotspotoutdoors

If anyone is hunting pheasants near Mankato, please let me know. I am new to pheasant hunting and would love some guidance.
-Thanks.

I went this last weekend around kato. Put it this way. until the corn is all out I wont bother going out.

So what time of the year is good for pheasants around here?

When the crops come out you will find birds in grass areas, ditches, cattails, and woodlines. The birds have too much cover right now with all the standing corn and beans.

i wish everybody would wait til the crops are out then listen to there next excuses if you put your time in and hunt the spots everybody else is to lazy to huni. this is one of the best years that I have had and I only hunt public land ...

Well bully for you Raymond. You are truly Nimrod, the mighty hunter!!! Give me a buzz - I have a ticked off Springer that has spent time giving me the middle claw for my lack of pheasant prowess. LOL.

I saw one pheasant - 20 miles from where I was hunting. I suppose I need to take lessons. Thank heavens that I train with Trialers, because Maynard at least gets on some pheasants there...

morneau hit the nail on the head. you have to walk a lot of grass to see a bird right now. most birds are leaving the grass before shooting hours and spending almost the entire day in the crops. your best bet with hunting right now is the last hour of daylight when the birds should be returning to the cover.

when the crops are out, capitilize. most people will have quit pheasant hunting by then. I only hunt MN and am at an embarrassing 3 birds this year with my golden. but i've only pulled the trigger 3 times too. all the birds are in the corn with no reason to fly. they just row hop and go in behind you.

it'll get better, but dont give up. if you have a dog they will appreciate the exercise even if you dont see any birds

Thanks guys for the advice. Do any of you guys mind taking me along when you go pheasant hunting? I have a gun and box of shells.

The best hunting you can find is right next to standing corn, you just need to pick your battles. Once the corn comes out and there is snow on the ground it can be a hay day. This has been a low numbers year as far as population wise but there is still very very good hunting now compaired to other years.


The #1 thing you need is a "GOOD" dog if you want a "GOOD" year of phesant hunting. Now Im not talking about jimbobs swamp collie but a real phesant dog. There are so many people out there that take any ol dog that has a nose and a tail and 3 or more legs and they go walk around for 7 hours on a sunday and dont see a thing and say there are no phesants around.

It really cracks me up to hunt the same land right after them and get my 2 after 20 min. With the right dog and the right land you can shoot more phesants in the last 20 min of the day than you can the rest of the day.

Haha amen!!! Last year me and my dad went to some private land adjacent to a small strip of pubilic land, a guy with a pointer walked it for 5 mins. and his stupid dog scared up 15 birds 50 yards away from the hunter.
i think it's funny when people go out and buy a pointer and think they'll have an instant hunting dog.
plus why would anyone in their right mind buy a pointer anyways? go out and by a real dog;)

I dont own a dog and I do just fine pheasant hunting. Its nice hunting with my buddies who do just because a dog can run down a cripple a little better than me but a dog is not must have.

A dog isn't a must, but I don't know if I'd ever hunt without one. Got 3 black labs (2 past their prime but one still hunts better than most dogs half his age, and a new 1 year old that is figuring it out but will be a great dog in a few years!) Anyways like everyone has said its tough with the crops still in. This weeks weather has helped and lots of corn is coming out.

I would try to find CRP areas you can hunt either public or private with permission... and make note of any fields being harvested. Get out there first after the field has been picked. Once it snows those birds will congregate a little more and you can jump multiple pheasants at once and cattails become popular (Dogs help immensely in these situations.)

Another thing I've noticed over the years is that if you see pheasants get up ahead of you (out of gun range) don't assume they have all flown. I have seen multiple pheasants get up on their own out ahead of me, and still kicked up a few more once I get to the spot.

Finally, another option is to go out after a rainy day. The birds will sit tighter and, again with a dog, will get you in closer range of birds. The last time I went out it had rained most of the day, but cleared up around 3pm. I went out and got 2 birds in about 30 minutes. Both roosters sat tight and got up about 10 yards in front of me once the dogs sniffed them out.

Quite the statement you have made and you must not know much about pointers.

I had an English Pointer that had a nose second to none and they will honor a point like no other dog. This dog did very well in field trials.

The English pointer bred can be trained to be a very close quarters working dog for upland game.

good job raymondk do you want a cookie? Dont patronize someone for giving advice. All you stated was that you hunted public land. Why make a comment of that sort if you cant give any wisdom to back it up. gaurav. listen to what morneau132 said. its good advice. we are getting to the time now of the year now where the crops will be gone and the birds will be pushed into small timber, grass, and lowlands. now until the end of the season is the best time to hunt. Unless you are the greatest hunter alive like raymondk who shoots birds in his sleep. Oh and raymondk have fun at traxlers

There is a few that got offended with my statements i work very hard for every bird i get and yes it is my best year so far but everybody keeps making statements that it don't pay to hunt until all the crops are out. i go out every chance I get and I only hunt public land the only day i don't like to hunt is saturday that is the only time i will see hunters so somebody to give me a rough time about being the best hunter isn't called for. Also there is nobody that spends as much time with a dog as i do I have a far ranging pointer he will cover an area real fast when you only have an hour to hunt before dark which really helps . my dog will range as much as 75 yards on either side of me or more as soon as he is on a scent he slows down til he locks up. And i have hunted at traxlers only when somebody wants to use my dog my dog hunted with all types of dogs and so far every owner of the other dogs weren't happy with thier dogs when we are done . I have been hunting the same public lands for the last 8 years there is spots that are good in the mornings and some are only good the last 30 minutes before shooting hours . Also it helps if you can figure out where the birds will roost at night they will go to the same spot every night usally fine grass with a few dogwoods every area is different . there is pockets that to seem to hold birds all the time i have a few spots that i can get birds during the day . and i still will stick to my statements that most hunters are to lazy it takes alot of time and work. you just can't load your dog up and expect to shoot birds only on saturdays then blame the corn so something else for not seeing and birds. so if you want to bad mouth me some more go for it......

I have a pointing dog (Brit), and he works well withing range of me. Wondering what you consider a "real" dog. I will take my pointer over your "real" dog any day of the week. And probably come home with more birds.

Umm - Everybody has their preferences, my son. Good pointers are great, just like good flushers.

Careful now - we want to keep friends around here. I've hunted over pointers before - they are fun. Float Tube guy and I own Springer because we have friends with Springers we can train with.

On with the witty banter...

Speaking of which - I went out with my fancy trained Springer last Friday - and proceeded to MISS two roosters he flushed. You would think that with a fancy dog - a fancy Browning O/U and a snazzy hunting vest, I should be able to hit one of those dang things?

Sigh... LOL

I bet you would have harvested those two roosters if we were using my yellow lab....

Most guys can't hunt every single day, so that is why they are out on Saturdays instead of during the week. Also it is a fact that most any birds in an area are in the corn until it is harvested. Whether you have a super dog, or scooby-do doesn't make too much difference when you can only hunt state land as I assume the poster is talking about and the spots are being run day after day. Our area is overrun with hunters and under-populated with birds.

Maybe better yet????? One of my black labs, points. He is getting pretty old now but he would just freeze up and stair at a bird till I would tell him to get it up. A few times me or my dad had kept going with the other dog and then gone back to see him still on point and then got a flush! Pretty cool to have one pointer lab and one flush lab!

the last time i missed two birds in a row, my uncle's golden turned around, looked at me, sneezed in disgust and then went back to it. dang dog

I think the whole point of this thread was that if you are new to hunting you don't need a dog or fancy equiptment to pheasnat hunt. When I was about 16 me and few buddies would beg our parents to borrow a car and we would just jump in and head west. We always got a few birds and never had a dog or at least a good one and that was 96' or 97' which were some lean pheasant years. Sometimes we would bring my friends collie named Bozo just because it liked to chase stuff. But I think one thing that keeps a lot of people from fishing and hunting is they think you need a big boat or expensive gun and if you are just getting started you dont. The toys start to come with time.

Wow, this thread sure has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Pheasant hunters are so funny! Let me rephrase that "the common pheasant hunter" is funny.

Labs,springers,brits,shorthairs,wirehairs, and mutts can all be the best and the worst dog you have ever hunted with. Each one of them will at sometime get on a scent and not get the bird up, they will each at one point not find a cripple that you managed to shoot and not kill, they will each at one point flush birds to far out of range to shoot.

NO dog is PERFECT say it one more time NO dog is PERFECCT!!!

And for the record I dont think anyone should be allowed to hunt upland game WITHOUT a dog, unless you like looseing your birds and not finding them! Im sure there are no stats on this but I would bet a person who hunts upland game without a dog looses 50-80% more birds than he who hunts with a dog!!! MHO from what I have seen and experienced.

As for equipment I shool an old a$$ remington 1100 20 guage with rust all over it and I wear an old a$$ orange vest that I have had for 20 years and paid 20 dollars for it when new, and if I wanted to I could shoot my 2 birds everynight I hunted. I have a dang good dog and dang good land, and my 20 year old $20 vest is FULL of blood and feathers ha ha ha

Enjoy the rest of your season the best is yet to come


Josh

Don't worry about not having a dog. yes you will lose a few but a big percentage of bird hunters do not have a dog.

I have hunted with and without and yes I may lose a few without but I will still continue to hunt.

Go out and enjoy the day as the birds are a bonus.

walleyehunter, just because you use a dog does not mean everyone needs to have one. I have a cocker house dog and it could probably do as well as some hunting dogs I have seen work. I have also hunted with some who's dog nose was not that good.

Do we all need to take shooting skills test too?