Pheasant hunting
- Thread starter CTShooter
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Have a good day and try and kill your birds with in 30 to 35 yards . There will be plenty of the experts who will give advice on loads , walking up, shooting over setters or pointers with a few on driven birds . You can listen to their advice but just use your own judgment and you will enjoy your day just the same .
Feltwad
Feltwad
There is and old saying......if there is lead in the air, there is hope of killing your bird.
And my favorite, how did i miss such an easy shot.
Good luck, be safe, and have fun.
And my favorite, how did i miss such an easy shot.
Good luck, be safe, and have fun.
My advice is to just enjoy yourself.
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Other than making sure there is sky behind the bird when you pull the trigger and carefully make a mental note of where the bird fell, as the other guys mention, have fun.
Brokennock
Cannon
Please, please, please, let them get higher than head height, taking into consideration if you are shooting up or down hill as well. If it isn't high enough, pass on the shot.
Our club had an ugly incident on opening day.
Lead that bird. Whether you shoot sustained lead or pass through doesn't matter, but, you will need a little more lead than with a modern cartridge shotgun.
If you pass on the shot, try to watch for where the bird goes down and mark it in your mind. You can often put them up again. Same with if you miss. If you have no retriever same thing will apply, mark where that bird went down, keep in mind that if only wounded, they will run when they land, if they don't just roost, of burrow under thick vegetation.
Have fun. Enjoy the sights and sounds.
Especially if hunting with a dog, Enjoy just watching that dog do what it loves to do. And, trust that dog's nose. Enjoy the experience.
Our club had an ugly incident on opening day.
Lead that bird. Whether you shoot sustained lead or pass through doesn't matter, but, you will need a little more lead than with a modern cartridge shotgun.
If you pass on the shot, try to watch for where the bird goes down and mark it in your mind. You can often put them up again. Same with if you miss. If you have no retriever same thing will apply, mark where that bird went down, keep in mind that if only wounded, they will run when they land, if they don't just roost, of burrow under thick vegetation.
Have fun. Enjoy the sights and sounds.
Especially if hunting with a dog, Enjoy just watching that dog do what it loves to do. And, trust that dog's nose. Enjoy the experience.
Sparkitoff
40 Cal.
This is a very old thread, but some recent introductions to newbees had me thinking about this. Advice is to count to three as the bird flushes. Move, mount, shoot. You can incorporate Move as 1, Mount as 2 and Shoot as 3. I've found with new pheasant hunters they often shoot very quickly as soon as the bird is airborne enough to be safe, or conversely they shoot too late after 4-5 seconds and that's a long shot.
Too bad Dick Cheney isn't here to give the OP some sound advice.
Brokennock
Cannon
So the only times I've hit my limit on pheasants or chukkar, has been with a ML shotgun. Mine is a Pedersoli 20 gauge and has choked barrels, but you can work up loads to get good results with a cylinder bore gun. I found that you might want to test the different shot sizes when patterning the gun. For example my Pedersoli really likes #6 lead shot, but for some reason does not like #7½ nor #5 lead shot.
Yes this is important. When I last hunted upland birds when I and the rest of our party arrived at the farm, for an afternoon hunt, there had been a very unfortunate negligence on the part of a guest hunting that morning. A hunting dog had been killed.
So when we went out our young guide was a bit skittish about us, and understandably so. My using a BP shotgun, with which the guide was unfamiliar, didn't help the guide to relax. A chukkar-grouse flushed as we walked through the first field, and it was the second bird we had seen that day. It flushed a good distance from us, and probably had been a left-over bird from the morning hunt. It flew off to our right, saw another party of hunters at a distance and so for some reason circled back toward us. We were just standing there watching it, and it continued the circle, coming behind us and continued changing course to end up coming from behind, paralleling our party, and passing us on the right side, where I was standing. The dog was about 10 feet in front of me as the bird passed at about 10 feet above the ground.
Now the dog was probably close enough to me that my shot wouldn't hit him in the back of the head BUT sometimes dogs will jump up at a passing bird, which may have been the reason the morning dog had been hit. So I could pass on the bird, a good choice, OR I could kneel, IF I was able. I was and so I did. When I knelt and shouldered the shotgun, the path of the shot was angled upwards, and the dog was quite safe. I chose the left barrel, it having a tighter choke, thus a smaller cone of shot to reach the bird, and shot the grouse.
The guide walked over to me and shook my hand, telling me he'd been quite worried until I took a knee and he saw how much of an upward angle I had when shooting.
The hunt continued and the guide relaxed a bit as the afternoon progressed as he observed all four of us hunting were quite careful about him, the dog, and where the other members were at all times. We even saw a bald eagle (we were on Maryland's Eastern Shore) swoop down and snatch up a chukkar that flushed and flew from us very low to the ground, presenting no shot for any of us. My reaction was "COOL!, That alone made the trip worth while."
The moral, keep your mind open to options. It's not a common position to kneel when shooting upland birds, but it came in handy for me.
LD
Yes this is important. When I last hunted upland birds when I and the rest of our party arrived at the farm, for an afternoon hunt, there had been a very unfortunate negligence on the part of a guest hunting that morning. A hunting dog had been killed.
So when we went out our young guide was a bit skittish about us, and understandably so. My using a BP shotgun, with which the guide was unfamiliar, didn't help the guide to relax. A chukkar-grouse flushed as we walked through the first field, and it was the second bird we had seen that day. It flushed a good distance from us, and probably had been a left-over bird from the morning hunt. It flew off to our right, saw another party of hunters at a distance and so for some reason circled back toward us. We were just standing there watching it, and it continued the circle, coming behind us and continued changing course to end up coming from behind, paralleling our party, and passing us on the right side, where I was standing. The dog was about 10 feet in front of me as the bird passed at about 10 feet above the ground.
Now the dog was probably close enough to me that my shot wouldn't hit him in the back of the head BUT sometimes dogs will jump up at a passing bird, which may have been the reason the morning dog had been hit. So I could pass on the bird, a good choice, OR I could kneel, IF I was able. I was and so I did. When I knelt and shouldered the shotgun, the path of the shot was angled upwards, and the dog was quite safe. I chose the left barrel, it having a tighter choke, thus a smaller cone of shot to reach the bird, and shot the grouse.
The guide walked over to me and shook my hand, telling me he'd been quite worried until I took a knee and he saw how much of an upward angle I had when shooting.
The hunt continued and the guide relaxed a bit as the afternoon progressed as he observed all four of us hunting were quite careful about him, the dog, and where the other members were at all times. We even saw a bald eagle (we were on Maryland's Eastern Shore) swoop down and snatch up a chukkar that flushed and flew from us very low to the ground, presenting no shot for any of us. My reaction was "COOL!, That alone made the trip worth while."
The moral, keep your mind open to options. It's not a common position to kneel when shooting upland birds, but it came in handy for me.
LD
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I'm with Brokennock's observation re; marking where the bird goes down. I'd add to not take your eyes from that spot, and, it may have looked foolish, but I learned to run to that spot not walk. Unless that bird is dead, it's going to run, maybe only far enough to bury itself under something. This is assuming you're without a good dog like I was. Keep us posted and good luck!
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