Adam Johnson Outdoors • Reading Outdoors

Dual Role Pheasant Hunting

By Adam Johnson

It's a big swath of grass on public land that gets pounded by hunters for a few days around opener. After that the pheasants come and go without much hunter harassment as they migrate into the surrounding fields to scrounge for corn and beans. It's the perfect place to take a handful of '12's, the old semi-auto, and just walk for a couple of hours in the morning or late afternoon to try to get a rooster or two to flush. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes…

Because I never hunt this spot with a dog I'm always pulling double-duty. I'm not only the shooter, I'm the flusher/retriever as well. There's a method to this madness as I'm about to explain.

Today's pheasants like to run. Sometimes you think that the only way to get them to fly is to ram a big labrador retriever right up their rear so they'll flush. It's either that, or you have to outsmart them. Fortunately pheasants aren't very smart; they just sometimes seem that way.

I've learned the number one rule to get close to pheasants without a dog is to be quiet. The number two rule is to move slowly. The number three rule is to keep a sharp eye open.

First let's discuss Rule One. If a pheasant hears a lot of noise coming their way they are going to run as far from it as they can. That's why calm days make it tougher for a dogless hunter. With a little wind blowing the noise you make as you shuffle as quietly as you can through the grass gets tempered. If it's too windy those birds hate to fly. Calm days let the sound carry too much. Your objective is to move quietly through the cover and get right up on top of a rooster to trigger a flush.

The slower you move the better. There's something about rapid movement that is eye catching and you can bet a pheasant is going to spot you if your rapid, erratic movement looks out of place.

Even in a stealth mode those pheasants will likely spot you and try to run. If you're paying attention you can often spot the bird. You might see some grass moving or see the rooster spurt out of the cover to look back in your direction. If you see the bird at least now you have a chance at getting closer.

You have a couple of options when you spot a rooster. You can go into a stealthier mode and try to slowly sneak up to the bird, or you can get aggressive and attempt to catch up to the pheasant before it flushes. It never fails, Whichever technique you choose to get closer to that bird you spotted never seems the right one at the time. Expect that whatever you do you might get a rooster that you're moving up on to flush in range about 30-percent of the time. The rest of the time they run out of range before they flush or you just lose them as they run around in the cover.

Still, you can't beat a couple of hours sneaking around in the grass trying to spook a bird or two into lifting off in front of you and when you do get some shooting there's some real reward in knowing that you're not only a good hunter and a great shot, but you make a pretty good dog too.