Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

i was out chasing squirrels today and flushed a few pheasants. really good looking animals....so now im jonesing to go pick off a few....i favor rifles over shotguns for everything but i know that wont fly for birds....anyone have a reccomendation for a pheasant gun that could maybe double as a duck/geese/dove/crow gun? i was lookin at some 20 gauges and they are damn expensive! anyone got any goods ones to check out?

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

i bird hunt a lot...

i would go for any decent hunting style shotgun that fits you and your budget well in a 12 or 20 gage with at a 28/30/32" barrel and removeable chokes

if your really considering hunting geese you probably need to think twards a longer barrel and a gun that will handle magnum length shells (3")

90% of the time i shoot standard 2-3/4 shells but its good to have a gun that will shoot the 3" in case you need it where you hunt

brands wise you cant go wrong with browning/remminton/winchester/benelli/beretta....you just want something that fits you and functions and you can get chokes for.

if your a new shooter i think i would recommend a semi-auto/synthetic stock......less to think about...lighter to carry....etc.

seems like wallyworld sells remmingtons and berettas at a reasonable price

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

Home made pheasant pot pie.....YUMMMMMMM

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

Again, - just get a basic Remingtoin 870 pump...get 12 ga...you can get lighter loads to make it perform like a 20 ga...but still able to shoot 3" or possibly even 3.5" 12 ga mag for waterfowl.

Will cost you about $300.

You can take pheasant with a 20 ga or 12 ga....get some #6 lead shot. I shoot them with a 20 ga.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

Another senseable post ....great advice :ok:

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

If you are going to use a 12, let them get at least 50 feet away, or the shot might tear them badly. I use Fiocchi Golden Pheasant ammo which is spectacular, but at the end of the day, average #6 with a SKILLED SHOOTER is what will bag your birds!

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

My usual pheasant gun is my 12-gauge 870SP with a 26" barrel. I really need (want) a barrel around 24". I have hunted pheasants once with my 28-gauge O/U which is about as long as an 870 with a 24" barrel , and it felt and shot great. Ammo costs were insane, so the 870 gets the call. I really need to get a reloading set-up in 28-gauge.

While the 26" barrel is Rem Choked, I usually just leave the Modified choke tube in the gun as the cheap promo loads tend to have soft lead and pattern more towards IC in the gun. It was how I was taught in the era before interchangeable chokes.

Instead of messing with choke tubes, I change shot hardness. The softer the shot, the more open the pattern due to shot deformation. Harder shot is more expensive due to the higher antimony content, and the hardest shot I can find is in International Trap loads. Inexpensive loads at Wal-Mart and the other big box sporting retailers have as little (or no) antimony as possible and are really soft. More pellets get deformed and the patterns open up a bit.

I have used 1.25 ounces of either #5 or #6 bird shot in 2-3/4" hulls, and both seem to do the job nicely. If I was to shoot 20-gauge, I would have to drop to 1 ounce of shot, meaning there would be more holes in the pattern. The trade-off for that is the lighter gun.

One thing to remember: The waterfowl rules are tricky. While I do not think that pheasant habitat is waterfowl habitat, there are some pheasant hunting areas that require non-lead shot. Why I have no idea. When that happens, the cost of shells goes through the roof, and I do not reload bismuth or tungsten shot in my shells. So I stay away from those places.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

All great advice.

I Hunt them quite often. Around here they don't usually make the winter, so it's more of a put and take situation.

Google pheasants and tower shoots. It's a "canned" hunt, but a better day you will not have.

One other thing, if you have access to a good bird dog, it will increase your take 5 fold at least. I have had Brittany's all my life and they are the perfect pheasant dog.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

I don't hunt pheasant, but I've been told that a good bird dog is essential. Here in Mass., there are very few pheasants that are naturalized. Most are farm raised, and released by the state. Apparently, farm raised pheasants are as dumb as dirt, and don't flush. I guess this makes the dog's job much harder.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

I'm also fairly new to pheasant hunting. It's a great sport, you'll love it. I use a Remington 870. A good dog is essential if you're going to get serious about it.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

When I was a kid in Jr High back in the late 1970's here in the Flint Michigan area...you could just go out into any 40 acre fiel and waly around an put up a dozen birds in an evening....without a dog.

I trained our pet basset hound to hunt pheasant....we could put up 30 to 40 birds in a day.....I would limit out with my 20 ga single shot nearly every time I went out....could count on it for dinner - just like going to the store to buy chicken.

I do not know what happened...but now, you can go out with 3 championship springers and hunt all day and put up just 2 birds....

I think it is a couple of things: The farming technology does not leave a single speck of corn or bean when they harvest. Also, there are way more foxes, and coyotes around than when I was a kid....that is about all I can think of - there seems to be plenty of habitat left around for the birds to live in.....just no birds. At the same time though.....there were no wild turkeys when I was a kid ....now they are all over the place...so it may not be a predator issue???

It's not from hunting pressure....no kids hunt these days...just play ball games and video games....

Strange how these things work.


BTW: the farm raised birds are like chickens - they mostly will not fly until you kick them with your feet or the dog puts a nose on them....it is fun to watch the dods work...but I can't stand the hunting. I'd rather work all day for 2 wild birds.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

I've hunted pheasant for most of my life, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska. I've mainly used a Stevens 12 ga pump, 26" barrel with an adjustable choke, #5 shot. Learned to hunt with a single shot 20 ga Ithaca.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

Pheasant hunting is different depending on where you are. When I lived in Californistan we hunted them by walking along the irrigation ditches. They would usually bolt just as you got to the end of the ditch. I understand in the midwest they hunt them in open fields.

A 12 or 20 gauge is fine for pheasant, but a 12 is more versitile. For Duck hunting you really probably want a 12, because you have to use non-lead shot, so you are using larger shot, which means you want the larger gauge for the bigger payload.

I always just used a Mossberg 500. Standard 2 3/4" with #6 shot for the first two rounds and a 3" magnum for the last round.

Big 5 sells the Mossberg 500 for $249 (on sale) with 2 barrels, a 28" barrel for bird hunting and an 18.5" barrel for home defense. If money is tight, that's a pretty good bargain.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

I didn't read any of the previous, but I've heard peasant is stringy and you can get kuru by eating it.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

i personally wouldnt call them "stringy" at all..they are of course lean and darkmeated

as to the "kuru" never heard of it, been eating pheasent all my life and know many others the same way without any health issues. (just googled "kuru" all i could find is its transmitted by eating dead people :)

pheasant in my opinion eats best breaded and fryed with stewing as a close second.

anyone got any other good ways to fix pheasants for eating ??? i usually put 40-50 in the freezer every year always looking for a better way to prepare them

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

I'm going on my first pheasant hunt tomorrow!

Remington 870 with #6 and a modified choke, hopefully that should be good enough.

Re: Anyone Hunt Pheasants??
 

Good hunting to you! Hope you get your limit.