# Our ND Pheasant hunt



## Chris Benson (Apr 3, 2004)

Well we sure learned alot on our first hunting trip down to ND hunting. There sure is a steep learning curve when hunting pheasants! I sure need to practice crossing shots and use my main gun (instead of my Nova pump) if I ever hunt pheasants again. 

The first day Dec 6th was brutal, cold and very high winds. Which actually helped us as the birds it seemed hid in the cattails for shelter. Our group did pretty good most guys got 2 roosters. I got one rooster and a sharptail. First ever pheasant and first Sharptail. :beer:

The rest of the days we struggled to get any shooting at all. We would hit cattails sloughs but the birds would vacate well before we got there and we weren't very organized as a group which the birds totally took advantage of.

Our group we rode in two trucks and the truck I rode in seemed to be the unlucky truck as after the second day we got maybe one or two roosters for the last 2 1/2 days of hunting. The other truck did very well on the other hand the last 2 1/2 days. They got 5 roosters on Friday, limited out Saturday and got one or two on Sunday.

So by the end of the trip after 4 1/2 days of hunting I had a total of 2 roosters and a sharptail. :roll: Pretty bad I know! Our group total was around 31 roosters, couple Huns and my sharptail.

At any rate we did met alot of great people and enjoyed hunting ND! Very friendly bunch of people you have out there. I hope I will be back next year. 

Couple questions for you guys if you don't mind,

I still haven't cleaned the birds. How is the best way to clean them? The two roosters I have I would like to get two meals out of for my girl friend's family and one for my own, what are good recipes I could try that won't taste gamey?

Also do wild pheasants taste pretty much the same as pen raised?

Can you guys give me any tips that could offer on hunting late season birds?

Thanks to one and all!


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## BIRDSHOOTER (Jul 18, 2005)

> The rest of the days we struggled to get any shooting at all. We would hit cattails sloughs but the birds would vacate well before we got there.


Welcome to the world of late season Pheasant hunting. :lol:


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## brobones (Mar 10, 2004)

The best tip I could give you for late season hunting is SSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH be very quiet. I perfer to hunt alone if I have snow for late season pheasant pays off the best I think. Glad you got to shoot at a few :beer:


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## Dak (Feb 28, 2005)

Not bad for a late season hunt with a group. Haven't cleaned the birds? Are they frozen? I guess I'm not understanding. :beer:


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## always_outdoors (Dec 17, 2002)

The sharptail will taste the best, so be greedy and save that for yourself. pheasant doesn't tast much different than the chicken you get in the store, but that is my humble opinion. Fix the partridge up for the girlfriend. The ladies tend to favor the huns in taste.

Check out the recipes forum as there are lots of them out there.

Pheasant caesar wraps, deep fried pheasant strips, hot and spicy pheasant stirfry are just a couple that my wife and I enjoy the most.


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## Jiffy (Apr 22, 2005)

Chris,

Glad you enjoyed your hunt in ND. Yes, they do get a little spooky later on in the season.

I am also glad to see you didn't use a g/o! Totally unessary as you already know.

Come on back down again sometime!!

One tip that works well on late season birds is to use posters. When possible that is. Send your posters out to the end you are pushing towards. Make sure they are set up WAY before you start to walk. It works real well. Just be sure of your target and whats beyond. I only use this method with guys I trust. :beer:


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## pointblankshot (Nov 2, 2005)

Glad you had a good time Chris! Late season pheasants can be a big challenge but totally worth it when you walk into the right slough loaded with them. It is quite the sight and experience!

We usually filet out the breasts on the ones that get to cold/freeze to do the wing-step field cleaning method. It was around zero and below over the weekend of Dec 4th when we went out and we ended up fileting quite a few. Congrats on your first pheasant hunt and welcome to the addiction!


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## Chris Benson (Apr 3, 2004)

I heard of one outfitter that is buying up all sorts of land in the southern part of te state. He has something like a million acres under his control. As much as I wanted to come home with a limit of roosters I also didn't want to pay someone like that to buy up more land. Besides from what we saw there was lots of room for everybody.

We tried the poster method and should have worked if there were any birds in the areas I was hunting. Like I said we were new to the game and for the first couple days didn't really have any sort of a plan when we hit an area. Everyone just did what they thought best. Which worked on the cold days but after it warmed up a bit we didn't get so lucky. Although We learned as we went.

I guess as a group we didn't do too badly however each hunter only took home what they shot (or at least didn't get grabbed by another guy) which is a first for me. The high shooter took home 11 roosters and a couple huns while one fellow got skunked and took home nothing. Which is really too bad.


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## HonkerExpress (Sep 23, 2005)

On our trip to the south, four of us managed to limit out in about 5 hours on saturday and 3 hours on sunday. It was an awesome trip. And we are planning to go back for the closer. But it always helps to get tied into good land. Thank god we got into some good land, it made a huge difference.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Welcome to the world of pheasant hunting.Did you have dogs?That's the best part of hunting pheasants.


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## Canuck (Nov 10, 2004)

Chris,

Hmmm... we always divide our birds up as best we can. Pheasant hunting can really depend on teamwork. Our only rule, is if you don't let a bird get out a bit and totally mangle it, its yours.

Why did one guy shoot so many birds? Experienced pheasant hunter? Good dog? Good shot? Or quick on the draw?

It sure is challenging and a lot of fun, eh.

Canuck


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## HonkerExpress (Sep 23, 2005)

Yep, I had my 1 1/2 year old lab out and he is amazing. I have never had so much fun then watching him work the birds, Locked right onto em. He tried to run on me once, but I gave him a quick shock and he turned right around. The only thing that really scared him is when we jumped up a moose in the cattails, lol. He froze right in his tracks and started to back pedal. lol. He worked very well and I got alot of compliments on him from people that were watching us hunt. I honestly couldn't be prouder of my little man. I loved the experience and can't wait to go again. I am definately hooked. I would rather pheasant hunt then duck hunt after watching my dog work. Just my two cents.


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## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

Welcome to the world of late season pheasant hunting. Fun for dogs and people, brutal on both when it is cold. Wife and I never miss bird hunting the last day of the season regardless of weather (blizzards and snow storms have produced memorable hunts). Remember to bring water because the dogs are still thirsty while working, plus it seems to help their sense of smell if they have been working cattails. My labs are so immune to deer that this past weekend, my younger dog ran right over the top of a bedded doe right after the rooster did the same thing. I field dress my birds within a couple of hours of killing them if I am going to be out longer. Pheasant generally has much less fat than commercial poultry so any recipe that keeps them moist is better. In descending order of preference in our house, Ruffed grouse, huns, pheasants, sharptailed grouse. Nuff said.


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## Chris Benson (Apr 3, 2004)

Thanks for all the help guys. Just so you know we did have five well trained pointer dogs. They worked great, very enjoyable watching the dogs work cover and lock onto birds. 

I hope to get to SD next year maybe and do some pheasant hunting down that way.


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