"Please be advised that PA was never the "pheasant capital east of the Mississippi" except for people who never traveled beyond the borders of the state."
Ed, I don't make this stuff up like some of you writers do.
At one time back in the 70's I believe, there was a list of the top ten states that had 1 million, thats 6 zeros, of pheasants harvested, and Pa. was one of the top ten.
Maybe you could tell me another state east of the Mississippi that had greater pheasant population. I don't think so.
So until you get your facts straight, I wouldn't be ridiculing someone
It is not ridicule to point out that bold unsupported statements--such as, "At one time back in the 1970s
I believe, there was a list...&c."--are just that, bold unsupported statements, which, in this case, go against the more obvious demographics, climate and lay of the land in western Ohio, Indiana, and especially Illinois.
Notice that PA was in the original post "The pheasant capital east of the Mississippi..." and now is just one of the "Top Ten." Methinks JDW has adjusted his data. Looking at a map of the USA east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon line (likely pheasant territory), and excluding Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont (unlikely pheasant territory), Pennsylvania being in the "Top Ten" is hardly a distinction.
Wisconsin and Michigan have huntable numbers in the southern extremes, but are mostly ruffed grouse venues. Anywhere on the densely populated east coast (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts), the game has been shot out since Colonial times, and imported pheasants never took hold. My kids live in Virginia farm country, and there is no pheasant hunting that I know of (other than put-and-take), and West Virginia doesn't seem likely. This leaves Upstate NY, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which
I believe rank in this order (unless NY exceeds PA).
According to my Atlas, The Keystone State has 44,820 square miles, which at 640 acres to the sq. mi. (44,820 x 640) that's 28.685 million acres or (using your 1,000,000 pheasants with "6 zeros") that's almost 0.035 pheasants per each one-acre parcel, or one bird for every 28.6 acres. That's one powerful bunch of (wild?) pheasants harvested in PA. And when we allow for carry-over populations, road-kill, winter-kill, the 50% hens not shot (assuming they were wild), I'd say that a 50% harvest of roosters after a 50% natural attrition would compute to 4,000,000 roosters on and before opening day, plus another 4,000,000 hens = 8,000,000 pheasants all told; that's about one pheasant for every 3.58 acres of Pennsylvania. Take away the extensive urban areas and vast mountain ranges not suitable for pheasants, and PA must have been heaven on earth for bird hunters in the 1970s when you believe your data originated. Strange that bird hunters would travel to Illinois, Iowa and the Dakotas back then.
Meanwhile, Illinois is 55,593 square miles (24% larger than PA) of mostly level farm land, no mountains, and historically has been ideal for pheasants. I don't recall unspecified publications of the 1970s, and would never shore up my statements with such thin provenance. On the other hand, I also don't remember any of my friends from PA bragging up the pheasant hunting, nor have my travels (east and west, north and south) throughout PA, several times a year, ever led me to believe that it was likely a pheasant friendly territory.
Are you confusing the ringneck of China and Mongolia with the Ruffed Grouse that is sometimes anachronistically misnomered as "pheasant" and/or "partridge" in your neck of the woods?
By the way, you can tell when "...a writer [does or] doesn't make this stuff up like some of you writers do," by looking for buzz words like: "At one time back in the 1970s
I believe..." Pretty strong statement for one who bases his opinion on "I believe." Also notice the shift from "pheasant capital" to "one of the top ten," when it's hard to fairly characterize ten states as being pheasant-hunting territory east of the Mississippi.
Meanwhile,
I believe otherwise, which is hardly ridicule, but just a difference of opinion. If we were talking deer, I could go back and search the kill/registrations for years harking back to 1955 in Illinois, but free range pheasants are shot and that's the end of the story; no one but pay-to-play game farms would keep records. Which begs the question of how anyone could possibly know how many wild pheasants were harvested in PA in the 1970s. Being in the top ten of five pheasant friendly venues is hardly a distinction: Pennsylvania, the "Pheasant Capital East of the Mississippi?": I don't think so. EDM
