doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pheasant Forecast-State by State

Good article on Pheasant forecast by outdoor writer Bob McNally
http://www.outdoorlife.com/article_gallery/Pheasant-Forecast-2008/&showall=Y

I dont pay much attention to forecasts, there are too many localized factors that effect population. I will say, yesterday I took a short drive from the home place and saw ,South of us ,over 200 roosters in about an hour and 1/2. On the roads and in the ditches. We have thousands of acres of failed corn this year, that should still be standing during most of the season. Different hunting conditions from our usual....Looks like a great year...We'll see...

I didn't notice South Dakota in the mix. My read of the propoganda from the SD Fix-n Game Dept is that there is an approx 10% increase from last season. I never know when to believe them. I recall some bad yrs when they said numbers were up in our area ... they always seem to say numbers are up. Well, last yr they really were up, way up! If it's really better than last yr, it'll be like days of yesteryear! Of course, that's generally in the hot spots of the state... south central, and eastern side.

No pics of the Texas gulf coast so I guess it still sucks here.

N.H. forecast: 3 weeks of fresh stocked suck. Little , clipped beak sick birdies just about without tails that barely look bigger than grouse that most of the guys around here just ground swat as soon as they are stocked on 3 Weds. or Thursdays in a row (these guys chase the stocking trucks around). It is just plain sad. I DREAM of real pheasant hunting somewhere in the Midwest.......enjoy what you got guys! Maybe someday. At least I still get to walk around with my dog. That ain't so bad. Have a good season.

Rick

Chuck, we drove the length of South Dakota a bit ago, and from what I saw, and what the farmers had to say, should be an awesome year...........

Years ago, what year it was I can't remember, Pennsylvania was in the top 5 states with a million pheasants harvested. Never ever again. Naturally South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, and I believe California. This could have been in the heydays of the 70's early 80's I'm not sure. I do remember going outside of Allentown, a large city and got into the farm land and seeing 13 cocks and over 50 hens in one day. Hunted this area for many years until it dropped off and then you couldn't find any.
You could hunt all day and see birds and in the evening heading back to the vehicles they started to come back to roost in the alfalpha fields and you got some more action. Now you could hunt for 10 years and never see 10 hens never mind 10 cocks. They blame it on loss of habitat but this area still is farm land and has basically the same habitat. The states program is different, years ago if your land wasn't posted they would release 5-6 week old birds and by the time hunting season started they were like wild birds, long tails and no cut beaks.

Had the opportunity to hunt South Dakota in the late 80's. Had the dogs flown out with us to Sioux Falls and didn't really know where to go. In eating at a resturant in the middle of nowhere and dressed for hunting the waitress asked how the hunting was and we expained to her that we really didn't have any spots in particular. She said drive down the road and make a left and ask there. Come to find out that these farmers had 10 sections (10 square miles or 6,400 acres, small to their standards. In two days of hunting in early Nov. we had to see at least 450 birds. Unbelievable, little rockets, push them out of cover and all hell erupted. Don't remember many of the roosters crowing, had to look for color and tails. No talking just hand signals when the dogs were working which was all the time. Would love to do it again.
Like stated those of you that live in these areas of Kansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, I envy you, to me nothing gets my blood racing like a pheasant. I used to be like that for Woodcock also, but haven't seen them also.

David, Chuck,
Last year in SD, the pheasants were so thick it was wearing out my young Lab just on retrieves, let alone flushing them. Of course, she was working for about 4-5 hunters around me as well.

The fields had standing water in the low spots and all the sloughs were full of water. Pheasant appeared to come right out of these wet areas. The only downside was wet feet...all day everyday. I'm bring a boot dryer and three pairs of boots this year and maybe some tall rubber boots if I can find some that won't slip around on my feet.

Chuck,
I'm still not sure what my plans are for the return route, but if I find the time, I'd sure be honored to meet you. Steve B is on my list of people to visit with as well.

There was a time when IA and PA were the only states with million bird harvests. That was before CRP. Since then, PA has gone into the tank, and the prairie states have recovered significantly. But this year, SD is way out in front, KS probably a good 2nd, ND not too bad. Here in IA, we had very bad nesting weather (floods). The NW corner of the state is actually up from last year; every other region down, some significantly so. This will probably be our 2nd lowest harvest on record; maybe the lowest. We ranked #5 last year (behind Minnesota!) in total bag. Considering that we were #1 a lot of years in the late 80's and 90's, it's easy to see we've gone the wrong direction.

Larry,
In that million pheasant article from years ago, I think that Pa. must have lied about having a million pheasant kill. Way too many birds for the areas that they would be in. Even with a state release of birds it could not have totaled 250,000 released birds. The eastern and southern part of the state out to Harrisburg and south to Carlisle would be the magority of the counties with a mostly wild population with the rest of the state having stocked birds. Above Route 80 now you are allowed to shoot hens and recently in my county of Berks in one area you are allowed to take hens with a daily bag of two.(good luck on any) I'm not 100% sure about the shooting of hens above Route 80 being in effect in the late 70's or 80's. but even if it was I can't believe there was ever a million pheasants harvested. That would probably account for at least 3-4 million total birds and that I definitly can't believe. That's getting close to S.D.

It was still nice going out and knowing that the dogs would at least find birds, mostly hens but it was good for them, as you know, the more birds the better the dog.