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Joined: Mar 2005
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RCC Offline
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I am going to step into the snakes pit here and offer my observations gleamed from hosting hunters, some from this board and some from three other boards about shooting pheasant way out there aways and framed over about the last twenty years.

I have had the pleasure of the company of many Uplanders in Montana, or in one of the Dakotas and because I am a curious sort and because of all the posts I have read of birds routinely shot at 50 yards, I diligently paced off those birds my guest shot. My accuracy to the fall could only be off by the length of my stride over different grounds, as must often it was to the dog that I sat at the fall site with a stay whistle until I reached her.

When I asked how far they thought their kill was, nearly always the forty yard birds were found inside of 30/35 paces, which means birds were shot as many yards closer and before their momentum carried them to the fall. My journals show of the birds recovered, that only fourteen times were the 50 yard birds really 50 yard birds.

There was many times I was happy that the dogs worked well to their trialing training, because too many birds shoot at what I thought fifty yards, flew on for a great distance with a leg hanging.

I learned well to just smile when handing a bird to my guests that was retrieved from over the next hill.

Bottom line, I don't think many birds hunters really can gauge the distance at which they shoot pheasants. They are about as good at it as the big game hunters who regularly take their quarry at 400/500 yards.

I don't really know why so many folks think that the birds shot, were so much farther than they really were but seldom was it estimated to be closer than they were.

I do love meeting members who love the Uplands and those I haven't ask to join me in my home and in the fields, please forgive me. I hope to correct that as I can.

Please don't take offense when watching this old man count paces. I am just satisfying my own curiosity.




bc
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Agree completely Bob.
I witnessed the aforementioned Orthopedic Surgeon kill a big (and tough!) Sage Grouse stone dead at 50 yds near Pinedale, Wyoming. I cleaned the bird and found NO pellets - clearly killed with a single golden BB to the head, or in light of it's apparent age, a heart attack from the excitement. Unfortunately, the fella then came to believe he could kill ANY bird at 50 yds. He is a VERY good field shot, but not that good frown

I have been surprised at the number of c. 1900 12g doubles found to be choked about .005 right and .040 left.

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I've blocked when pheasants were being driven to a fresh planted wheat field. I've shot them at obscene distances with an 1 1/4oz of 4's, using a turkey choke. And even shockingly further with heavy shot #6. I used "The Undertaker" choke tube, properly named I'm ashamed to admit, as it were.

As I said, it's obscene. It's the wrong thing to do. I am no taller, no more handsome, and my penis is no longer for having blown up birds out over open terrain at the limits of range.

In case you wonder, the shot cloud follows them like a dark softball sized cloud of bees. And then there's the "Poof", and the mostly dead bird laying out in the wheat. Sometimes pieces get sheared off. Usually just a lot of kicking.

Between the cripples, and the shredded birds, purposefully shooting at extreme ranges is wrong.

I much prefer using an ounce of 5's supplied by RST at about 1200fps. Cripples are manageable, birds aren't pulverized, and I don't feel the temptation to do the wrong thing just to stroke my ego. The shots that my reflexes, eyesight, and equipment can consistently make fit the RST loads perfectly. A nice balance of sport and harvest.

The "Undertaker" is retired, and I've grown up a great deal. part of that is accepting that I don't have to kill them all, that we aren't in a race, and that another opportunity will present itself in a sporting fashion soon enough.
As was pointed out to my by a sage old friend, "I'm just not that mad at them."

The mega long shot guys need to think about why they take those shots.


Out there doing it best I can.
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The sheriff of a nearby county has a benefit shoot every year for the Boy's Ranch (a boarding school for under-privileged children run by the Georgia Sheriff's Association). For a number of years part the event included a "tower shoot" for pheasants. The set-up was a scissor lifted box in the middle of a field with 50 hay bulls surrounding it in a circle 100 yards out.

Everyone shot a few minutes at each bale and rotated to the next. The game devolved into a contest of who could shoot the birds nearest the tower. Turkey chokes prevailed. Me, I just wanted some pheasants to eat...Geo

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"in the middle of a field with 50 hay bulls "

Wow George. What do you fellers in south Georgia give the bulls to make them so docile? Saltpeter? smile

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Originally Posted By: Geo. Newbern
The set-up was a scissor lifted box in the middle of a field with 50 hay bulls surrounding it in a circle 100 yards out.

Everyone shot a few minutes at each bale and rotated to the next. The game devolved into a contest of who could shoot the birds nearest the tower. Turkey chokes prevailed. Me, I just wanted some pheasants to eat...Geo


Being the curious chap that I am George, I have three questions.

The first is how far from the tower did the average bird shot near the tower get before being dumped by choke and load not typical to what most Uplanders take afield?

Second how many cripples were produced?

And lastly, what was the ratio of rounds fired at those birds, to birds killed?

Thank you.


bc
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Drew, the 'bulls' I'm referring to are the big rolled up bales of hay. They needed little tranquilizing.

RCC, I'd guess there were many 70 yard shots; wouldn't have wanted to be the guys in the box tossing the birds.

Very few cripples, surprisingly. Besides any birds not killed by the long shots had to get through the regular guys like me, and behind the circle of hay bales were the really good shots with dogs to make sure the birds didn't escape.

Not everyone of course could shoot at every bird. Mostly the shooters would honor the bird's course toward a particular stand.

This was not a sporting proposition in any way. I had mixed emotions about participating, but curiosity about what a pheasant might be like for supper won out...Geo

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The big bales of hay provided good cover from shots across the circle. The shoot consisted of about 250 or 300 pheasants. These were the left-overs from the operator's Tower Shoot season.

Finally the operator went out of business or retired or got a real job or just quit accepting the Sheriff's phone calls or something and the tower shoots ended a couple of years ago. The main event for the benefit is dove shooting in big peanut fields. Late season, that is a sporting proposition no matter who you are!...Geo

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One year they tossed a Rhode Island Red hen out of the box which was maybe 40 yards up in the air, That chicken had more sense than all the pheasants; she dropped straight down to the ground and hid under the tractor...Geo

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Another oddity occurs when you forget to clip the blinders off & they land in a nearby tree. The number of cripples depends on the group. I've seen a few groups only net say 1/3 of the total and then the number of cripples was near 1/3 of the remaining 2/3rds. Most of the cripples are fodder for the raptors and scavengers if you don't hunt them up immediately after the shoot.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

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