  |
|
|
|
|
Pheasants start their day before sunrise at roost sites, usually in areas of short- to medium-height grass or weeds, where they spend the night. At first light, pheasants head for roadsides or similar areas where they can find gravel or grit. Pheasants usually begin feeding around 8 a.m, often in grain fields while cautiously making their way toward safe cover. Look for the edges of picked cornfields. By mid-morning, pheasants have left the fields for the densest, thickest cover they can find, such as a standing corn, brush patches, wetlands, or native grasses and stay hunkered down here for the day until late afternoon. It's very difficult for small hunting groups of two to three hunters to work large fields of standing corn. Pheasants often run to avoid predators, a response that frustrates dogs and hunters working corn, soybean, and alfalfa fields. Groups of two or three hunters usually have better success working grass fields, field edges, or fencerows. During midday ditch banks and deep into marshes are your best bet. Remember: The nastier the weather, the deeper into cover the pheasant will go. During the late afternoon, the birds move from their hiding spots back to the feeding areas. As in the morning, become easier to spot from a distance and are more accessible to hunters. Therefore first and last shooting hours are consistently the best times to hunt pheasants.
|
