pheasants in the midwest

Our family had four farms we worked in Iowa, and growing up, that was one of my main sports. I shot more with an old single shot 20 bore Winchester than any other gun. It seemed like you point it at something, and you hit it. My brothers, and now my nephews, are all learning on the same old gun.

I used a Model 12 that had belonged to my grand dad. The pull was way too long for me, so I gave it to my little brother, since he is 6'9", and it fit him pretty well. I saw it on my recent trip back. he had it re-blued, and refinished the stock. It looks great, almost considered trying to weasel it out of him again.

I also had a M-39 Ithica pump I used for both small game and deer. For small game, either 6 or 7 1/2 were the shot sizes I used. I would go up to fours for ducks, and two's for geese. I always used the M12 for those.

Some of you may be old enough to remember the old American Sportsman show with Curt Gowdy. When they were filming an episode, Bing Crosby and Phil Harris hunted two of our farms. They, and Gowdy, were fun to be around, and had me laughing most of the time. Of course at that age, anything was funny when said by an adult. I'm sure some of the young guys are wondering who the heck they were.

 There ISN'T ???????????? Oh.

 I like to hunt them in weeds or cornstubble, wheat stubble can be good too.

For shotguns my 870 express in 20 ga with 3 in chambers works well with no 6 shot and a modified choke.

I've hunted them in Nebraska and Colorado and here in Wy. Someday I'ld like to do Iowa, kansas, and South Dakota.

11/8 ounce of #6 seems to hit pretty hard for me. This area sucks for Pheasant hunting. We have walk in areas that the game and fish stock with birds, but not many wild birds. I am hoping to make a trip to Sidney Montana this fall. Lots of birds along the Yellowstone river. What do you think?

Wing master

Our season in MN just got extended two more weeks because of so many birds. It starts in middle Oct. and goes now until Dec. 31. I load 1 1/4oz of #5's over Blue Dot. Love the smell but hate the smoke for the second shot "if needed" but it gives real good velocity and pattern. We haven't had good luck with shot smaller than 6's. They drop and run into thick cover or down the rows of a corn field. I use two dogs and still have trouble recovering some. My parents own a half section near the SD boarder. The pheasant population over there is tremendous. Sitting in my deer blind last fall I counted over 300 birds one afternoon. I'm sure I counted some more than once as they went for cover then came back out into the field but anyway you look at it that's alot of birds...

DD

Fella's;

Back, way back, when I was incarcerated in SoDakia as a child, we used to hunt pheasant all the time.

My dad did most of the hunting & I tagged along.  Some of the things I remember:  #6 for pheasant, #4 for ducks.  They'd run like a weasel down the corn stubble rows rather than flush.  Needed a dog to get 'em up early late in the season.  Never seemed to be a real shortage of birds in the 50's either. 

I recall one time, musta been the very early 50's, when the dog was very young, he chased a barn cat into the shelter belt of an abandoned homestead.  The sky literally darkened when the birds flushed.  There had to have been several thousand in there.  We were 50 yards away.  Didn't need the heater in the car for the rest of the day my dad was so hot.  That woulda been in Brown County, south of Minah lake.

Gad did I get tired of eating pheasant!  One does learn early how to chew & spit shot rather than breaking a tooth.  I could still probably find my mother's recipie book & come up with about 2 dozen ways to fix pheasant.

Dad had two model 12 Winchester's.  A standard for pheasant & the 3" magnum duck gun.  The standard had only 5 numerals in the S/N.  Both are long gone now, & not to me, more's the pity.

900F