The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

It changes a little bit each year but the number of pheasant hunters in Minnesota is about 72,000 individuals. This is measured by the number of pheasant stamps that are purchased each year. This stamp is required along with a small game license to hunt ring necks in our great state. The funds raised by these stamp purchases are used to improve pheasant habitat across the state.

I am only stating my opinion but of the 72,000 pheasant hunters most of them are really not all that serious about this passion. Many will hunt the first week or two of the season and then call that good. There is a much smaller minority of those numbers who will chase this challenging bird until the bitter end, which is Jan. 1, 2023.

Of the total pheasant harvest, most of that takes place during the first 2-3 weeks of the season. Because the number of pheasant hunters plummets and as the season progresses, the limit can be raised from two birds per day to three birds per day in the month of December without any cause for concern over their populations. In most cases the limit could be raised to 10 per day and it would not make any difference. The young and dumb birds have long gone home in a hunting vest by the first of December. What is left are the super smart ones that can make a human hunter look like a fool more often than not. Even the most serious hunters would not likely be able to harvest 10 birds even if the law allowed.

So how do you become one of those rooster chasers that is successful when most of the other hunters are not? Late season hunting is a tactical effort. Strategic methods are required to outsmart those college graduate birds that remain. The effort this takes is more than many hunters are wiling to exert. Hunters who don’t employ at least some of these ideas will still enjoy a beautiful walk-in nature with their dogs but won’t have many birds to show for their efforts.

A few tips I can share will hopefully make you more successful. First, I do my best to never utilize the parking lots adjacent to the area I want to hunt. Every other hunter pulls into exactly the same location and the birds get wise to this.  They have made successful escapes to certain cover as soon as the car door closes. They know exactly the route they are going to take and, in many cases, it allows them to repeatedly outsmart the hunter trying to shoot them.

By parking ½ mile away on the side of the road and entering this spot from a completely different direction requires the birds to adopt a different strategy. This “oh what am I going to do now” hesitation can result in at least a few birds holding tight and giving the hunter a shot in range. The other thing parking a long way away does is minimize your noise factor. Never slam the door. Have your dogs ready to go. Have the gun, shells and vest within easy reach so you don’t have to open the tailgate or topper and rummage around for what you need.

If you are hunting with another person, be sure you communicate who is going where and when you are going to meet up again so there is no talking as you exit the truck. This allows you to go from arrival on foot to hunting within 45 seconds of reaching the spot.

I have always thought I would rather hunt in a spot with fewer approachable birds then in a spot with much higher numbers of non-approachable birds. Seeing birds and then thinking you are going to go pursue them is pretty much a fallacy. Once you see them in a ditch or feeding in an open field, they now also know where you are.

I always spend my energy trying to flush a bird that has not already been moved by me or a different hunter. When you flush birds in or out of range and then think you are going to walk to where they landed and try to flush them again is almost always a wasted effort. I would much rather continue hunting a spot looking for a bird that has not already taken flight. It is hard to convince yourself that your odds are better to continue hunting a spot that may or may not contain any birds when you can instead go to where the others landed and know for a fact that they were there just a few minutes ago. A late season rooster will not be where you saw him land. They hit the ground and might very well be ½ mile away by the time you get to where you saw them last.

Avoid this temptation and hunt birds that have not already been moved. The birds are fully mature and their colors are very brilliant now. Be tactical and quiet and expend the energy required to approach them from a distance. You will become one of the more successful hunters in your area as a result. A fully colored bird photo is the ultimate prize.

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.