any tips on late season pheasant hunting? like what time of day, wat conditions and what land features.?"

[ochs2448]

any tips on late season pheasant hunting? like what time of day, wat conditions and what land features.?"

[Ontario Honker Hunter]

Once snow is on the ground, the birds seem to group together and hang out in more open areas like sagebrush. This makes it harder to get close to them. Let the dogs push them up out of range and fragment the group. Then pursue the individuals. Hunt them any time of day. Avoid the windy days. They're harder to shoot in the wind, especially when your fingers are frozen. If you don't have a dog, you're pretty much urinating in the wind late in the season. The birds are too smart.

[DakotaMan]

I generally hunt the extra thick cover late in the season. The corn/bean fields are harvested and they are tired of being shot at. I hunt river breaks, swamps and heavy rushes. You can also find them in the timbers in thick dog woods or nettles. Later in the season, I also like to drive around and spot the groups in the fields as Ontario said. They will come out in the open to feed but you can't get close to them. You can jump them and watch where they fly and try to jump them again. Where I hunt, they usually cover about a quarter of a mile from their landing location by the time I get there so you need a dog to track them and jump them. Late season hunting means harder walking but the cover is more limited and therefore the pheasants tend to be more concentrated. When you find them, you may find many in one location.

[mitchw]

If you hunt an area that has true winters, once things are frozen, I used to kick a lot of late-season pheasants out of cattail stands. Pheasants don't like wet feet, but once its frozen, the cattail swamps provide decent thermal cover.