What is more effective for hunting ducks, pheasants, and other birds, more potent loads or lighter loads with less recoil? On this episode I dig into this question to try and help you make good decisions based on how you hunt. This episode is sponsored by Tetra Hearing. Get your FREE Tetra Hearing 2-Year Extended Service Plan when purchasing a device. Simply add this Service Plan to your cart and use this code at checkout: NEWHUNTERSGUIDE. When you use my link or discount code to make a purchase, I earn a small commission, thanks for your support.
Being able to take multiple types of game in the same hunt can make things more fun and increase your chances of success. In this episode I talk about the basics of mixed bag hunts. As always, be sure to check your local seasons and laws to see if and what game can be hunted concurrently and what the safety rules are. Also be sure to check your local firearms and ammunition regulations. Thanks to Tetra Hearing for sponsoring this episode. Get your FREE Tetra Hearing 2-Year Extended Service Plan when purchasing a device. Simply add this Service Plan to your cart and use this code at checkout: NEWHUNTERSGUIDE. When you use my link or discount code to make a purchase, I earn a small commission, thanks for your support.
Is a 20-gauge or a 28-gauge powerful enough to hunt ducks or pheasants? Can you really hunt turkeys with a .410 bore? Are sub gauges able to do the job just as well as a 12-gauge? I examine the ballistics of waterfowl, pheasant, and turkey ammo across the most popular sub gauges to see how they really stack up. Yes, sub-gauges have less recoil and generally weigh less, but are they capable for the job using bismuth, steel, lead, or TSS hunting loads?
Finding pheasants in stocked areas is different than finding wild birds. On this episode I go in depth into how you can find more birds and take pheasants out of the woods when other hunters see and shoot nothing. I also talk about the advantages of hunting without a dog and how smarter hunters can do even better when they do have a dog.
Maybe you have never hunted pheasants before or just never had much success. In this episode I walk you step by step through how you can get started hunting pheasants including the gear, strategy, and tactics. This episode is sponsored by Midwest Gun Works, use the code NHG25 at checkout to get free shipping on your first order at www.MidwestGunWorks.com, some exclusions apply, see website for details.
Do you want to take more game home? On this episode I am going to cover the single most important thing you can do to improve your hunting success rate. In short, I am talking about practice, specifically sporting clays practice, thought trap shooting and skeet can be helpful as well. This is mainly for shotgun hunters but there is also some application for rifle hunters as well. No gear you can buy will help you more than realistic practice. Skills will always trump equipment.
In my experience, the average wing shooter takes home about 30% of the birds they shoot at. Some are better, some are worse. A better shotgun will not do much to improve this. Better ammo will only do so much. Better base layers, camouflage, gloves, calls, etc, will do almost nothing to help this average. The single biggest thing that will help is practice. And that just so happens to be the single most overlooked thing that hunters do and spend money on…
If you want to take more game, you need to practice more. That involves trap shooting, skeet shooting, and most importantly sporting clays shooting. All center around shooting at a clay disc out of the air, often referred to as a clay pigeon. These clay targets can be easily purchased at many big box stores for somewhere around $10 per 100.
- Trap Shooting involves clay targets that are launched away from the shooter at various angles to simulate a bird flushing and flying away. It gets its name from historical practice that was once done when the shooter would call “pull” and someone would pull the pin holding the trap door shut on a cage and thus allowing real birds to flush away from the cage as target practice.
- Skeet Shooting essentially involves firing at clay targets passing or crossing in front of the shooter, similar to real birds passing by or being flushed by a dog or another party. The name “skeet” is believed to come from the Norwegian word “skyte” which means “shoot.”
- Sporting Clays has some similarities to golf as it is a multi-position or hole course. No two courses are identical and often contain 20 positions with a total of 100 clay targets on a full course. Each position features multiple clays launched from various angles, and directions, all unique, simulating a wide range of real-world hunting situations from ducks to pheasants, grouse, doves, and many more.
Each sport is great fun and has great value. But I do believe that sporting clays provides the best hunting practice out there. And the variety of courses adds great realism and infinite shooting possibilities to simulate real hunting conditions.
Typically sporting clays courses cost between $40-$75 for a full 20 position course with 100 clay targets, plus the cost of ammunition. So realistically, you are looking at around $100 per outing. This is not cheap, but neither are the many highly marketed products that hunters pour money into every year for minimal benefit.
I would recommend you toss $10 a paycheck into your sporting clays jar and go practice 2-3 times a year to start. The skills you gain will be valuable for a lifetime, and even if they dull some over time, picking it back up is a lot like riding a bicycle. This will do more to improve your percentage of shots fired to birds taken home than anything else you can spend money on.
Get out there and get some practice. Listen to the full podcast episode for more!
So you want to hunt pheasants but don’t have a dog. No problem! Not only can you hunt pheasants without a dog you can be very successful at it. On this episode I share 3 strategies for hunting these birds without canine assistance.
Take Aways
- Pheasants are ground birds, they live, sleep, and eat on the ground. The main reason they fly is to escape from danger.
- These birds need heavy cover that holds up year-round and does not lay down on the ground with snow and ice.
- Pheasants are not native to North America, and often thrive in transitional habitat here which means they come and go based on the state of vegetation as fields grow up into forests.
- Pheasants flush to escape from impending danger, sometimes when a threat is several yards away but sometimes not until you are close enough to touch them.
- Hunting pheasants on foot requires either sweeping large portions of thick field to get them to flush or becoming well versed in how these birds live and interact in order to locate them while they are calm.
- Listen to the episode to hear the three strategies for how to hunt pheasants without a dog.
Show Notes:
Pheasant hunting takes much less specialized gear than many other types of hunting. On this episode I talk about the basic guns and gear you need to get started hunting pheasants.
Take Aways:
- The most important thing to keep in mind is staying light on your feet. You will be covering a lot of ground and the more you carry and wear the harder it will be.
- When it comes to shotguns, the best gun to start with is usually the one you already own.
- Before you start shelling out cash for guns and gear, get into the woods and get some experience to find out what features you value.
- Its easy to wrap up deer season and want to overdress for late season pheasant, but because you are moving so much it is very easy to stay warm. Take extra layers you can add if you get cold.
- Wear orange even if you don’t have to, people are crazy, staying safe is paramount.
Show Notes:
Pheasant hunting is a great active style of hunting, it is unique, fast paced, and high energy. On this episode I talk about three strategies to get you started hunting pheasants.
Take Aways:
- Hunting with Dogs. This is the easiest and most common way to hunt pheasants. A good bird dog can make all the difference in the world.
- Hunting as a Team Without Dogs. No dog? No problem. A small group of hunters can do a great job flushing birds.
- Solo Hunting. Most new hunters are likely to be on their own and this is the more difficult way to hunt, but it can be done and it can be fun. I spend some extra time going into solo hunting techniques on this episode.