Question: A group of us are planning a pheasant hunting trip out west this fall and thought you might be able to give us advice on where to go and what to watch out for in terms of potential problems. We'd like to hunt wild birds and not end up on a preserve, shooting the pen-raised variety. I have talked to guys who've gone to what was supposed to be great pheasant country, but found few, so I'm hoping to avoid the same problem.

Don T., Canton.

Answer: I occasionally get questions that are outside of the scope of dog training but still warrant an answer. I don't think that I'm the right person to debate the ‘best pheasant hunting area in the west' since I haven't hunted Montana or North Dakota. I think this question might be better-put to Tom Huggler, who has traveled and written extensively about it. You should check out his pheasant hunting books and videos for more insight into western hunting. I've had some incredible hunts in South Dakota, which featured a picture of Tom on their hunting rules and regulations pamphlet.

Now, let me comment on some of your other points. I think that if you're going to hunt public lands, you should go during the first two weeks of the season. After the first couple of weeks, the hunting will be tougher because of fewer birds, plain and simple. Even large areas such as the National Grasslands Area that hold good numbers of pheasants will require walking great distances to get to undisturbed areas. Hunting right-of-way areas by roads can be productive when good roosting cover or a food source is near by. We've always hooked up with a cattle ranch that allows hunting for a per-day fee and we did well. One November after a blizzard blew through, we flushed an easy 2,000 birds from an apple orchard within three hours of hunting. Granted, some of these were prairie chicken and sharptail grouse, which made for a nice mixed bag.

If you're lucky enough to get into a large number of birds, you may experience other problems that you might've never considered. A friend of mine came back from a western pheasant hunt, complaining that there were too many birds. Say what?! Take a pointing dog out to a field with two or three hundred pheasant running around and see what happens. Usually, it's one of two thing. Either mass pandemonium, or the poor dog locks up and won't move. After all, there's pheasant scent everywhere in front of him. So I guess what I'm trying to say is to try and experience both the huge flocks in well-populated areas, as well as straggler-hunting for the occasional bird along ditches, fence lines, or road right-of-ways.

Now, as far as pen-reared birds go, you won't find many release-and-hunt farms out there. Many of the shooting preserves offer good shooting on birds liberated into the wild flocks months before you show up to hunt, thus ensuring quality shooting. Good luck.

Charlie Linblade

Mighigan Wing Shooters Hunt Club

Michigan Pheasant Hunting

Michigan Bird Dog Training