Any pheasant hunters around?

[phylodog]

Phylo, I don't know what that Benelli weighs, or how long you'll be carrying it, but, I've got a Winchester 101 20g you are more than welcome to take with you.

I appreciate the offer but the benelli isn't bad at all to carry, a bit over 7lbs if memory serves and shooting bird loads through it is heaven compared to the 3.5" turkey loads I'm used to!

 

[Expat]

In my experience choke and load was influenced by when in the season you are going. If you are there opening weekend, then modified and 6 shot would be fine. They are pretty wild after that and you will get a bunch of roosters coming up further ahead of you and then I would go 5 and full choke.

 

[craigkim]

I prefer and have had good luck with the remington and the winchester specialty pheasant loads in 5 and 6. The SBE will work fine, as I have taken pheasants with my Benelli M4, sporting the pistol grip and an aimpoint. I guess the science is that a longer barrel on your bird gun doesn't really get you much performance wise,but it does get you a longer sight radius and that does help, at least in my case.

For a trip like that, I highly recommend getting or borrowing an over/under in 12 gauge. It allows you to put your more wide open choke in your first barrel and then a tighter choke in the second. You can tailor it further even and use two different shells between the barrels, say 6 in your first barrel and 5 in the second. If birds start coming up farther away, just switch barrel order and shoot the tighter choke pattern barrel and make your shots count. I like improved cylinder/modified or a modified/improved modified combo depending upon the situation.

 

[BigRed]

I prefer and have had good luck with the remington and the winchester specialty pheasant loads in 5 and 6. The SBE will work fine, as I have taken pheasants with my Benelli M4, sporting the pistol grip and an aimpoint. I guess the science is that a longer barrel on your bird gun doesn't really get you much performance wise,but it does get you a longer sight radius and that does help, at least in my case.

For a trip like that, I highly recommend getting or borrowing an over/under in 12 gauge. It allows you to put your more wide open choke in your first barrel and then a tighter choke in the second. You can tailor it further even and use two different shells between the barrels, say 6 in your first barrel and 5 in the second. If birds start coming up farther away, just switch barrel order and shoot the tighter choke pattern barrel and make your shots count. I like improved cylinder/modified or a modified/improved modified combo depending upon the situation.

Good tips.

 

[AtTheMurph]

If you are hunting a game farm I wouldn't use #5 or #6 for pheasants. I'd go with #7.5 and scale back the loads. Spring time pen raised birds are not going to give you long shots and they typically won't be tough wild birds either. You'll tear them up with bigger shot and heavier loads.

I'd be looking at 1oz, 7.5s in a target load. I've hunted many game farms and done so with a 20ga or even 28ga for pheasants. Plenty of gun and power for pen raised birds.

If the weather is right I would also not clean a few of the birds that are in the best condition and let them hang for 4 or 5 days (under 60 degrees). Much better table fare if you age them for a while! And no, you will not get sick or poisoned. You will however wonder why in the world anyone would clean a bird the day they shoot it if they intend to eat it.

 

[Fargo]

If you are hunting a game farm I wouldn't use #5 or #6 for pheasants. I'd go with #7.5 and scale back the loads. Spring time pen raised birds are not going to give you long shots and they typically won't be tough wild birds either. You'll tear them up with bigger shot and heavier loads.

I'd be looking at 1oz, 7.5s in a target load. I've hunted many game farms and done so with a 20ga or even 28ga for pheasants. Plenty of gun and power for pen raised birds.

If the weather is right I would also not clean a few of the birds that are in the best condition and let them hang for 4 or 5 days (under 60 degrees). Much better table fare if you age them for a while! And no, you will not get sick or poisoned. You will however wonder why in the world anyone would clean a bird the day they shoot it if they intend to eat it.

Do you remove the entrails before hanging?

 

[craigkim]

If you are hunting a game farm I wouldn't use #5 or #6 for pheasants. I'd go with #7.5 and scale back the loads. Spring time pen raised birds are not going to give you long shots and they typically won't be tough wild birds either. You'll tear them up with bigger shot and heavier loads.

I'd be looking at 1oz, 7.5s in a target load. I've hunted many game farms and done so with a 20ga or even 28ga for pheasants. Plenty of gun and power for pen raised birds.

If the weather is right I would also not clean a few of the birds that are in the best condition and let them hang for 4 or 5 days (under 60 degrees). Much better table fare if you age them for a while! And no, you will not get sick or poisoned. You will however wonder why in the world anyone would clean a bird the day they shoot it if they intend to eat it.

I would like to hear more about hanging the birds too.

I think 20 and 28 are enough for pheasants, that is never my dispute, but if you want less powerful loads, use 12 in a low brass load. There is something really cool about shooting the 20, 28, I will admit. The reason I don't buy much ammo for my 20 is that I like having the universal compatibility of 12gauge shells in any of my 12 gauge guns. If you want low power 12 gauge, you got it, if you want high power you got it. 12 is usually less expensive too.

 

[AtTheMurph]

Do you remove the entrails before hanging?

No, just leave them as they are, hang in a cool spot for 4-5 days then clean as you would before. I know this freaks out most people but it has been done for thousands of years and we are all still here! Here is a great article about it.

https://honest-food.net/on-hanging-pheasants-2/

As a kid my dad hunted pheasants and would always hang them in the shed. I remember my mother would go out, pluck one or two then clean them and roast in the oven. Better than turkey or chicken.

If you are taking the time to hang them I would encourage you to pluck them as well, gut them afterwards. PITA but shouldn't take more than 10 minutes per bird, maybe even less. I never really timed it but I do it during the season when it's usually cold and hands freeze up.

Re: the gun. I do a lot of wild pheasant hunting. Always 20 ga or very early in the year a 28 ga sometimes. I use #5 in both and have killed hundreds of wild birds with them. Have also hunted quite a few game farms. In fact I used to lease some land to a game farm and part of the terms were I would get 50 pheasants each year. Friends and I had tons of fun and the dogs got lots of good work but a 12 ga with pheasant loads is over kill but it will kill!

 

[phylodog]

a 12 ga with pheasant loads is over kill but it will kill!

I'm more than a bit rusty at wing shooting. I'm thinking I'm gonna need all the pellets I can get to bring the birds down lol.

 

[DanO]

Dnurk has it right. I use an SBE 12 gauge with a 28" barrel. Modified choke 2&3/4" #6 for pen raised birds, #5 1 1/8 Oz loads for wild birds. Fiocchi Golden Pheasant is a great shell.

MOST IMPORTANT: Get out to a sporting clays or 16 yd. trap range for a warm up with that gun before you go out to Iowa, you will no be sorry you put the time in. BTW, what operation are you going to? I was planning on checking Safari Iowa out this year coming.

DanO

 

[phylodog]

I'm hoping to hit the gun club before we head out but I'm not sure if I'll have time unfortunately. We're headed to Heritage 1865. Looks like a nice place. Iowa Hunting Lodge and Pheasant Hunting

 

[Birdblastingbrad]

Can’t disagree with anything already mentioned. Maybe have some #4 shells just in case.

I agree with this. This late in the year, if you run across any "wild" birds, they'll be up and away quickly! I went to SD last year in early season, and carried 4's the whole time. If steel, I'd go with 2's.

 

[schmart]

My experience is in Western Kansas with wild birds... both I and my father prefer #4 shot as it carries further and puts them down hard. When birds get up with a tail wind, they can be further away than you would like in VERY short order. The smaller shot may drop them, but then they run and you lose them. I wouldn't even bother taking a shot out there if I had smaller than #6 shot. (of course we never had dogs either). We mainly used modified choke but sometimes full (depending on which gun we were carrying).
--Rick