Your Guide to the 2011 Pheasant Hunting Season

Minnesota's pheasant hunting season opens at 9 a.m. on Oct. 15, and tens of thousands of Minnesotans are expected to take to the fields in pursuit of a trophy ring neck. Counts are down heading into the opener, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and harvest numbers are expected to be noticeably lower than some experienced during recent seasons.

Behind the Decline in Minnesota's Pheasant Population.

The 655,000-bird harvest in 2007, a modern era record, declined to 359,000 birds last year. 

The DNR has compiled a series of informational content they woud like to share with hunters prior to Saturday's opener. They can be found below. More information on pheasant hunting, including hot spots around the state and lincensure regulations, can be found online at the DNR's website.

Patch is also encouraging Lake Minnetonka pheasant hunters to submit their trophy photos to share with the community. Send submissions to jay.corn@patch.com for inclusion in our fall hunting photo gallery.

Gear up for pheasant hunting

By Scott W. Roemhildt, DNR information officer

Pheasant hunting doesn’t require a lot of specialized or expensive equipment, but there are some basic items that will make your time in the field more enjoyable and productive, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

License/Hunting Regulations Handbook

The trail to good hunting starts with a license and a state pheasant stamp. Get your handbook, license and stamp at any DNR license vendor, by phone at 888-665-4236, or online at www.mndnr.gov.

Maps

Scouting an area will increase the odds of finding pheasants and good maps will help too. Go to www.mndnr.gov for free maps that identify wildlife management areas and Walk-In Access areas. Combined, these programs provide 1.3 million acres of public hunting on 1,550 parcels. A local plat book may also come in handy to identify specific pieces of land. 

Shotgun and shells

Bring along a shotgun that you have practiced with and are comfortable shooting. The style or gauge of the shotgun is not nearly as important as your proficiency with it. Since pheasants are fairly tough birds, you will want to choose a heavier load such as 4 or 5 shot and limit your shooting distances to 50 yards or less. This will result in fewer wounded birds. Also, be aware that if you are hunting federal land, nontoxic shot is required. 

Blaze orange

Minnesota pheasant hunters are required to wear at least one visible article of clothing above the waist that is blaze orange. This could be a hat, jacket or hunting vest.  Remember that more blaze orange will make you more visible to other hunters. 

Good boots

Pheasant hunting involves lots of walking on uneven terrain. Good quality, above-the-ankle shoes or boots will provide the comfort and support you need for a day in the field.  Since crossing creeks and marshy areas is common, waterproof boots are preferred by many hunters.

Layered clothing

Cool fall mornings often turn into sunny, warm afternoons. Layered clothing will prepare you for a variety of weather conditions. Long sleeves and gloves will help keep you from getting scratched up when moving through tall grass, cattails or woody cover. Hunting chaps or brush pants will protect your legs and keep you dry on mornings when the grass is wet.

Eye and ear protection

Anytime you use a firearm, you should protect your eyes and ears. A pair of sunglasses and foam ear plugs will provide basic protection. More expensive options included coated, colored, high impact lenses and digital hearing aids that enhance some sounds while protecting from loud noises.

A good dog

While a dog is not required to hunt pheasants, a good hunting dog will increase the number of opportunities you have to harvest birds and provide you with a companion in the field.  A hunting dog is a year-round commitment. Be sure you are willing to invest significant time and energy before purchasing a dog.

Refreshments

After a few hours in the field, you will need to refuel. Don’t forget water and snacks to keep you going through the day. Water your dog often and consider canine energy bars that are on the market.

Have fun, be safe and good luck hunting!

Pheasant hunting tips

By Scott W. Roemhildt, DNR information officer

Pheasants may seem elusive and mysterious to some hunters, but they are creatures of habit and follow a regular routine. Understanding how their daily patterns work, will dramatically increase your odds of flushing roosters this fall, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Just after sunrise, pheasants leave their roosting cover. This is the short to medium grass where they have spent the night. As they move from roosting cover, you will see pheasants on roadsides, picking gravel or grit, before they move into crop fields to start feeding. When season opens at 9 a.m., the birds have just about finished breakfast and might be seen working their way through the grassy fringes of fields looking for a safe place to spend the day. 

By mid-to late-morning, pheasants have settled into thick, dense cover such as standing corn, brush patches, native grass or wetlands. This is known as loafing cover. Strong winds, precipitation, cold weather or heavy hunting pressure will drive the birds into thicker loafing cover.

Pheasants are hungry again by late afternoon and will move from loafing areas back into crop fields. They will feed until just before sunset, when they head back to roosting cover for the night.

Hunting tips:

• Be ready to hunt at 9 a.m., and take advantage of pheasants on the move. Hunt line fences, the edges of picked cornfields, field access roads and other edge cover. 
• The last hour of the day is known to hunters as the “golden hour.” This is when pheasants are moving from crop fields into roosting cover and can make for great hunting. Don’t miss it.
• Be quiet! Talk softly and don’t slam doors. Pheasants rely heavily on hearing to detect danger and may split before you see them. They get jumpier as the season progresses.
• Hunt slowly and work in a zigzag pattern. Many hunters speed right past wily roosters.  Stopping occasionally will make even the smartest rooster nervous and force a flush.
• Hunt the backsides of properties, away from roadways. Hunt habitat across creeks and drainage ditches. Most hunters won’t make the effort to reach these challenging areas that will often produce pheasants.
• Remember that pheasants are edge birds. Look for places where one type of habitat transitions into another: crops, grass, brush, cattails, ditches and fence lines.
• Only hunt row crops if you have posters or standers at the end. Without them, pheasants will run down the rows and flush early. Always know where other hunters are located.
• Don’t hunt standing corn on windy days. The rustling leaves will keep you from hearing the birds flush and it will be more difficult to keep track of dogs or other hunters.
• Look for grassy patches in picked corn fields. These can be real “honey holes” for pheasants.
• Hunt the weeks after Thanksgiving. You will have very little competition from other hunters and birds will be more congregated than early in the season. Look for some great hunting.
• If you shoot a pheasant, immediately mark where it landed and move to that spot. Grass and brush can make downed birds difficult to find.
• Most of all, be aware of dogs and other hunters, be safe and follow hunting regulations.

A Note From the Commissioner

By Tom Landwehr, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

In my experience, there are few better ways to spend a day than following a dog, shotgun resting on my shoulder, hunting up the wily ring-necked pheasant. I have hunted pheasants with several friends since our college days, and beginning this Saturday we’ll once again visit our old haunts with our scatterguns and favorite hunting dogs.

Like me, you’ve probably heard some of the discouraging reports about pheasant populations being down this year, and it is true that the recent harsh winter and poor nesting conditions have hurt pheasant populations in much of the state. 

This is one of those years when every rooster is a trophy and a limit will be worth remembering.

While weather is a major contributing factor to our pheasant decline, loss of habitat is major concern for us at DNR. Within the pheasant range, about 9,000 acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres have been lost since last year; that’s 15 square miles. Statewide, about 128,000 acres of CRP contracts will expire on Sept. 30, while only 33,180 acres were enrolled during the recent spring sign-up period.

The future for pheasants looks grimmer when you consider more than 550,000 acres of CRP are scheduled to expire in the next three years. As you know, CRP remains our No. 1 habitat program for pheasants. With high land rental rates and soaring corn prices, conservation practices are taking a backseat to market demands, and interest in CRP enrollment is likely to suffer. To see what Minnesota’s pheasant future might hold, look no further than Iowa, which is predicted to have its lowest pheasant harvest in history this fall. The Iowa pheasant harvest may be half of the 250,000-bird harvest predicted for Minnesota. 

I want to assure you, however, that prairie conservation is a high priority for my administration. Since its passage in 2008, the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment is paying dividends for pheasants. The Outdoor Heritage Fund, which gets about one-third of the Legacy funds for conservation, has accelerated acquisition of wildlife management areas (WMAs) and waterfowl production areas in Minnesota’s farmland areas. Last year, with help from Legacy funds, the DNR added 4,585 acres of new WMAs in the pheasant range. The DNR’s Working Lands Initiative, which focuses on creating habitat on private and public lands, is increasing the number of large grassland and wetland complexes in 12 western Minnesota counties.

Within the pheasant range, protected grasslands account for about 6.4 percent of the landscape, a number I hope we can increase during the next four years. 

Among my goals at the DNR is to convince Congress to pass a strong, conservation-oriented Farm Bill that protects and enhances CRP and other conservation programs. The DNR will continue to seek Legacy funds to purchase wetlands and grasslands for WMAs in prairie regions of Minnesota and we will work to forge alliances with landowners and farmers to help find ways to make conservation work in agricultural regions. One way to do this is to allow rotational cattle grazing on public lands at a reasonable rate, a practice that helps renew prairie grass and provide habitat while providing a benefit to local communities. We will continue to support the use of wetland and grassland easements to benefit conservation through such programs as Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) and the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP).

You can help pheasants in Minnesota by buying pheasant stamps, joining a conservation group like Pheasants Forever or Ducks Unlimited, or by implementing conservation programs on your own land. You can learn about such programs through your county soil and water conservation service or from one of our wildlife managers in your area.

Minnesota’s pheasants have seen tough times before, but their populations can and will recover if we act now. I will be hunting on Saturday, and though I might have to put more miles on my boots than in the past, I know spending that extra time with friends will be worth the extra effort.  Best wishes if you get out, and remember – take a buddy with you!