Christmas and New Years is not only a time for celebrating the birth of Jesus, family gathering, gift exchanging, and toasting the bubbly for my family. It is also a time for an annual late season pheasant fiesta that takes place in the heart of South Dakota, ringneck territory. Over the years this particular hunt has become the most rewarding as every pheasant that is shot is shared with family members and additionally each and every pheasant that is shot is truly a trophy—extra long tail feathers, spurs that make turkeys envious, and plumage that even Terry Redlin dreams of painting is the norm. Getting these birds to cooperate like they do in the early parts of the season is the challenge during this time of the year.
Late-season pheasant hunting requires a totally distinctive and different approach from that of early-season hunts. During the earlier portion of the season it is typical to find yourself walking Conservation Reserve Program acres in lines of ten or more people pushing across the vast sections of South Dakota prairie grass and being rewarded with many easy flushes in the 10-20 yard range. Additionally, the earlier part of the season often allows hunters to wear unlined jackets, sweatshirts, and even the occasional t-shirt at times while enjoying a nice warm walk through the autumn fields. Well, these same tactics will fail to bring you many birds during the late season as you will undoubtedly see a lot of birds, but the birds will flush wild at ranges that would make it tough to hit a bird with even the best 50 caliber rifles on the market today and you will be fighting mother nature to keep any feeling in any of your body parts. Good thing for you, late season birds may be manageable using different tactics though…
Following deer season there are fewer hunters afield, but by the time the snow begins to fly, most of the “dumb” birds have made their way into hunter’s freezers. The birds that remain have made it for a reason; they are the best of the best. They have superior instincts that have consistently kept them away from the predators of the prairie; sportsmen, avians, and the occasional coyote.
During the late weeks of the season, small groups of three or four hunters have a better chance at a covert approach with a higher probability of success than bringing in the small armies of hunters that proved successful earlier on in the year. My father, Dan Weiland, with an ageless experience of hunting pheasants as he grew up in South Dakota and began hunting pheasants passionately as far back as he can recall, believes that stealth and ingenuity must be applied to successfully hunt late-season ringnecks in South Dakota. Some of the tactics that my father has utilized in successfully (and consistently) shooting a brace of pheasants include hitting the thickest of cover that is manageable by few hunting members, using well-organized plans of attack that sometimes sound like what I would imagine a Civil War general spouting off to the troops, and using well-trained dogs that stay exceptionally close to the hunters at all times. “Late-season pheasants are a different breed of bird. These late season roosters are on top of there game at all times. If they weren’t they’d already be shot,” my father tells me. “These birds have been to this dance before, and quite frankly most of them can do a pretty good jig,” he jokingly tells me. “You need to be crafty and resourceful to put one of these cagey birds in your game bag.”
Dress Warm. Step one must be to dress accordingly and be prepared for nasty weather. During the late season it is not at all uncommon to hunt in temperatures dipping into the single digits and even dipping below zero. The wind is what will really eat you up hunting the prairies of South Dakota though. It is very common to experience bone-chilling headwinds that will cut right through you if you are not prepared. In dressing for late season warmth remember to bring warm gloves that you can maneuver and make a quick shot with and adequate face and head gear as many times you will find yourself walking directly into the bitter north and west winds. Next, you should always have some superior strength wicking long underwear on. Cabelas and Gander have a wonderful selection of new technologically advanced wicking clothing that range from silks to polypropylenes and I can guarantee you that you’ll find a set that you like that will provide core body warmth. Just remember, pack and dress for the worst as you can always shed clothing, but once you’re cold the fun of the hunt is out the window and your safety can even become an issue.
Outsmarting the Birds. This can often times be easier said than done, but over the years I think it is safe to say that my father has certainly “outsmarted” his fair share of December roosters as his game bag will usually show. A couple of the techniques he has used to out duel the intelligence (of a bird with a brain about 1% the size of a human’s) include using parked vehicles and hills to his advantage. Many times there will be more than one possible escape route for the pheasants from the cover so he will purposefully park vehicles in strategic locations where the birds can see them and utilize a hill or another piece of cover to get a walker or a blocker in a certain position where the birds may not detect them and may later try to escape out believing that they cannot travel by the parked vehicles.
Another idea that has worked over time for my father is camouflaging blockers or pinchers. He explains, “We as hunters try to camouflage ourselves from nearly every game animal that we hunt, but for some reason people think that if they stand on the middle of a prairie road or in a field with an orange vest on that pheasants will still fly right over them. This may work earlier on in the year, but more times be prepared to be hungry if you’re depending on shooting birds for dinner during December using this technique.” He further notes, “You must keep safety in mind and make yourself visible as walkers near you, but by then the bulk of the pheasants will be out of the cover and you should have your limit if you hide properly and shoot straight!” The moral of the story here is that you should be prepared to conceal yourself by whatever means possible.
Although I only listed a couple of the more basic ideas that come to mind regarding outsmarting late season birds the number of possibilities is endless. What it really boils down to is that you need to understand that these birds are smarter than the ones you implemented early season techniques on earlier in the year and you must be willing to think outside the box and find innovative strategies that the birds may not recognize.
Stealthmode. Before entering a piece of cover you should always check the wind just as if you were hunting wary big game that may scent you. Playing the wind correctly will help you two fold. First of all walking into the wind will assist your dogs as they search the ground for scent. Second, pheasants can hear extremely well and all late season pheasants know the sounds of danger and specifically hunters. By reading the wind and walking directly into it you minimize the sound that will travel to the wary birds that will undoubtedly spook if they sense anything out of the ordinary is approaching them.
A couple of useful hints that my father has also found to be helpful is using minimal or no vocal communications with one another and with your dogs as you approach cover. My father explains, “These late season birds need to be handled just like big ‘ol whitetail deer in the sense that anything will spook them and you need to do everything in your power to minimize excessive noise when approaching these birds.” He further notes some techniques he has found to work to include only using well-trained dogs late season, leashing dogs when approaching cover, coordinating plans of attack before executing the plan for each piece of cover, and the use of hand signals between hunting partners as the plan is executed.
Firepower. Once you get that late season long tailed bird flushing or flying over your gun barrel you owe it to yourself and to the bird to put a nice clean shot on him and often times you will find that decreasing your shot size and perhaps going from 2 ¾ inch shells to 3 inch shells will give you a little more ‘umph’ that is needed to bring down late season roosters. My father stated, “December roosters will often provide you with a little longer shot than say October or even November birds and this combined with the fact that the birds are typically fatter means you need to shoot everything you got to bring them down and kill them on the spot.” He has found his favorite late season load to be Fiochii copper plated 5 shot 3 inch shells from his twelve gauge, but says that everyone should shop around and try a few different loads out as everyone has their own preference. Whatever the shotshell you find he stresses that, “You walk too long in too cold of weather to cripple or dust a bird and not bag it. Plus, you owe it to the pheasant to put a nice clean shot on him.”
Another helpful hint is using a tighter choke than that which you may have been using during the earlier parts of the season to enable you to shoot a tighter pattern reaching out at further distances. It is not all uncommon to see someone go from an improved cylinder to a modified or even to an improved modified later on in the year to help bring down edgy birds.
It is undeniable that hunting late season roosters will be colder, but you will probably see only a fraction of the hunters you would normally see earlier on in the season and the pheasants will be found in larger bunches. Once you learn to successfully implement some of the aforementioned strategies and tips you will undoubtedly find that a little cold is well worth it and there is nothing quite like a late season reward of a cackling ringneck that will provide you with some great eats for those winter months ahead.
Maybe even I’ll run into you on the cold South Dakota prairie chasing some December birds in the snow? Good huntin’.
