Fox SPE gets a deep woods pheasant

[Silvers]

Things worked out so I was able to hunt today but my Wednesday friend couldn’t make it. Back to the mountains for grouse. I don't like solo hunting out in remote areas but sometimes it's that or nothing. I had my cell phone and promised my wife I'd stick to places nearby the truck and where I could get at least two bars. The season ends in three weeks and so far we’ve been blessed with little snow. Things get tough up high when that white stuff starts piling up.

This is the old mine road that goes out to a covert I call “Lilac”. Found some dried wild grapes while there; also one grouse that flushed out of range.



Next to the No 3 Mine. This is what’s locally called red ash, where coal tailings caught on fire and burned over many years. That happened here about 90 years ago. No grouse here today. A little too windy up high so I decided to hunt down along the crick.


I drove to the last spot, a no name place. While working along a trail in some thick laurels I flushed a hen pheasant that was probably just as surprised as I was. Today I was carrying a Fox SPE in 12 gauge; and the left barrel dumped the bird at maybe 35 yards. It was a reload with 1-1/8 ounce of 7-1/2’s pushed by ‘PB” powder. Most of you know that pheasants rarely venture into the deep woods; and the nearest field of sorts is about 4 miles away. Even stranger is that I killed another hen pheasant close to here a few years back.

Cock birds and hens are legal in this area into next month. That’s my Fox 12 gauge SPE, 26-incher. Chokes are something like Lt Mod and Imp Mod.


Deep woods pheasant was taken in the background of this pic.

[fox-admin]

Nice pictures Frank, great looking rare Fox. Amazing that a pheasant would be encountered so far from normal habitat. I have never come across a pheasant in the woods, must have something to do with the fracking fluids!!!

[Big Friend Ten]

Hi Frank,

That was a great hunt! Thanks for sharing it with us...

Mark

[Jim Cloninger]

Frank, I was wondering why shooting hen pheasants in PA is legal? Everywhere I have hunted wild pheasants, only roosters were legal. Jim

[Silvers]

Pheasant hens have been legal in this part of PA for at least 20 years or so. Probably has to do with predation; with changes in farming practice and the coyotes, foxes, hawks and owls, very few pheasants of either sex survive in the wild for a long time. Might as well let the hunters take them ..... same as hen grouse, hen ducks, hen doves, etc. Now you got me going Jim. If I take a drive along the nearest Interstate (I-81) outside of the cities, I'll drive no more than one mile without seeing a hawk or two in a tree waiting for its next meal. Now let's pretend you are Mr. hawk: let's see .... over there is a nice mouse, and to my right is a pheasant or rabbit. Which one will I go after?

Yep it wasn't that long ago that PA had a bounty on foxes, owls and weasels, coyotes were almost unheard of, and our Game Commisssion was urging hunters to shoot any/all hawks which were billed as "vicious predators of game". That was when only pheasant cock birds were in season, and I could go out after school with my single-barrel and almost always get a few rabbits before dark by kicking brushpiles.

[Jim Cloninger]

There are a LOT of hawks here in CA also and you don't have to go a half mile to see one. I have 3 sizes of hawks coming to my back yard where I feed wild birds. Here in CA and everywhere I have hunted pheasants the only place you can shoot a hen is on the property of a licensed pheasant club. For pheasants leaving the pheasant club property, you only can shoot roosters and only during the wild pheasant season. Jim

[Silvers]

Jim I've answered the best I can. If you want a better answer may I suggest that you contact the PA Game Commission and ask about the PGC biologists' rationale for taking hen birds here in PA? Also you might ask about comparisons with California and other states where you've hunted? Would you please let us know what you learn? Thanks.

Contact info is under the tab marked "About Us"

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/se ... y/pgc/9106

The direct email is listed as: pgccomments@pa.gov

P.S. fyi a very large part of New York state is also open for cocks and hens.

[Researcher]

Right after WW-II, my Father and Uncles would drive out U.S. 12 from Grandpa's farm in Minnesota to the area around Webster, South Dakota, where the Pheasant limit was eight a day either sex. At least two different years I have pictures of they came home with everyone having their three day possession limit. I've got pictures of the assembly line bird cleaning at Grandpa's farm from two different years, one annotated 72 Pheasants and 72 Ducks and another annotated 72 Pheasants and 126 Ducks.

Out here in Washington State, in those halcyon years of Pheasants in the Columbia Basin in the late 1960s and early 1970s we were allowed one hen a day in our three bird limit. Now, between the clean farming, weed control, and predators there aren't a tenth the Pheasants in the Columbia Basin there were in my high school and college years.

[Jim Cloninger]

Back in the day CA allowed 1 hen in the pheasant hunter's bag. That was a long time ago. I started hunting pheasants in Minnesota in 1950, and I know from that time on hens were not legal.
Jim

[Fin2Feather]

Kansas used to allow hens as well; that was quite a while back and I can't recall the dates. Nice pics!

[snakeeater]

Pheasant hens have been legal in this part of PA for at least 20 years or so. Probably has to do with predation; with changes in farming practice and the coyotes, foxes, hawks and owls, very few pheasants of either sex survive in the wild for a long time. Might as well let the hunters take them ..... same as hen grouse, hen ducks, hen doves, etc. Now you got me going Jim. If I take a drive along the nearest Interstate (I-81) outside of the cities, I'll drive no more than one mile without seeing a hawk or two in a tree waiting for its next meal. Now let's pretend you are Mr. hawk: let's see .... over there is a nice mouse, and to my right is a pheasant or rabbit. Which one will I go after?

Yep it wasn't that long ago that PA had a bounty on foxes, owls and weasels, coyotes were almost unheard of, and our Game Commisssion was urging hunters to shoot any/all hawks which were billed as "vicious predators of game". That was when only pheasant cock birds were in season, and I could go out after school with my single-barrel and almost always get a few rabbits before dark by kicking brushpiles.

If there was any cover left ther would be birds for hawk & us. Lancaster Co. looks like a pool table top after harvest. A bird would need rations & camo. to cross it

[Jim Cloninger]

Here is the answer from the PA Game commisson on why hen pheasants are legal in parts of PA:

Thank you for your inquiry. Wild pheasant harvest management, where wild sustainable pheasant populations exist due to suitable year-round habitat conditions, involves protecting hens and minimizing disturbance over winter - hence the November cocks-only season in 6 of the 23 wildlife management units in Pennsylvania.

Where year round habitat conditions are not adequate to sustain wild populations, propagated pheasants can be stocked in suitable hunting habitat to provide desired hunting opportunities and memories. Where pheasant hunting opportunities are only provided through stocked pheasants, it makes sense to harvest both males and females, to maximize return on investment, and we can also provide an additional stocking right before Christmas.

Wild pheasant populations are practically nonexistent in PA, except on our wild pheasant restoration areas, and have been for nearly 2 decades. Even though we stock about 20,000 breeders from our game farms each spring, after they have produced our needed quota of eggs, in the best habitats on state game lands that we can find, we see few broods that result, and by hunting season essentially all are gone.

We only allow hen pheasant harvests in areas of the state where wild sustainable pheasant populations do not exist.

bwm@pgc

[fox-admin]

Jim: Thanks for the info from the PA Game commission. The southern tier of NY State has habitat that is very similar to northern PA and we have the same pheasant regulations as PA (hens and cocks).
I live in the lake plains area which runs from the Finger Lakes north to the shore of Lake Ontario. Up until the early 70's this area had fantastic pheasant hunting 2 cocks per day. When I was in college I could walk up pheasants without much difficulty. It all changed after Hurricane Agnes in 1972 I believe. Farms consolidated and grew from 175 acres to 1500+ acres. Hedge rows disappeared, dairy farming practices changed, round-up was invented and the elimination of DDT brought avian predators back in large numbers. Fur fashions became a no no and hence mammal trapping disappeared and so did the pheasants. MY father grew up on a farm in Spencerport NY until the depression caused the family to move to Carlisle PA. The farm in Spencerport just outside of Rochester was owned by wealthy businessmen from Ohio and they owned it primary for pheasant hunting. Things sure change now we have turkeys, trumpeter swans, snow geese and more and more bad eagles every year. But I sure miss wild pheasants. Nothing like following a flusher on the sent of a cock bird!

[Marcus R]

Frank,

Thanks for the post and the pics. Your photos always make me wish York county was a bit closer to the grouse woods.


Craig, do you still have family in the Carlisle area? I'm about 30 minutes SW Carlisle. Near Gifford Pinchot state park if you're familiar with the area. Carlisle is a great town with lots of history.

Marc

[fox-admin]

Marc: No family left in the Carlisle. My dad graduated from Carlise HS in 1939 and joined the US Army. His mom died in 1935 and his Dad moved back to Rochester after WWII. Both my Grandfather and Uncle worked for either Carlisle or Hanover shoe. My dad tried factory work in the shoe industry after HS and hated it after a week and joined the Army---little did he know he would end up fighting the Germans. I have been back to Carlisle for the LC Smith shoot----nice part of PA but getting quite developed.