Pheasants and Time of Day

I usually do my pheasant hunting in the morning. Am I missing out on something? Do they behave any differently morning vs. afternoon/evening?

They feed in the morning and evening so that’s when they’ll move around the most and generally be in cover near food sources. During the middle part of the day they might be spread out more. I don’t think it really makes much difference though, maybe a little bit of favoring corn edges morning/evening and thicker stuff like cattails midday. If you’re on public land I think the more important thing is that they will get pushed out of “easy” spots into denser cover throughout the day until it gets to evening when they’ll all move and disperse near food again. If there is a lot of standing corn they might be out of the hunting area and into the corn before 9am but they should be coming back before shooting ends so maybe the evening is the “best” time. Never know how long it’s going to take to get them though so if you don’t start in the morning how do you know if you gave yourself enough time?

Reef W wrote:

If you’re on public land I think the more important thing is that they will get pushed out of “easy” spots into denser cover throughout the day until it gets to evening when they’ll all move and disperse near food again.

That’s a good point.

Reef W wrote:

…so if you don’t start in the morning how do you know if you gave yourself enough time?

Fair enough, but with 2 young kids, I have to take whatever time I can. All day hunts are a rarity.

Imo they are far more predictable in the evening. Mid day can be tough. What I like to do is arrive at the hunting area well before 9 because you can usually locate birds whether on the road, cackling or flying in to roost.
In the evening however its like clockwork they will head for cover after feeding. Locate good cover near the food source.
I have had birds literally fly right into me as they came from corn or beans. No idea I was there. Startled me as much as them when I started blasting them. Lol
I’m glad they don’t allow it to open at sunrise because it would be like shooting ducks in a barrel.

Captain, I want to hunt where you hunt!

Fortunately for pheasants the season is mostly closed during their vulnerable times of the day. However later in the year you can take advantage of their early and late schedule but by then hardly anyone is hunting them. Iowa

Hunt when you can, but you can predict their movements a bit more in the morning and evening. This time of the year they will often leave their nesting cover around the start of hunting time and head to a cornfield where they will spend a lot of the day. Then return to the cover to roost over night. The last hour of the day is often referred to as the “Golden Hour.” If you’ve had a long tough day with lots of walking, you can often redeem the entire day in the final hour.

If I am short on time or hunting mid day public lands, I am going to look for an area that has or had a cornfield (if it’s recently harvested, awesome!), has good prairie grass cover, water or wetlands, a treeline or shelterbelt. Some of those things may be a half mile down the road on private land, but if those things are in the area, there are usually birds somewhere in the area. With lack of time, I will generally avoid areas that are completely surrounded by beans, and lack shelter or cattails.

I also usually have better luck working smaller pieces of public land. Something with a defined boundary that will make the birds fly eventually.

mnrabbit wrote:

The last hour of the day is often referred to as the “Golden Hour.” If you’ve had a long tough day with lots of walking, you can often redeem the entire day in the final hour.

X2

CaptainMusky wrote:

Imo they are far more predictable in the evening.

I agree, the movement pattern in the evening tends to be from food to cover.

The problem is it’s not often easy to take advantage of this because if you see birds flying or running out of corn stubble and landing out in a block CRP or slough, often there won’t be enough daylight left to get out to them.

I think this is the reason so much road hunting is in the evening, the birds are running from food back to the cover and sooner or later they have to cross a road.

Middle of the day can be tough, but then again the time of year makes this not a hard and fast rule. In the late season the birds can be very active in the middle of the day as that’s when they go out to feed to take advantage of warmer temps.

Pheasant hunting is very difficult to predict. Some of the best hunting I’ve had happend on days that I thought unlikely and some of the worst hunting was on days that I thought were going to be good. Only the birds know why they do what they do and they aren’t talking.

To me the biggest things are to go whenever you can, hunt as many “confined” places as possible where the birds will reach the end of the cover and have to fly, and to hunt in ways that are different from the usual hunter patterns.

Grouse

Semi-related question – why are the regulations in So Dak such that you can’t start hunting until 10AM (and 12 noon for the first week of the season)?

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

Semi-related question – why are the regulations in So Dak such that you can’t start hunting until 10AM (and 12 noon for the first week of the season)?

So everyone has time to sleep off that hangover.

When hunting the evening do you actually head into the cover and then hide? Or just watch from afar and then go after them?

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

Semi-related question – why are the regulations in So Dak such that you can’t start hunting until 10AM (and 12 noon for the first week of the season)?

SD GFP probably would never admit it, but tourism money. By having a later start time, you are now staying in the bar later the previous night and have time to get breakfast at a local restaurant the next morning.

lindyrig79 wrote:

When hunting the evening do you actually head into the cover and then hide? Or just watch from afar and then go after them?

Watch and go after. Watch how they are flying in and scope out your entrance/exit strategy, what way you want to push them etc.

Don’t forget to take things into account such as wind direction (let dog work into the wind or with a cross wind), quietly entering the field (no slamming car doors, letting car horn honk when you lock doors, limiting your talking and yelling at dog, etc.)

You are essentially going into their living room, they are smart birds and no what danger sounds like and how to invisibly leave their living room.