bigmanindc
Active Member
It has been completed and I was one of the chosen ones any other lucky participants?
2020 Stocked pheasant hunt lottery drawing
- Thread starter bigmanindc
- Start date
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Me too. Haven't hunted pheasant in 40 years, should be fun!
roosterfried
Member
- Aug 3, 2020
- 12
I tried but no luck here. Congrats fellas
kstone803
Official Meat Getter
Try not to shoot each other. But really let us know how it goes. MD is great at mismanagement of just about everything hunting. Ever seen a "managed" MD public dove field?
I put my name in the hat, but nobody within my 1,000 number cohort was chosen unfortunately.
How are they doing the hunts?
How are they doing the hunts?
Afrikeber
Ultimate Member
Pheasants were everywhere up in PA where I grew up. Never did see them down here.
Squaregrouper
Kragaphile
I was just talking about this a few days ago. I grew up just outside Harrisburg and pheasants were quite common. I moved to MD in 1998 and have never seen a pheasant here.
kstone803
Official Meat Getter
Believe it or not there is still an open season for pheasant in the MD hunting season. My dad said they were in northern and western MD in the 60s and 70s but with habitat loss and poor management they disappeared. I've never seen one that wasn't pen raised and released.
Mack C-85
R.I.P.
I used to see Pheasants along MD295 just into the City from AACO!!! When Dad was driving it daily he said it was very common to see them.
Dad and I hunted some public lands in Carroll County in the late 60s - early 70s. Harvested a few wabbits and a pheasant or two. They weren't plentiful, but they were there.
Dad hunted small game in PA when we were growing up. Mom used to laugh, because there were times when she wasn't sure ends were going to meet, but we were eating Rabbit and Pheasant!!
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Dad and I hunted some public lands in Carroll County in the late 60s - early 70s. Harvested a few wabbits and a pheasant or two. They weren't plentiful, but they were there.
Dad hunted small game in PA when we were growing up. Mom used to laugh, because there were times when she wasn't sure ends were going to meet, but we were eating Rabbit and Pheasant!!
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The last time I saw a pheasant in Maryland was probably 40 years ago
Muleskinner
Ultimate Member
Use to be a fairly steady population of them around Liberty Reservoir many years ago. The only issue I have with the stocked (farm raised) birds is they do not taste as good as the wild birds and are fatty and greasy. I did a stocked hunt in Caroline County 7-8 years ago with 5 other guys. We ended up with 2 birds each and I was disappointed at the taste.
- Jan 17, 2013
- 1,681
I had one run through my yard in Harford in 2012. Never saw one before, never seen one again.
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jtb81100
Ultimate Member
Interesting. I didn't apply because the wording I saw made it seem like it was only for new hunters. I'll have to read more carefully next year.
Granddad used to hunt them in the 50s-70s. I've seen 1 in 38 years.
Granddad used to hunt them in the 50s-70s. I've seen 1 in 38 years.
The reason is that PA still raises and stocks birds, nearly a quarter-million per year. The ones you see up there are the ones that got away. MD stocked birds until the 1960s when they stopped. Billmeyer WMA was the state stocking farm where they raised all the ringnecks. It got shut down in the 1960s along with Belle Grove which raised wild turkeys, and both got turned into run-of-the-mill WMAs.
Pheasants are non-native, so proper management in areas that don't necessarily meet their needs for shelter, food, and water require regular restocking. They were more plentiful here in the US when farmers left brush at the borders of their fields, but modern practices have them planting and harvesting all the way to the edge. Another issue with cover is that pheasants used to take cover in hay fields (the straight rows of corn don't provide good cover, and soybeans are too dense for them to run in, pheasants run a lot before they'll fly) but once everyone switched from timothy to alfalfa, the harvest seasons got earlier and the cover lessened meaning easier predation from natural predators and loss of nests and eggs to tractors as the new haying seasons coincide with the pheasant's laying and brooding seasons.
It seems like MD's DNR might finally be wising up to the fact that folks want to hunt more than just deer and turkey. Upland outfitters up in PA make $$$$$$$$$ on pheasant, chukar, and quail.
bigmanindc
Active Member
What # 12 gauge ammo do you guys suggest
We used to see pheasants in Cecil County back the early 1970s.
Mack C-85
R.I.P.
High Brass #6's were our go to small game (Rabbits, Pheasants, and Quail) ammo. We were mainly hunting over Beagles.
We would go to #4-5s for wildly flushing Pheasants.
Gentleman we hunted Quail (Pointers and Setters) and Bunnies (Beagles) with in SW VA, made me faster with a gun. He shot a 101 Winchester O/U...and on a covey flush, killed two birds, reloaded a dropped his third bird, before I saw my first bird!!!
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I run #6 followed by #5 in my variable choke guns and #7 followed by #6 in my fixed full guns.
Reason being that I'm slower on my follow-up shots. A buddy of mine will double-tap the trigger faster than you can blink and bring them down with 7s all day long but I'm a bit slower on the follow-up and that usually puts them at the edge of range, so the 5s and 6s depending on the gun will usually give me a little more reach.
High-brass Remington Pheasant load works just fine as do Rio for that matter. If you want to go fancy, Hi-Bird and Golden Pheasant both work well in my experience with the latter pushing fewer feathers into the meat.
kstone803
Official Meat Getter
I've killed game farm pheasants with 7s but 6s are a better option.
bigmanindc
Active Member
LOL I was looking to get an O/U but looked and saw the limit is 2 pheasants!!!!!!
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