Am or PM Hunt?

[RedBeard5289]

Just curious how the rest of you guys and gals have been fairing this year. My party of 4 guys was out last weekend and this weekend on mostly private land in southeastern minnesota and have seen more action/pheasants in the last two hours of legal shooting time that we see all morning. Same land-same hunters-same dogs, just different time of day.

I am curiousif the rest of you all have notice this too or am I jumping the gun/conclusions since its only been first two weeks of pheasant season.

BTW- I pulled down a beautiful rooster this evening with a 21" tail - so far I am leading the pool for longest tail feather this year....

As the oldbeer commercial use to say "It just doesn't get any better than this!"

Thanks for letting me rant...still a little "pumped" from the hunt

[jaysweet3]

If it is above freezing I like to hunt the afternoons. It seems to me thaat the birds fly better when they are dry. If there is a morning dew on the cover it is on the birds.

[RemMod1100]

That is a good observation. We will often hunt public land that gets a lot of pressure in the late afternoon, or switch up our fields when morning action gets slow. My theory is that in the morning, birds want to leave their roosts, in the late afternoon they want to come to roost. It's been my observation that pressured birds will leave cover very early in the morning, and can be difficult to get close to as they flush wild and fly into grain fields or nearby sanctuaries they've found to be safe. On the other hand, pressured birds wanting to get into roost in the late afternoon will offer a chance to be hunted because they're less likely to want to leave at that time of day. Lastly, few hunters do the late afternoon thing. The cagiest early a.m. rooster can be caught by surprise when he comes home for bed.
Jay mentions freezing in his last post, and I do respect the pheasants and weather when it comes to late day hunts. If very cold weather or a storm frontis moving in, I won't hunt late afternoon so the birds are able to get in and find good cover.

[RedBeard5289]

thanks for the response Jay and Rem...Nice to hear another hunter's interpretations/theories on this.

I know that the last two weekends have been rather colder than normal for Pheasant Opener this year. ( I pulled out my long underwear on opening weekend!) I think this is playing a very large role in seeing more birds in the evening rather than in the morning. Last two years the first few weeks of Pheasant Season were rather warm (t-shirt weather) and we saw more action in the morning than afternoon. The other factors; Roosting areas, food and water sources and hunting pressure are all the same as previous years.

Just a theory...we'll see if it pans out in a couple of weekends...(my wife is outta town so I am single parenting this weekend, but plan to hit it again the first weekend of november -deer hunters permitting of course)

Thanks again for the responses...definately a great forum site to talkfellow hunters.
Enjoy the hunting next weekend!!

[sproulman]

here in pa. is what i have seen hunting pheasants..in morning wind is usually not blowing..in afternoon ,it is..its hard to flush bird in wind, they will let you walk by..

most of my hunting is from 9am to 11am..

now, for grouse i like it windy because grouse will sit still and mostly dont hear you coming, so you get a close shot..so, i hunt grouse at noon to 3pm is good time,if windy..

grouse after they are hunted are almost impossible to hit on nice ,clear,sunny,WINDLESS day..unless your shotgun reachs 60 yds or more with leaves off, ha..

[petrey10]

I actually think the hunting is best from sunrise to about 1030am....any later the birds are off in the fields eating....then about 330 to sunset is a good time also because birds are trying to find their roost for the night...I have also noticed this is the time you actually hear the birds flying when I am in my deer stand...Also in the mourning I like to use number 4's just in case they are really jumpy...late afternoon I use 5's cause they are going to sit a little tighter whether they are too tired from eating all day or having a full gizard they seem to just sit a little tighter in the evening hunts...But this is just my 2 cents...I am sure every area has their differences

[sproulman]

i agree with you too..its funny, i hate hunting in wind for pheasants but love it for grouse..

those grouse after leaves drop are something ..i use 5 shot on pheasants all year ..i use 7 and 1/2low brass ,icchokeon grouse withleaves on and no.6 high brass full chokeafter leaves are off..

only advantage you have grouse is WIND..