While I can not speak of wild pheasants I did use my Irish on a bird farm and he did great. The owner had a 2 springers which he enjoyed until one of them got into some rasins. ( That one had died from the rasins.) He know uses a GSP on his birds when some hunters show up with out any dogs. Keep in mind most of the pheasant hunting here was in the woods with a lot of cuttings to keep the area fairly clear. So while there was some tall grass most of it was thick brush and the like.