Pheasant opener 2017

[Duckslayer100]

I seriously want to know the argument for making a LAW that the pheasant opener can't be opened any later than Oct. 12. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard -- especially during a year like this year.

 

[Kickemup]

I see no reason to shorten the season or reduce limits. Roosters eat the same food as hens and will kick hens off a food source. In a perfect world 95% of roosters would get shot before winter. One rooster can bread a lot of hens.

 

[Mort]

ALOT of dead deer from EHD

Seems like those damn mites are bad during a drought year for deer. We are under frost warning, so that should stop them hopefully, but dang, the SW always gets it bad.

 

[Bfishn]

I see no reason to shorten the season or reduce limits. Roosters eat the same food as hens and will kick hens off a food source. In a perfect world 95% of roosters would get shot before winter. One rooster can bread a lot of hens.

I actually kind of agree with this. No matter what, your not going to shoot all the roosters in an area, there will always be roosters to breed the hens. If a guy can find three birds good for you and don't feel bad about it. Most people aren't going to shoot limits this year and i imagine there will be significantly fewer hunter days afield limiting the overall harvest.

 

[DirtyMike]

And what if we have another year of drought conditions next year? You guys need to look ahead a bit.

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I seriously want to know the argument for making a LAW that the pheasant opener can't be opened any later than Oct. 12. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard -- especially during a year like this year.

I can't think of one thing, biologically centered, for needing to open before the 12th of October. I really can't.

 

[Bfishn]

And what if we have another year of drought conditions next year? You guys need to look ahead a bit.

I get what your saying, but at the same time it is a bit tough to plan ahead for a bird that already has less than one year life expectancy in the wild. Over a couple decades of hunting the same chunks of land i have pretty much come to the conclusion that the only thing that matters is weather, cover, food. Hunting has a very minimal impact on the birds IMHO.

 

[DirtyMike]

Right, but when weather is unpredictable at best; food, especially for recent hatchlings, being dependent on that weather, and disappearing cover, hunting pressure is one thing we can at least control. Have we all forgotten the time of unlimited doe tags and then subsequent bitching about not enough deer tags a couple years later?

 

[guywhofishes]

 

[Captain Ahab]

Have they ever closed the season? I remember it being 2 birds instead of 3 at some point, but that is all.

 

[Duckslayer100]

Right, but when weather is unpredictable at best; food, especially for recent hatchlings, being dependent on that weather, and disappearing cover, hunting pressure is one thing we can at least control. Have we all forgotten the time of unlimited doe tags and then subsequent bitching about not enough deer tags a couple years later?

Didn't PF do a bunch of research on "banking birds" in respect to harvest rates and population numbers?

 

[zoops]

Hunting is far down the list when it comes to threats to pheasant numbers. Habitat and weather are about 95% of the equation. Plenty of areas that 10 years ago were plumb full of pheasants that now have next to none - it ain't because they were all shot.

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Found this while searching a bit for an answer to Ahab's question - man that would have been fun!!! My grandma that grew up in Wahpeton and had family near Hankinson has referred to the spectacular pheasant hunting of that era...

While North Dakota's rooster harvest just a few years ago was close to a million birds, the absolute best pheasant days were decades before that in the 1940s. Harvest was estimated in the millions from 1940-46, highlighted by nearly 2.5 million birds taken in both 1944 and 1945.
From North Dakota OUTDOORS magazine in the mid-1940s: "We have never seen so many upland game birds since we have been in the state ... With an estimated upland game bird population of 15 million, it is going to be impossible to harvest the necessary number of birds ... The state could stand to harvest 7.5 million birds. It is estimated that there will be about 20,000 licenses sold this fall, and therefore the Department has been making an effort to interest more nonresident hunters to come to North Dakota."
Department records show that the average hunter shot more than 34 pheasants per season from 1942-45. In 2011, the average hunter bagged just more than eight birds for the season.

 

[shorthairsrus]

The all-time low occurred in 1967, when hunters shot only 33,000 pheasants, an average of 0.9 birds per hunter.
--The Game and Fish Department didn't offer a pheasant season in 1953, 1966 or 1969.

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1970s marked a bleak era for pheasant hunting in North Dakota. "The decade was a period of massive intensification of agriculture and increased demands on natural resources," the authors wrote. "In spite of changes in the way upland gunners hunted -- an increased use of dogs, for example -- hunter success was poor."

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I didnt make it out -- family responsibilities --- i wont make it out either until maybe the last weekend of october. I remember hunting in the 70s - it sucked -- if i remember it was 2 vs 3. I do believe in conservation -- close the season on the night before deer opener. The rooty that woke me up all spring in dl -- some yote must of got him. I never heard him past June.

 

[DirtyMike]

Didn't PF do a bunch of research on "banking birds" in respect to harvest rates and population numbers?

No clue. I'm not typing with peer reviewed papers to back my claims, just a degree in zoology.

 

[ifish4iz]

Until we start shooting hens, any comparison to overharvest of deer is a moot point. Biology has shown that we really cannot overharvest roosters. Yes, this is going to be a down year and likely a few to follow. Hopefully with the right winter weather and spring breeding conditions, we will see an upswing in bird numbers in the near future.

We cannot dismiss the continuing decline in habitat, however. This concerns me more than any of the other factors. The change in farming practices and crops being grown, along with tearing out of tree rows, plowing of CRP and native grasses, burning every wetland, etc. will have a huge impact on how the birds recover when weather conditions are more suitable to this NON-NATIVE bird.

Can you really imagine the whining there would be if they closed the season completely?? Too many knee jerk reactions after guys go out opening weekend and hunt the same old spots, the same old ways and aren't done hunting in an hour. There will be some pockets with fair numbers and some that are void of birds for the year. Like most, I am holding out hope that a few more will show up when the row crops are harvested. But, it's not all about shooting a limit guys. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy pulling the trigger as much as the next guy, but getting out of the reality of real life for a few hours a week to chase a bird and spending times with family and my dog is much more important than a limit.

I really think this year will turn out to be a good year for those willing to stick it out and venture outside of their comfort zone and areas as there will be minimal hunting pressure if anybody listens to these reports.

 

[DirtyMike]

I don't disagree with the vast majority of your post. As far as the deer to pheasant connection, I'm trying to connect the points of overall game management rather than which sex is harvested.

 

[Kickemup]

I see no reason to shorten the season or reduce limits. Roosters eat the same food as hens and will kick hens off a food source. In a perfect world 95% of roosters would get shot before winter. One rooster can bread a lot of hens.

To the 2 guys that gave me bad reps for this. Did I major in biology no but I do see these birds everyday in the winter when there is 2 feet of snow in the fields. The roosters are always in the best spots for food and the hens are on the fringes of it. More than once I have witnessed a rooster kick a hen out of a hole in the snow so he can feed his belly.

 

[LBrandt]

Kickemup is right on as I have seen the same thing happen. When it comes to feeding birds in the winter I spread the feed far and wide so all can feed.

 

[Coldfront]

We to found bird numbers down. On Saturday we mostly harvested last years birds and on Sunday mostly this years birds. We had moved about 15 miles from where we hunted on Saturday. We asked some questions at the local restaurant on rain fall in the area and hunted where it had a few more showers go thru. We hunted one old farm yard that lilac bushes and some tree groves and the trees were full of bird bones and pheasant feathers. Joint a wildlife club that releases pheasants it works even though the game fish people will tell you it doesn't. There wouldn't be a pheasant around if somebody wouldn't have released some back in the late 1800's and early 1900's, so it works. We release adult hens in the spring when survival is better.

 

[shorthairsrus]

To the 2 guys that gave me bad reps for this. Did I major in biology no but I do see these birds everyday in the winter when there is 2 feet of snow in the fields. The roosters are always in the best spots for food and the hens are on the fringes of it. More than once I have witnessed a rooster kick a hen out of a hole in the snow so he can feed his belly.

The whole bad rep thing needs to go away. Nothing has been said in this conversation by anybody that deserves a bad rep.


Back to the topic -- It will be interesting to see next weekend. If the wind blew like a SOB that can be a bugger. I was thinking your area kick would be less affected. I have to say though i am shocked by the decrease in numbers. we had tough winters before.

 

[Rowdie]

I see no reason to shorten the season or reduce limits. Roosters eat the same food as hens and will kick hens off a food source. In a perfect world 95% of roosters would get shot before winter. One rooster can bread a lot of hens.

THIS IS SPOT ON!! Whoever gave you neg rep for the truth should be kicked in the balls. The best thing to help the population that hunters could do, is shoot every FN chicken hawk, feral cat, coyote, fox... and any other predator or egg stealer.