May 17, 2012

From the Library
September 2007

Tactics for the Solo Hunter
From A Pheasant Hunter’s Notebook
by Larry Brown

spend a good deal of time hunting alone, so I don’t have many opportunities to work clever maneuvers. However, I have found one tactic that does put an occasional extra bird in the bag. For lack of a better name, I call it “reverse logic.”

Conventional wisdom has it that you should work cover in such a way that you cut off the birds’ opportunities to run. The draw that comes to an end in the middle of an open field is one example. Another is the waterway that has good cover on one farmer’s ground, but has been cultivated right up to its banks on the adjacent farm. You push to where the cover ends, and somewhere near that end at least one or two roosters should sit tight.
That approach works well early in the season. Eventually, however, the birds become accustomed to hunters coming after them from the same direction. Try going against conventional wisdom by pushing back into the cover. Logic may tell you that you are working the birds so they can run on you, but occasionally the novelty of the approach seems to confuse them.

Using this tactic in Iowa usually means an approach along a barren fencerow or across an open field to reach your destination, then pushing the cover out to a ditch road. Get ready when you hit the ditch. Although ditches often have good cover and the birds could turn left or right and keep running, they frequently elect to sit tight.
Working slowly and thoroughly in heavy cover is preferable to charging through the brush at breakneck speed. In thick stuff, even a good dog needs to take its time. If the birds are not moving much, there are a lot of potential hiding spots that must be checked. On the other hand, if you are into birds that are moving, the dog may lock onto one, trail it, and miss others. Either way, by moving too fast, you and your dog may miss birds that are holding tight.

How many times have you almost stepped on a bird when your dog was hunting elsewhere? This is often not the dog’s fault. Quail hang out in nice, tight coveys. Grouse are found scattered for the most part. If you are into a woodcock flight, you can push a lot of birds out of a small area, but they don’t usually move around that much, leaving confusing scent trails for your dog.

Pheasants, on the other hand, can be found in large but loosely knit bunches. Just try to sort out tracks, even in fresh snow, in a piece of cover inhabited by plenty of birds. This is what your dog is trying to do with scent, and why he may appear to miss birds. If you do flush a bird, you’ve probably found one that your dog hasn’t gotten around to yet. Give him the time he needs to work the cover.

But don’t overdo the “slow and cautious” approach, especially if you have an experienced dog. My notebooks remind me of an opening-day hunt with a party that included one hunter I didn’t know. It became clear that he knew little about reading dogs, in particular my shorthair Heidi, who had seen more pheasants than he had.
We were working a waterway with heavy cover along its banks, at what I thought was a reasonable pace. It was a dark, cold morning and my guess that the birds had yet to start moving around was reinforced by the fact that Heidi was not picking up scent. The veteran shorthair was sweeping back and forth through the cover, giving it a thorough going-over.

But the skeptical hunter thought our pace was too fast, though we had yet to flush a bird the dog had missed. The other members of the party knew Heidi and trusted her. But the skeptic insisted, so we let him tag along behind us, which would have made me nervous had I thought he was actually going to find bypassed birds.

By the time we reached the far end of the waterway, the three of us who stuck with the dog had collected a rooster apiece. Tail-end Charlie hadn’t even flushed a hen. Heidi made another convert; the man stuck with the rest of us—and kept a particularly close eye on the dog—for the rest of the hunt.

Rushing through cover behind a dog may be justified if the cover is relatively thin and if it is apparent that the birds are running. In such a situation, you are probably better off hustling after your dog and hoping that you get close enough for a shot.
Clever tactical maneuvers can be effective in certain situations, but most of the time following a good dog in good cover is the only tactic you really need to put birds in the bag.

To order this book, please call 1-800-447-7367 with the following product code: PD164. The book sells for $27, plus shipping & handling

Back to subscriber only online content examples