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Pheasant hunting recommendations


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A friend and I are planning our first trip out for pheasant. We were looking at going to one of the game preserves so we can learn a bit as well as since we don't have a dog.

Does anybody have any places they would/would not go to? We have done some looking online, but I wanted to get some thoughts of others who may have gone out and had good/bad experiences.

Thanks,

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I've been going to Sand Pines outside St. Joe for 4-5 years. Keith does a nice job. His website has lots of info. Also been to Gold Meadows...big birds but they don't fly very fast. Good website too. At either place, You might want to look into renting or using a dog. Not sure you will have very much success without them. Good luck! Bring on the frost!!

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  • Official Fishing Report Team - MN

Hunt Sand Pines quite often and have never had a bad experience. Keith does a excellent job and will give you a great hunting experience. He has great cover with a variety of fields and the birds are usally very cagey. Highly recommend this preserve.

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Thanks guys! I appreciate the advice! Any more is always welcome!

Another question: What size shot is the best option for pheasant? I have looked online at different things, and I saw one where people said anywhere from 4-7. Is there a preferable size? Neither of us have done any bird hunting. So all advice is greatly appreciated.

We are going to get a guide and dog. I figure that is about the only way that we are going to learn anything and keep from driving ourselves insane and getting extremely frustrated.

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Trap loads work just fine for game farm birds. That's most likely what your used to shooting anyways. I often use that load as my first shot even on wild birds.

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I have never hunted golden meadows but I do hunt Sand Pines just about every year as a refresher for the dogs. The fields are great and the 12 birds for 10 bird deal is pretty good too. Good luck out there!

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The shot size would vary depending how close the birds tend to get up. I use #5 in lead or #4 in steel. Early season or game farms you can get by with #6 or 7.5# but wild birds late season tend to flush farther our and the lighter loads would end up in crippled birds.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We went to Sand Pine and had an awesome hunt. The guide we had was amazing, and the dogs were great! I have never hunted birds before, but watching those dogs going was great to watch. They flushed birds for us, 17 total, 16 within range. And we got 12.

It was both of our first times doing this. we had a great time, and I am pretty sure that we are going to be going again at some point. The guide was talking about the European hunts they do out there, and that sounds like fun as well.

Now I am trying to convince my wife to take up hunting and go out with me. I think I might have a better chance getting her to go pheasant hunting than deer hunting, at least to start with.

Looks like I need to go out and buy a new gun! smile

Thanks everybody!

Nathan

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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