Fast or slow?

[BobT]

I've only been hunting pheasants for a few years and a majority of my pheasant hunting is done alone without the aid of a dog. What I haven't figured out yet is whether I'm better off moving relatively fast, slow, or somewhere in between.

What have you all found to be most effective?

[gr8icefishinmind]

I hunted without a dog the past few years until this year and i would say you are much better off to walk slow and make sharp zig zags through the field you are hunting! I especially liked hunting calm days as you could see birds running by the grass moving!! It is tough hunting but certainly can be done!! I would usually zig zag 20 yards and then stop for a minute and then resume and stop and so on......that way if you do go by a bird you may still be close enough to make that bird worried and cause a flush.

[Jack Peterson]

Typically, unless someone is posting, we move pretty fast. Otherwise those birds have time to react to us, and sneak away! If we have posters, we'll push a field really slow and shoot most of the birds in the last 100 feet of the field. We just like to move faster so we can cover more territory in a day, and it seems like the pheasants fly more often when we get on top of them faster.

[Jack Peterson]

I forgot that you mentioned hunting by yourself! Yes, I agree. When I hunt alone, I zig zag through my fields awfully slow. I rarely flush birds by myself, but occasionally I'll flush some roosters that are holding super tight. It's hard to cover ground by yourself. Go slower, and concentrate on grasses with seeds and hunt next to corn or beans. Those fields will hold birds.

[BobT]

Well, the rain has finally subsided for a while so I think I'll go give your advice a try.

Thanks

[CRAZYEYES]

If i know I have birds running ahead of me I'll go pretty fast otherwise I just go at a normal walking speed and zig zag around a little bit. Also stop every once in while, I've stopped quite a few times and the birds that are holding tight seem to hate that like they think they're busted and will jump.

[creepworm]

If you have a ton of ground that you want to cover, then walk at a normal pace. There is no doubt, the slower the better. If you walk fast you will past a lot of birds. Treating it almost like still hunting deer is the best approach I have found. Stopping frequently "unnerves" them and they flush. Otherwise they seem to sit tight and wait for you to walk past or run.

[Tom7227]

Just this past week I was in pretty thin cover about 30 yards wide. I knew a bird was there cause I saw him land. I walked at a reasonable pace for about 200 yards and stopped. He flushed. I retrieved the bird and walked another 75 yards or so, stoppped and another flushed. I think that a lot of birds hang tight and let you walk by. The stopping seemed to work well. Earlier I was with 3-5 guys who were all working pointers and walking fairly fast. The dogs pointed a lot but seldom flushed a bird. I am pretty sure they were running, maybe circling out of our path and then staying tight once we got past. These fields were 360+ acres of knee high CRP and I started to think that the only effective tool would have been a railroad flare.