16ga.com ~ View topic - Nice 6"-8" snowy Day in Pa for Pheasant hunting!

Gentlemen,

Sense we no longer have a January Grouse season, Pheasant is all we have for our upland winter hunting, open to late February. We have so few wild Pheasant left in Pa, so we hunt the PGC stocked Pheasant. Here above Rt 80 we are allowed to shoot both Ringneck and female Pheasant because so few make it thru to reproduce. We have so many predators very few Pheasant live to become hold overs, however a few make it and actually reproduce. Great to see the little Pheasant in the spring.
The PGC this season seemed to have backed off on the number of Pheasant being stocked on our northern tier. The stocking seems to vary now from season too season. Many of the younger Pheasant hunters are upset about the Pheasant stamp instituted by our PGC, the sportsman are right with the Fracking monies on the PGC lands, there is no need for the additional Pheasant stamp monies.. Myself I am exempt from having to purchase a Pheasant stamp. I fell in the older life time license category, so I am exempt from having to purchase a Pheasant stamp. Only shot 4 Pheasant this season so far, and we have about 6-8" in our Potter County mountains right now, so I doubt I get back out more than a few times before the season ends. Seeing a lot of Grouse in the snow covered mountains, without my young Ryman Setter Maggie Mae, who passed away from cancer this past year, I do not have a long legged Ryman Grouse dog for hunting our beautiful snow covered mountains. It sure would have been great to have her here to hunt our Pheasant, and to watch her point Gods incredible Grouse for me. Pine Creek Heston is 14 years old now, the old Ryman male dog is now fully retired, Pine Creek Shadow is over 3 year old now and one serious Grouse Dog, unfortunately she has short legs for a Gordon Grouse Dog and 8" of snow is tough on her. I do wish Mike at Wyss Kennels could supply me with a replacement Ryman puppy, still no word on that happening any time soon. All in all the Bird season has been good this year, we had a small increase in our Grouse population, however we were way down on our Woodcock numbers again this season. Still had a lot of fun bird hunting with my fantastic Gordon female. I also have my fantastic memories of all the Grouse Dogs we have owned and trained, thru the years, the memories come back even time I see one of my Grouse dogs working the snow cover mountains we call home.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Pine Creek Sampson our incredible Small Munsterlander Versatile Grouse Dog on Grouse point long ago.

Joined: 07 Sep 2011 Posts: 567 Location: wheeling, wv

Dave , I believe hen pheasants are legal throughout all of Pa now, and not just above I80.

3birddogs,

You may very well be right, it has been legal to shoot both above Rt 80 for a long long time, it maybe legal all over the state now that we have so few places left with actual wild Pheasants. I will have to check the Regs! That really shows you how things have changed in Pa.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave

Joined: 17 Jan 2014 Posts: 1381 Location: Denver, Colorado

I haven't shot a pheasant in so long I've forgotten what they look like (2-3 years now). I had plans for a late-fall pheasant hunt here in Nebraska but other things came up. Then... I had planned to at-least do a canned hunt here locally over Christmas week but then I fell on my icy driveway and wrecked my left ankle.

Sitting here in a cast and hobbling around on crutches. I wish I could go out and wade through the snow with a scattergun chasing ditch parrots! Nothing would sound better to me at the moment. Would that I could.

Lloyd3,

Bummer about your fall and broken ankle, get well soon, plenty more bird hunting to be done.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. smith Man

Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 1973 Location: Maine

Heal up and get in shape for next year....

Yes
Get better quickly
Mike

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1310 Location: Western WA

Get well but don’t rush it, ankles are hard to repair. We had nasty ice here last month. I did a flying cannonball on the ice covered driveway but fortunately landed square on my bottom with no lasting injury except to my dignity.

V/R
B.

Dace , heal up soon !! .... NY had to destroy their whole breed stock (for stocking) last spring due to disease . They had to borrow/buy replacement birds and PA probably was a high donation probability !

Gentlemen,

Pheasant season is over Feb 29 here in PA,, we now are having 40-50 degree sun shinny days, not good for bird hunting unfortunately. What a break in the weather for February.

16Davis,
I believe PA helped NY and sold them a mess of Pheasants to help them recover from their Pheasant losses, I believe this is the reason for the reduced Pheasant stocking here in our own state this year. Some of our younger Pheasant hunters are not real happy about it, myself I agree that the help was needed and the PGC made the right decision to help the NY Game Commission. I do wonder however whether the liberals in the NY Game Commission would have done the same for us here in Pa, if our Pheasant brood stock had been devastated by disease.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man