16ga.com ~ View topic

Taking a day to go pheasant hunting tomorrow. Going to a preserve here in NJ called Buttonwood. Beautiful place - outstanding for NJ.

Taking my beretta 16ga mod 410 sxs out for the first time. The gun has been out many times w/ my dad by this is my first hunt with it. Taking a camera too so I can hopefully get some nice pics here to show. Taking the citori 16 just in case....but I shot a lot of clays w/ the beretta so I should be able to hit some birds....you would think.... Wink

wish me luck.

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

Good luck and knock 'um dead.

A little tougher than I thought...took a little conscious effort to take 2nd shots w/ the 2nd trigger since I'm not used to that. First bird escaped from my pull-the-same-trigger-2x reflex.

Otherwise, birds fell from the sky. At day's end, we had 8 pheasants and one chukar. Stll a little on the warm side here in NJ. Temps hit low to mid 60s which took a little energy from the dogs.

Gun on top is my partner's Franchi 12 ga OU
Bottom gun is my Beretta 16ga sxs

That's me on the right with the dark shirt

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

Nice job but what is all that dark stuff growing on your face? Very Happy

Temps are a bit warm yet during the daytime. Early morns aren't too bad and afts are ok.

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

Well done---too bad the only pheasants in certain locations are in preserves

Some folks knock preserve hunting, but if you live in densely populated areas they are great to hunt.

I went out for the opener of Illinois pheasant hunting yesterday in Central Illinois on a friends farms. We saw one hen on his property, but the neighbors who had switch grass planted in the filter areas were having some luck.

Considered my own hunt club today, sort of a olive branch for my dogs that worked so hard yesterday. Decided to wait for Monday when I should have the place to myself.

Chicago Mike

We also have a pretty decent pheasant stocking program here. Saturday is the start of small game in NJ and the state will put out somewhere around 60,000 pheasants onto WMAs between 11/10 and 12/31. That may sound small to some of you mid western guys but NJ is like a densely populated postage stamp compared to the midwest.

But I really liked this preserve which is why I go back to it. The lady who runs it is a solid citizen. They also sell their pheasants to a bunch of clubs in the state too.

That is 60,000 more birds than they release in Illinois, although I heard yesterday that they do release some birds in the Chain of Lakes State Park a couple times per year. That is about 5 miles from my house, so I am going to check that out tomorrow.

Good Luck on NJ opener, and let us know how you fared.

Mike

NJ small game opened yesterday and I came up with zilch. Never fired a shot. My partners and I broke up later in the day and one of them got a pair in another location.

Went out a little later in the afternoon to avoid the morning rush. Sure enough, a couple of dopes got clippeed by the warden near my house for going in too early and over-limiting.

It was as good a day as you might want for opening day, weather-wise - frost in th morning, cool, damp all day.

No birds....no pics.

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

Here are some birds I shot yesterday for the NJ opener. I was on private land Sat and Sun but will hit the State land tomorrow morning. Very Happy

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

Here is today's take.

Nice weekend take!

Looks like pheasant is on the menu at TJ's house!