Making Pheasants Fly

[briang]

I just have a question that I am hoping someone can help me with. My family has begun to operate a pheasant reserve this year. Today was our first day with hunters and we had an extremely difficult time getting the birds to fly. The weather was quite bad and it had been snowing and raining all day. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Does anyone have any ideas as to what we could give the birds or do with the birds to ensure that they start flying. Thanks.

[SuicidJky]

I hunt wild pheasants alot, its there natural instinct to run, expecially when the weather is bad. Heavier cover that they can't run in will make them sit tighter and flush in range.....you may have have shooters set up to block and shoot and have other hunters pushing them. this would ensure that someone is going to get a shot at them. I don't know if there is anything you can give them someone else will have to fill you in on that one. Today hunting we had them jump wild alot which kinda sucked but we still got our limit, this had to do with are foot of snow most likely even then they'd only fly 50 yards at the most....they like staying in the cover in crappy weather....hell i do to :D have fun shooting them roosters

[Nulle]

What type of cover are these birds in? Corn is the worst for having birds run rather then fly. When planting corn for a shooting reserve should be planted in a cris-cross pattern so they can't run down the rows on you as easy.
Dogs are always used on ours and we have GSP that will ancore the bird and then you can move in and flush them out for the hunters.
Weather is also a important factor as they do sit tight in nasty conditions.
Last but not least if all else fails "genetics" will be an important factor. Find a hatchery that has hard flying birds and go with that. we have some in our area that I hear comments all the time about the birds won't fly. Stay away from those type birds. Might take awhile to find a good supplier but well worth it in the end.
Another thing is how were they raised. The less human contact the better and wilder the birds. We keep ours in a fairly dark real large steel cattel shed several days before release. When they hit the light they are off and flying.
Kind of hard to pin the problem down as it could be one of many things or a combination of several but maybe this will help.