Mike Roux’s Outdoor Journal

( It’s Time for Pheasant, Part 1 )

By: Mike Roux

www.mikeroux.com

I like this topic.  It never fails that when I put pen to paper concerning pheasant hunting, a broad smile crosses my face.  I have more fun pheasant hunting than any other type of upland game.  I enjoy hunting other species more, but I do not have more fun with them.  It is amazing how a target that big and that slow can be missed so often.

I have chased these beautiful, long-tailed oriental trans-

plants in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.  I have a special passion for N.E. Missouri pheasant.  My first trip was exciting.  My good friend, Steve Shoop, was kind enough to invite me on an opening day “bird hunt”.  To me that automatically meant quail.  Nobody bothered mentioning pheasant to me….until the first one flushed in my face.  I hit that shot, but I have missed my share since then.

One of the reasons pheasant are so often missed is the de-

sire that most bird hunters have to harvest at least one bird like this each season.  It is like the “bird hunters’ bonus”.  Pheasant tend to bring out the once-a-year bird hunters.  No other upland game has a hold on wing shooters like the pheasant.

See more in this weeks Boone County Journal