Pheasant shooting

Pheasants can be hunted as rough shooting, also known as small game hunting. During rough shooting you often encounter several types of game, so at the end of the day you have a mixed bag. This type of pheasant hunt is often a mix of walking through terrain with dogs and standing at a post. A social hunt is another type of pheasant hunt where you usually shoot birds which have been released. A social hunt gives priority to the social element, and people are usually well dressed. In this form of hunting you stand at a post, and the hunt organiser usually arranges a team of professional dog handlers, so the shooters can concentrate on the shooting. Pheasants are polygamous – a male has several hens. They fly up into the trees to sleep at night.

Hunting stories from a hunter

The pheasant has not always been part of Europe’s fauna. We now see the colourful bird everywhere, and its calls ring out across the countryside in the mornings and evenings, when it calls the hens together. It arrived here from Asia in the mid-16th century, not as the game bird we know it as, but as a decorative bird for the wealthy at castles and manors. There are many different species of pheasant, and the first ones were species of ring-necked pheasant. It was not until the 1840s that attempts to get the pheasant to reproduce in the wild were successful. People who have hunted pheasant know that the bird is not only a good flyer, but also an eager runner. You often get tricked after having seen a pheasant in the air – and seen where it landed. You go over to spot in the hope that it is there, almost ready for the pot! But you rarely find it. It has run on its way through the reeds and the knotty branches of the willow bush. The dog searches in vain! I one day saw a pheasant with a young and inexperienced Gordon Setter. Or rather I saw it. The dog didn’t see it, and if it had, it would not have known what it was because it had never seen a pheasant before. But I saw it, and I thought it would be nice if the dog could experience this bird, so I walked hopefully towards the place the pheasant landed.

Deerhunter’s recommendations for pheasant hunting

A royal bird

Soon after reaching the spot, the young dog raises its snout. She stands still a moment, wagging the tip of her tail. It seems that we have been lucky this day, and we talk about this as we slowly walk forward. She now lowers her snout and trots faster, and a few meters away the male pheasant erupts from the cover with all the usual cacophony. I bring down the bird. The dog runs over and sniffs at it. She looks up at me and says, “look what I found – do you know what this is?” Afterwards I thought to myself that this is no everyday bird, even though there are large populations of them in many areas. Pheasant hunting and the pheasant, being the royal decorative bird it once was, connects us with history. Now we can all feel a bit like kings and queens for a moment – at least you do as you sit in the grass with your young dog and let the impressions sink in.

READ ABOUT OTHER TYPES OF HUNTING