PHEASANT STAMP

http://www.outdoornews.co...ll-short-pennsylvania/

This stamp works in favor of a true bird hunter. It would have been great when I was younger and ran setters. It keeps a lot of yin yans out of the woods.

My buddy went to hunt Game Lands 93 to hunt pheasants and there was so many hunters he left.

PGC starting their own private game reserves.

Heck yinz may as well go to a private reserve. Most provide dogs and a limit greater than two birds.

Ya gotta luv da PGC............

$35.00 a bird? Pssst, I got some land I'd like to sell ya. A bit marshy but plenty of geese and ducks.


It'd been a few years but we had a reserve where a guy could train his dogs under the guns of others. At the end if their hunt, the dog owner could hunt for remaining birds.

I sure don't remember $35.00 a bird! Hell my nephew bought birds to train his Springier and I'm thinking he paid $7.00 a bird.

Anyways, it appears to me the number of stocking fields will become limited, over crowded, with fewer birds being stocked.

Kinda like trout fishing Congo lines. Shooters down the sides of a field while, in this case, dogs flush the birds.

PGC already saying the stamp didn't produce the expected cash flow. What better excuse to cancel the Pheasant stocking altogether. Pheasant money budgeted prior to the new stamp, undoubtedly has been diverted to other benefits by now.

DarDys, this letter/article appeared in my PA Outdoors newsletter I get in my emails, from yesterday:   http://www.outdoornews.co...rs-pennsylvania/ 

pikepredator2
DarDys, this letter/article appeared in my PA Outdoors newsletter I get in my emails, from yesterday:   http://www.outdoornews.co...rs-pennsylvania/ 

Since I have only been out twice this season thus far, I have little to add to the article, but I must concur.

The first trip I was by myself. Two points, two shots, two roosters, 30-40 minutes. I never heard another shot.

Second trip I had a regular hunting partner along. Seven points, five shots (yes, I shot twice at one), four birds bagged, 3.5 hours hunted.

While the results seem okay, by comparison, they are truly not. I too keep pretty solid records and the decline in bird numbers, at least in the areas I hunt, have been steady for the last five years, pheasant permits or not (in fact, we did better when the stocking alottment was half of what it was for the last three years due to repairs to the pheasant farms).

There was a stretch of a decade that every trip, every trip mind you, that it didn’t matter if it was one hunter or five, limits were filled completely, even with some terrible shooting in our part at times.

The best trip was five years ago. There were five of us and we all limited, with some missed and no shots mixed in. On the way out, walking as directly back as possible from where we were, the dogs pointed 18 more, which we flushed with empty guns just for fun.

It is important to keep in mind that I was running a brace of PA State Champion punters at the time and they were like going through a field with a vacuum cleaner. However, the last three seasons is still with one of those dogs and his kennel mate finished 2nd at the Championship when she was 17 months old.

But if they were producing that many birds, anyone with a serviceable dog could get plenty of action.

I liked the first paragraph where the writer wishes not to be compared to the "peevish whiners" (that would be me) but now that one of his favorite past time(s) is being tampered with welllll..........
 
But I understand his feelings otherwise.  This pheasant thing just smells of the smoke and mirror show we  heard from Gary Alt.
 
I'm a supporter of hunting, in Pennsylvania and will be more than happy to support the Pheasant hunters in PA.  Unfortunately, I smell a specially formulated program aimed at reducing the amount of birds stocked there-by reducing the amount of acres being stocked, leading to overcrowded hunting grounds.
 
Sign me; pessimist.  

Nice reading about the pheasant days of hunting both present and past. I too for years (mainly younger days ) enjoyed some fairly decent bird hunting, unfortunately mostly without dogs. We would fan out with 4-5 hunters and push many a field of wild growth. Back then it was Ringnecks or Roosters only, so hen flushes were allowed to escape unharmed. Mercer county area held a good number of birds back then both wild and stocked so we enjoyed it for years. 
 
I really never understood when they (Pa. Game Commish )  allowed the shooting of hens later on. Seems these wild hens were the breed stock of keeping birds wild ! Many a spring day one could see a hen crossing a road with a brood of young ones following. Today that's so rare you might see Bigfoot before seeing that !
 
At the time I believe they claimed the birds weren't making it through the winters and dying off, so rather not waste them they opened the season up . I thought that was an outright lie because some winters I'd seen birds many a day feeding and they all seemed to be around come springtime. No doubt some died due to winter fatigue ,but shooting off all the rest left basically none ! Wasn't long after most wild birds were basically gone and a bunch or road runners took their place.
 
Hunting areas disappeared too so I won't blame it all on wild bird extinction, but shooting wild hens then...... just didn't make sense. Like hunting hen turkeys .....I won't do it.

Friday was more like it bird wise. 15 points in a little over 2 hours.

Did get cut off three times by the only other person hunting in the area. After the third time, we left to go to another area. Saw this guy heading out also.

Got to the next area and there’s 6 vehicles, so we drove to the next area. Five vehicles there and since we had seen the cut off man getting ready to leave, we went back to our original area. He was gone.

Pointed and killed some birds, then got cut off again — by the same guy who had obviously also returned. This time we had a little discussion on hunting etiquette concerning when hunters are on one side of a road and no one is on the other side, it is wise to hunt the unoccupied side and not run ahead and cut off the other party. I don’t think it sunk in.

With all the bird talk, this might be a good time to mention I have a gun shy German Short Haired Pointer for sale...... cheap.  Free shipping; not included! 
 
 Not my fault....... honest, stupid cabin fever. 

I think the pgc is doing a good job with the pheasant program so far. I wasn't happy about the $26.90 for a stamp. But if you have a bird dog you have to just suck it up and pay. My problem with the PGC is I remember when there used to be a duck farm and they shut it down. My question was then  Where did that money go? They don't have to explain and should be audited. So for now it is a wait and see deal and I for one hope they can keep it running. I know there are some that say they  don't care about pheasants but if you don't get birds where is that money going to go? Happy Turkey.!!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ha Ha  told ya I could..........
 
 'cept I showed em to LucyLu and she don't like the style!!!
 

What Dardy's said........
 
Yinz be the judge, click here    http://www.pgc.pa.gov/Pages/default.aspx  
                                                       
 
                                                                

When it comes to the PGC,  I need a 5th