Pheasant Hunt

After a rough start to a quick weekend, (see previous post) we made it up to Utah all in one piece. Dad was so nice and got us a hotel room in Provo so we didn't have to drive another hour to Tyler's dad's house. I said hi to Claire, Joe, and Mom at 12:30am and that was as much of them as I got to see. 4 hours later we were up getting ready for the big hunt and met up with Hubert (Tyler's dad), Tyler, and Amy in Heber.

We hunted at a private Pheasant club where they raise the pheasants and then release them for us to hunt. Once they're released they can make a home wherever and fly wherever; they aren't confined to the club any longer. So I thought that was good as far as fair treatment to the birds goes. The weather was perfect-sunny, cool and no wind. There was still snow on the ground which made for harder hiking and after a whole day tromping in it, I ended up with wet socks and pants. My new snow boots did really well, and so did the gators Tyler let me borrow, but after a whole day of it, my jeans just didn't cut it. :)


We started in a field of dormant sunflowers and found a few pheasants there. I shot a rooster and was so excited! :) Travis did a great job and ended up with 10 birds at the end of the day. We hunted with 5 springer spaniels who did a great job finding the birds for us. The club also has black pheasants which are so cool looking because up close their feathers have hints of orange and/or purple. I wanted to get one so bad, but ended up with one traditional rooster. All the pheasants are so soft too!



I'd have to say that one of the most interesting shots of the day was when Travis and I were attempting to hop a fence. I gave him my gun and started to climb over, when 3 pheasants got up one by one right in front of us! So he laid my gun down and I jumped off the fence and ducked down to let him shoot. I was in a completely safe spot but forgot that my head and ear was right next to his gun. He fired and I seriously couldn't hear for a minute. Don't ever squat down next to someone with a shotgun. Ah! Luckily, he got the hen and the dogs tracked her down and added her to the mix. In total we ended up with 27 pheasants and 1 chucker. It was a blast and definitely a hunt I'll have to do again next year.