An American Favorite - Pheasant Hunting

Living in South Dakota, pheasant hunting is one of the most popular hunts around.

People from all across the country pour in throughout the fall to hunt. One of the reasons pheasant hunting is so popular is because it’s such a social hunt. Let’s face it, you don't have to get up at sunrise, the hunting is usually pretty amazing, you get to watch dogs work and it can be done alongside friends. And do not forget, they’re delicious to eat!

To ensure you have the best pheasant season ever I have three easy suggestions. 

1.) Practice, practice, practice. As kids we spent a lot of time shooting clay pigeons in the back yard. This is something easy and fun that can be done throughout the year.  We made competitions out of it, and always did it as a family.  I highly recommend shooting AA TrAAcker when doing this so you can learn from your mistakes.  The colored wad of the AA TrAAcker shows you where you missed so you can adjust and improve much quicker. Once season hits, make sure to load up on Winchester Rooster XR. This features the same Shot-Lok technology that we’ve all come to love in the Longbeard XR. You’ll notice tighter patterns and longer shot capability than your traditional loads which can be super helpful in the field.

2.) Bring your friends or family to enjoy the hunt with or make new friends along the way. This is so important in my book because it’s truly the people you're with that helps to make these memories last forever. Someday you’ll probably forget how quickly you limited out or how many birds you brought home, but you’ll never forget the people you were with.

 3.) Pickup some new recipes as you’re going to have lots of birds to cook up. May as well try them a variety of ways!  I’ve had pheasant so many ways…in stews, fried, grilled, baked and countless others. But for this blog I’d like to feature one of my good friends and amazing wild game chef, Scott Leyseth of the Sporting Chef.  We were hunting pheasants in camp together and he showed me a delicious way too cook up pheasant thighs.