Pheasants can still be found!

Here is gunner at 10 months old on his first pheasant hunt. I will admit, he stumbled on his first bird. After I shot it, he did know what to do though. He brought that bird to me just as proud as a peacock! There are public hunting areas around the state where birds are released. These two birds held pretty tight, like hunting wild birds in the old days. What a great way to get my young dog back out hunting between the split duck seasons. I had not hunted pheasants for several years, but the ODNR has made that possible again for all Ohioans. Pheasants used to be plentiful in our state until wiped out by some horrific winters back in the late seventies.

Matt, who is one of our duck hunting buddies, is responsible for getting us back on the pheasant trail. Here, Matt, Gunner and Apollo are posing with a fine harvest of ring necked pheasants. On this day we traveled to Delaware, Ohio. Matt took us to a place called Lone Oak Pheasant Preserve. I was really impressed! The fields at Lone Oak are planted and sprayed. We hunted for for three hours and neither dog nor hunter had a single burr! The fields are beautifully laid out with occasional strips of corn. Awesome! I liked it so well we went back several times. It was at Lone oak that Gunner showed his prowess as a pointer! Yes he points! We theorized that since he has only hunted pheasants with Apollo, he learned it from him. But where ever he got it from, he became a pretty darn good peasant dog by the end of the season.
If you ever plan to check out Lone Oak, be sure to call well in advance. Check'em out on their website:  loneoakpreserve.com