Name: Aaron P
Date of Hunt: December 8, 2016
Location of Hunt: Eastern Colorado
Animal Hunted: Pheasant
Were you successful?: Yes!
Weather, Wind, and Conditions: Slight eastern wind, dusting of snow on the ground and 30 F

Interesting Details of the Hunt: This was my first opportunity to hunt pheasant. Having never hunted pheasant before, I didn’t know quite what to expect. I had my recently-purchased 870 shotgun and had standard pheasant loads in 2 3/4 shells.
There is a lot of land in eastern CO, and so I got permission to hunt on a piece of property where there were milo and corn fields on either side. There was a row of brush that was about 10 ft wide and about 1/2 mile long. The brush varied in height but usually was 2-3 ft tall. Since I was by myself, I walked right through the middle of the row….didn’t know any better!

For not knowing what I was doing, I picked a great location.  As I walked along, I begin to flush out pheasants. First one on the left, then another to my right…I quickly realized that I needed to practice a bit more with my shot. I found myself constantly rushing my first shot and before long I had flushed out 5 different roosters and had not hit a single one!
Finally I flushed a bird out about 10 yards away and I took my time with the shot. This time I was successful and was thrilled to see the bird fall to the ground.  I  had brought down my first rooster!

I would like to say that I learned my lesson and improved my shooting technique, but I am a slow learner.  The rest of the day I flushed out about 12 more roosters…..and ended up with just that one bird for the day!
Lesson learned – Practice your shot before you go! Either way I had a great time and was happy to at least have one bird to show for my efforts!