Practice Makes Perfect 

Private hunting clubs are gaining popularity with hunters as places to train their dogs before hunting pheasants on public-land areas. Hunting clubs and preserves often open before the general pheasant season and are great places to give bird dogs exposure to pheasant hunting.

Hunting clubs also often have a variety of types of cover to expose flushing and pointing dogs to differing terrains, vegetation types and hunting situations.

It’s also a good idea to get reacquainted with your shotgun before the season starts — instead of when your dog points to or flushes the first rooster of the season.

Practice shooting some clay pigeons before the season go out to the trap range and make sure your gun is functioning right.

Just as deer hunters scout before rifle season opens, good pheasant hunters will make a trip to their favorite hunting area before upland bird season begin. Watching where the birds are without hunters around will reveal locations to keep an eye on early in the mornings and late in the afternoons. Scouting for  pheasants will also reveal cover types to be aware of once hunting opens.

 The Arickaree Valley Hunt Club is a great place to get your bird season started.

Stand Correctly

This one is so easy, but so misunderstood. A lot of trapshooters stand the same way at each station on the trap field. They line up in relation to the concrete on the ground instead of in relation to the traphouse. This causes you to have 5 different views of the target in relation to your body. At one station the targets are always going to come out to the left of the center of your body, at other stations they will always come out skewed to the right. As a result instead of having to learn one way to shoot targets you have to learn five ways. This is often why shooters have trouble with a given station, especially the end stations.

By always setting up in relation to the trap house you only have one view of the target that is consistent at all stations. For me I always setup so that my left foot is parallel to the path a hard left target would take. What this means is that at station 1 I am standing so that I appear perpendicular to the station’s centerline and at station 5 I am standing almost parallel to the centerline. The following picture illustrates how I place my feet.  

Look at Top of the Trap House

There are a lot of differing views on this one, so select the one that works best for you. For me watching the front edge of the traphouse where the bird comes out helps me tremendously. This allows you to see the bird very early. All you will see initially is a streak of orange (in fact a lot of shooters call this shooting the streak). By seeing the streak so early you have more time to react to the target and can shoot it closer to the trap house. The only disadvantage to this method as is that it increases eyestrain because you are constantly having to focus between the front edge of the trap house and the target kill zone. But if you follow the next tip this is minor. 

 

Tags: Arickeree Valley Hunt Club, Bird Dogs, clay pigeons, clay targets, gun dogs, pheasant hunters, pheasant hunting, private hunting clubs, roosters, the runaway inn, trap range, trapshooters, upland bird season, upland birds