I am trying to decide whether to leave work a little early today grab the dog and hunt up some pheasants. I live in MN (SW of the Cities) and we just got a couple inches of fresh snow today. Is is worth going out pheasant hunting in fresh snow? I am rather new to pheasant hunting so I am not really sure how the snow will effect the hunting.

BTW, I went over near Marshall, MN for pheasant opener this weekend. Hens...hens...hens... I had a great time and flushed a lot of birds but they all seemed to be hens. I only flushed one rooster which I was unable to get a shot at. I had a great time though.

My dad and I hunt hunt pheasants in NW Missouri atleast once a weekend if not twice. I love hunting in snow. You get to see their tracks and you get to know where they are. The dogs seem to do well in the snow too. Also, the birds hold longer and don't run out the ends

Well, I was able to get out for about 1 hour of hunting after work. Most of the snow was melted but there was still a little around. My dog flushed a few hens right off the bat. I then took a walk around the back-side of the WMA where we were hunting. I had never walk around this side before. After a while my dog caught a scent and was going crazy back and forth in some long grass. By the movement of his tail I knew he was onto something. I readied myself for the shot. All of a sudden a rooster popped up out of the long grass but instead of flying he did some weird flop-type move and then disappeared back into the grass. I actually thought maybe he was injured at first then figured my dog must have caught him. Well my dog did not catch him and he was nowhere to be found. My dog ran all over that area and we were never able to get back on the rooster. I have heard from others that some older and wiser birds will do just about anything to stay in the bush and not expose themselves to flying. I think this bird simply out-foxed us. Had he kept to the air he would have been done in. It was neat to see but no rooster to take home. I have a young dog in his first year of hunting. I think maybe a more experienced dog may have been able to get the rooster up. He did real good though. Next time...

I haven't ever seen a rooster do that but it wouldn't surprise me. He could have just ran off (they are fast runners) or just hunkered down. It sounds like a fun hunt for sure and good luck next time. The pheasant/quail season opens on November 1st and I can't wait to chase some old smart public land roosters

cant wait till pheasent open in Indiana gonna take my dads 10 month old german shorthair/ brittney spaniel out for a test hunt....he does real good with fetching doves but have not gotten him on pheasents yet

Well we finally got a rooster up yesterday after work. Perfect flush and perfect retreive. It was Drake's first pheasant. It feels good to get the first bird out of the way after flushing so many hens every time out. We will head back over near the SD border Saturday to give it another shot over there.

Good luck. It will be a blast

No pheasant in my part of the world, but I have eaten them and they may be my favorite game bird of all to eat. Need to get a trip out to the midwest to hunt those jokers.