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We planned a late season pheasant hunt, and knew that the pheasantswereeducatedandvery spooky.

Ourcrewwoulduselateseason tactics on this hunt, entering the cover quietly, with walkers, wing men as well as blockers it didn’t take us long to have pheasants erupting from the cover.

As the hunters neared the center of the field, several birds rose up with several hunters yelling 'Rooster', allowing those hunters on either side and those blocking know that they were shootable birds.

I was on the wing and saw the birds coming up, using the wind to their advantage, they gained attitudeastheyrose,wingingtheir way out of the corn.

Theshotgunsof thosehunters, pushingthemiddle,cameupquickly andwiththereportfromseveral shotguns, two brightly colored roosters tumbled to the ground.

Only one rooster made it through the original barrage, but as it came between the walkers and blockers, was quickly picked up by the opposite side wingman and a single shot brought it to the ground, with the dogs quickly retrieving the birds as the group continued our push through the corn and grass.

After walking the first field, with the first birds of the hunt added to our game bag, I thought to myself, this wasn’t our groups' first rodeo as the way these hunters shot, this hunt may end very quickly.

It was late season and when I arose, the outside temperature read six degrees, a little cool to be heading north for a pheasant hunt near Howard.

Atourfirstfieldwewalkedfood plots and grass strips, with several of us walking the food plot while two of our hunters proceeded to the end of the field to block.

The walkers along with the dogs pushed the middle, as one wingmanoneithersideof thecorn moved slightly ahead of the walkers, helping to keep the birds in the cornandgivingustheopportunity for a shot at the birds that came up out of range of our walkers.

As Kevin moved through the field,oneof thedogs,wentonpoint, Kevin indicated that there was a point up ahead with our walkers slowly moving up behind the dogs.

Our guns came up in unison, getting a bead on one bird, dropping it, while the hunters on the outside did their best to take the highflying birds with the wind to its back coming out ahead of the hunters Just as before, very few birds escaped, with the dogs rooting out any birds that dropped.

These, either coming up out of rangeortoburythemselvesindeep cover, hoping the hunters walk by, which rarely happens when hunting withdogsastheyrootthemout, or the birds burst from the cover at the end of the field.

Asthewalkersapproachedthe end of the field, another hunter and I stationed ourselves on the far side of the cedar shelterbelt, waiting for the other hunters to push the birds to us.

Sometimes, the best-laid plans don't always work out and as the huntersapproachedus,justashort distance of where we blocked, we prepared for what we just knew was coming, roosters taking wing out all around us out of the cedars, in shotgun range, giving us some of the best shooting opportunities of the hunt.

The walkers encouraged the dogsto'getthemup'astheyslowly moved up on the trees and the end of the field.

We could see some of the dogs working the cover through the treesandtheywere'birdy'getting close to the birds, when the sound of thebirdsblowingfromthecover, their wings grabbing air as they made their way towards us and it was about to happen.

Again, there were numerous shotgun blasts, then others, and as a bird got up above the trees where we might have a shot, another shot echoed through the cedars and the bird went down.

We hunted several fields, corn, CRP and some trees, on each trip through the fields, there we lots of birds, with the dogs doing a great job, finding and retrieving and some excellent shooting It was an excellent hunt, with plenty of pheasants; where we spent some time with old friends, met some new ones and a hunt helping to raise funds for a good cause.

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