Hungry for pheasant? Start hunting Monday
THE FORECAST: IT’LL BE A GOOD SEASON, BUT MAYBE NOT AS GOOD AS 2007

BY Ed Godfrey

Published: November 30, 2008

On Monday, hundreds of Oklahoma bird hunters and their dogs will be scouring across northwest Oklahoma milo and corn fields in pursuit of one of the most beautiful and tastiest game birds in the state: ringneck pheasants.

The two-month pheasant season opens Monday and the forecast calls for showers of lead, unless you are hunting at Drummond Flats near Enid, a wetland developmental unit which requires non-toxic shot.

After perhaps one of the best pheasant seasons ever last year, Oklahoma bird hunters can expect another good year, but maybe not as good as 2007, state wildlife officials say.

"In most areas it’s going to about like it was last year,” said Doug Schoeling, upland bird biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. "I think Cimarron County is going to be significantly down from last year.”

The western-most county in the Panhandle, where pheasants are usually the most prolific, suffered through a blizzard in the winter and a drought in the summer nesting season.

As a result, the county had little reproductive success with pheasants but there is a good carry-over of birds from last year, Schoeling said.

The numbers of pheasant in the northwest region that is open to hunting should be comparable to last year, he said.

The Panhandle is usually the prime destination of hunters, but there have been good reports about pheasant in the north-central counties.

"Grant County is probably the best county I’ve seen in the survey,” Schoeling said.

The state Wildlife Department’s surveys show the numbers are down, but Schoeling admits the surveys are not always the best gauge.

This year’s quail outlook was the perfect example. The survey results were miserable, but the field reports suggested otherwise.

"There are more birds (quail) than last year,” Schoeling said.

So if there are more quail than what the roadside surveys showed, the pheasant surveys could likely be the same.

And Schoeling said he often is the last person that people will report sightings to. After all, part of his job is to spread the news about pheasant and quail.

"If somewhere is good, they usually don’t tell me, because they don’t want a bunch a people there,” he said.

If you haven’t already arranged a hunt or booked a pheasant hunting trip with an outfitter, Schoeling said the best thing to do is knock on doors and ask permission from a landowner.

It’s usually easier to get permission in January, during the second half of the season, he said. Landowners often reserve the first month of the season for family and friends, he said.

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