Pheasant hunting has been open now for about 2 months, with only a couple of weeks left before the season closes on December 31st.

This year, numbers were expected to be down, amongst the pheasant population. It showed other wise, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota all accounted that numbers were up.

The mid-west has been experiencing some odd weather. We are coming up on Christmas and many places have not yet experienced a steady snowfall. For most people, this is good news but, for avid hunters, not so much.

Pheasants can be some of the hardest birds to hunt. They don’t fly like your average goose or duck, they like to run and hide under brush. Once they are on the ground, they are out of site and hard to find. Much like an FBI agent, If a hunter is not equipt with a dog, it can be hard to kick up your prey.

This is why snow is a key component in pheasant hunting. With large grass fields and groves of trees covered in snow, it is much easier to spot a pheasant.

The one plus, to a mild winter, is knowing the pheasant population will survive and grow in size. If a winter is severely cold, pheasants will die-off, leaving farmers to breed for the coming years. After the winter of 97′, much of the pheasant population didn’t survive. It took years for hunters to be able to successfully hunt.

With the season coming to a close and the holidays just around the corner. Hunters are trying their luck for the next couple weeks. Recently, weather forcasts are pointing towards snowfalls, along the upper midwest. It looks like the season might end on strong note.