# WIA/WMA Pheasant hunting



## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

I would like to hear your PROS and the Cons of the planted birds this year. I certainly have a few of both that I watched this year.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

The PROS for me is this is a great program IMO. As I have said before it creates opportunity that would otherwise not exist for most Utah Pheasant hunters. Depending on the day, the birds for the most part were not all that difficult to find and flush, but they all flew strong and I saw a lot of misses and hits. In my area the birds were being released at night, so they weren't all getting pounded right out of the boxes. 

Guys piss and moan about Utah not having Pheasants to hunt and then when the opportunity presents itself some of them still freaking whine about it. Utah isn't popularly known for Pheasants. If you want to shoot wild birds go to the Midwest. If you don't want to participate in the release program then stay home and let others do it. These same guys that bitch about it are probably the one's that drive to the clubs and pay $25 a bird. 

The Cons were a lot of dip$hit people that shouldn't be hunting PERIOD, or carrying a weapon. Guys climbing over fences with loaded guns, guys racing to beat everyone to certain spots, guys cutting off other hunters in the field, basically just a bunch of disrespectful yahoos looking out for themselves. Most of the dogs behaved better than some of their owners from what I saw. 

Some days it was crowded, and that was okay because it was proof that people were taking advantage of the program. I think it was very successful


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

- the PRO's seem to be where I am at- giving the youth an opportunity- which we need.

The Cons are a bit longer.
1. Certainly people who should not be carrying a gun
2. Gates left open 
3. Driving vehicles across the property.
4. Trash left.

I have one of them near me- It is a good area to run my dogs after the season is over and the rest of the year. I pick up a lot of trash. A few years ago only a few hunted it- few knew where it was at. I could hunt it hard and go thru every cattail and usually get one wild bird up- sometimes thigh deep in mud but none the less get a bird and the dogs had to work. For totally selfish reasons I did not like seeing how it changed this year. Probably 400 dogs went thru that this year- some chasing the cows- sure pissed some of them off. Every stump was leaked on- people shooting over other peoples heads- I saw 1 guy with his kids( which I thought was great) but they were 10 yards from the highway and shooting. I took the dogs down to run last weekend- there isn't any wildlife left what so ever except some welfare hawks looking for a free meal.
Like I said for selfish reasons it bothered me the most and when I have more than an hour now I head elsewhere and that's where most of my birds come from anyway.

I do hope the program goes on- I personally won't hunt it but I hope some understand how they abused the sport of hunting and correct it so that land owner keeps his land open so younger hunters can benefit ( if the teacher is a good role model to copy ) and I can run my dogs in the summer.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Oh dang! I forgot to mention all the trash that was left behind. Yes that is a bad thing for sure, and I noticed the same thing in the parking areas mostly.


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## goonsquad (Sep 15, 2010)

I was surprised by the lack of trash left behind at the WMA I hunted. I hit the same one each week, mid week and was happy that the guys who were out there were not jerks and for the most part seemed pretty safe. I hunted mid week so perhaps the people out there were different than the weekend guys. 
I love this program, it helped me get my dog up to speed and kept me from having to go to a pheasant farm or see about other types of bird planting.


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## robiland (Jan 20, 2008)

It was a great year. MY oldest, 10, was able to get a few. He actually did better than I did on a few trips. We went 4 times and brought home 3 birds. 1 time on the youth and he missed a giant wild bird. Big long tail feathers. We went 3 times after the opener and saw 0 the first 2 trips, but the last one was great. We got 3. Lots of fun.

Cons, garbage!!! Also, wish they could limit the amount of times you can go or birds to kill. I know of guys going almost every other day and killing a limit several times. Jus would be nice to let others have a chance. And Im not saying for me. We had great times. Just I think it could be spread out to others some how. But that cant happen.


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