Good day chasing NH Pheasants

[Stephen Hodges]

Fun day with sidekick Cody chasing New Hampshire Pheasants. No woodcock pointed to my surprise. 10 or 12 Pheasant points and my two bird limit shot. My go to bird guns. My dad’s 1912 16 Ga Flues, factory choked cyl/full 26 “ barrels and weighs 5.9 lbs. and my late 20 Ga NID choked f/m. And a tired Cody ��

[Dean Romig]

What a Happy Boy - I Love Him.





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[allen newell]

Very nice Steve

[Garry L Gordon]

Looks like your buddy enjoyed the hunt. Nice going -- both of you!

[Daryl Corona]

Nice choice of bird guns Steve.

[john pulis]

We were up in Pittsburg hiking, shooting clays, and visiting friends WE before last. Flushed some grouse and a few pheasants but no woodcocks. Snow flurries and some 20 degree mornings. Leaves long gone but pretty country around Lake Francis and the four Connecticuts.

[Dean Romig]

We were up in Pittsburg hiking, shooting clays, and visiting friends WE before last. Flushed some grouse and a few pheasants but no woodcocks. Snow flurries and some 20 degree mornings. Leaves long gone but pretty country around Lake Francis and the four Connecticuts.


Wait a minute… Pheasants in Pittsburgh, NH…??





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[Stephen Hodges]

Yes Dean, Pheasants in Pittsburg. There are two stocking sites in Pittsburg. They get stocked just before the October 1st opening day, and then on two more times the following two Thursdays. I was 15 miles up Indian Stream Road one October just about 5 miles from the Canadian Border when I drove up on a Cock Pheasant standing in the road. Up in that country he had enough predators wanting him so I let him walk off into the brush. I do not imagine he made it to winter:) I was on the the NH Fish and Game Commission when we voted to expand the stocking of Pheasants to Northern NH. We had received lots of complaints from residents because the had to travel south for the opportunity to hunt pheasants.

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Steve. I don't believe however, that pheasants were ever indigenous to that area of NH due to the severe climate and I'll bet those stocked birds have an extremely doubtful chance of seeing springtime. It's "put and take" hunting I believe.

PS - I love those pups in your avatar.



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[Stephen Hodges]

Dean all the Pheasant hunting in NH is strictly put and take. They were never a native bird. That being said I have been up to Pittsburg snowmobiling in the dead of winter and have seen a few pheasants under bird feeders.

[Pete Lester]

Thanks Steve. I don't believe however, that pheasants were ever indigenous to that area of NH due to the severe climate and I'll bet those stocked birds have an extremely doubtful chance of seeing springtime. It's "put and take" hunting I believe.

PS - I love those pups in your avatar.



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Dean it's always been put and take pheasant hunting in NH however there was a time there was a lot more put. Up until 1973 New Hampshire Fish & Game raised their own pheasants at a pheasant farm they owned and operated. They stocked birds in the spring as well as in the fall. The birds they stocked in the spring would breed in the wild. As a teen I tried to be careful when mowing hay with a sickle bar mower to not run over a nest but that was not always possible and every now and then I would have to stop the tractor and get off to ring the neck of a legless hen that sat on the nest when the mower passed. There were also stockings done by gun clubs such as Major Waldrons which raised pheasants as well. The pheasant stocking took a very bad turn for the worse when Governor Thompson ordered the NH F&G pheasant farm be burned to the ground due to the fear of it spreading Equine Encephalitis . Since then the NH pheasants have been much smaller birds and far less wild to hunt.

[john pulis]

Indian Stream is where we were hiking, up top, along a sled trail, close, very close to the border. And later up Perry Stream, again, a sled trail. Heard about a Chinese national caught smuggling by kayak at 3 am 60 box turtles from NJ across Wallace Pond, VT. Now in detention. Hope they go away for a long, long time.

[Stephen Hodges]

Spent 35 years hunting and guiding in that area. Shot some nice bucks there. Tracked many bucks up to the the border and had to turn around when they crossed into Canada. Put hundreds and hundreds of miles on my sled there. The whole Connecticut Headwaters Land is in serious jeopardy of being ruined forever due to an absentee new owner of the land. Seems they want to make money by selling carbon credits and not harvesting timber, which is the life blood of our north country. This will be a huge fight between the State and them. They are violating agreements that go with the land and were negotiated 20 years ago. I was a member of the NH Fish and Game Commission and was a part of the negotiations.

[url]https://indepthnh.org/2024/10/21/4325405/[/url.

[Stephen Hodges]

Dean it's always been put and take pheasant hunting in NH however there was a time there was a lot more put. Up until 1973 New Hampshire Fish & Game raised their own pheasants at a pheasant farm they owned and operated. They stocked birds in the spring as well as in the fall. The birds they stocked in the spring would breed in the wild. As a teen I tried to be careful when mowing hay with a sickle bar mower to not run over a nest but that was not always possible and every now and then I would have to stop the tractor and get off to ring the neck of a legless hen that sat on the nest when the mower passed. There were also stockings done by gun clubs such as Major Waldrons which raised pheasants as well. The pheasant stocking took a very bad turn for the worse when Governor Thompson ordered the NH F&G pheasant farm be burned to the ground due to the fear of it spreading Equine Encephalitis . Since then the NH pheasants have been much smaller birds and far less wild to hunt.

Pete, were the pheasants then stocked in the spring in the whole state or just in the seacoast area? I do not recall seeing any pheasants in the Lakes Region other than in the fall stocking, but I could have missed them i guess.

[Pete Lester]

Pete, were the pheasants then stocked in the spring in the whole state or just in the seacoast area? I do not recall seeing any pheasants in the Lakes Region other than in the fall stocking, but I could have missed them i guess.

I couldn't tell you, I was a teenager at the time and I didn't have to venture very far to hunt and I was still learning, I could walk to places that had pheasants back then. As a boy I can remember one occasion of seeing a hen pheasant with a brood of chicks in a neighbors yard. The number of stocking sites in the seacoast of NH has declined tremendously. I have a childhood memory of sitting in the car while my father was getting some groceries at Dan's Star Market on Central Ave in Dover and watching a man and his dog flush and shoot a pheasant where Dover Bowl and the strip mall next to it stand today. Imagine that or imagine shooting pheasants right behind Wentworth Douglas Hospital, which you could into the mid 1980's.

[john pulis]

The carbon credits issue is serious. Our friends belong both to the ATV club and the Snowmobile and the issue came up at a meeting we attended as guests. The new absentee owner could care less about the headwaters area, only the carbon credit market. I hope it works out in the long run for area.

[allen newell]

Steve, I grew up in the Greenlodge section of Dedham, Mass. The Neponset meadow was at the end of our street. I could literally walk out the back door and hunt native grouse, flight woodcock and pheasants all day long. Unfortunately, when they put the developments in that ended hunting in our area. God, those were the days tho.

[Garry L Gordon]

Steve, I grew up in the Greenlodge section of Dedham, Mass. The Neponset meadow was at the end of our street. I could literally walk out the back door and hunt native grouse, flight woodcock and pheasants all day long. Unfortunately, when they put the developments in that ended hunting in our area. God, those were the days tho.

I can’t tell you how familiar—and sad—this story is. I’m sorry for us all.

[Dean Romig]

Steve, I grew up in the Greenlodge section of Dedham, Mass. The Neponset meadow was at the end of our street. I could literally walk out the back door and hunt native grouse, flight woodcock and pheasants all day long. Unfortunately, when they put the developments in that ended hunting in our area. God, those were the days tho.


Same scenario on the North Shore of Massachusetts. In the 50’s and 60’s I could literally walk out my back door and be in prime pheasant habitat with the Rebecca Nurse farm fields of corn and the brooks and marshes bordering my Dad’s blueberry bushes and apple trees. I remember flocks of as many as two dozen pheasants flushing in unison and then walking up the singles for hours.

Gone but not forgotten.





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