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Originally Posted by 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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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.