Written by Alex Keeble, Central England Game & Wildlife Advisor
“The high-flier retains, and will retain in the memory of the sportsman, a dominant fascination, while the low and slow, even if they come in a veritable hailstorm of quantity, are apt to engender a feeling of satiety, or arouse within you that critical dissatisfaction which is the blasé bane of all true enjoyment” - Shooting, The Country Life Library of Sport, Vol. 1 (C.J Cornish, 1903)
As we move into the heart of the pheasant season, the next few weeks often offer the finest shooting of the year. But before you settle back into the rhythm of midwinter days, it’s worth considering one simple question: are your birds performing as well as they should?
The first step is to ensure your birds reach full maturity is to release them so they are around 22-24 weeks old for the first shoot day. Typically birds will look ready to shoot before 22 weeks old, but they usually have yet to build up enough strength to be able to perform well on a shoot day leading to low flying birds. Growth rate is strongly influenced by nutrition, and birds weaned onto wheat too early or kept on a poor diet may never reach their proper strength. Well-grown birds make better flyers, full stop.
Pheasants are capable of an impressive surge of power when flushed, but it’s a short-lived burst. Watch a drive closely and you’ll see that the hard wing-beating rarely lasts more than eight seconds before the bird levels out into a glide. After a solid flight, pheasants need around an hour’s rest before they can manage the same effort again. Expect more from them than this and their performance declines sharply.
Their ideal climb angle—around 30°—is another crucial factor. They can accelerate quickly at first, but if forced to climb more steeply, they usually switch to a spiralling ascent. This manoeuvre drains energy and shortens their powered flight window. Dense, cluttered woodland or poorly positioned flushing lines that require birds to weave around obstacles have much the same effect. If the birds are tiring themselves before they ever reach the Guns, the resulting show will inevitably disappoint.
To achieve height, birds must be flushed far enough back to build momentum before reaching the canopy edge. If the route ahead is cluttered, they simply won’t reach a suitable height. A little careful thinning or high pruning in front of the flushing line can make a remarkable difference. A few hours of chainsaw work—done well before roosting—causes minimal disruption and can lift the quality of a drive dramatically.
Pheasants are energy conservers by instinct. They will not use all their flying power unless the situation demands it. Flushing birds further from home, particularly in cover crop drives, forces them to put in that extra effort. In some layouts, reversing the direction of a drive can also help: walking them away from their core area makes them more determined to climb strongly on their return.
The weather has a dramatic effect on how pheasants fly, beautiful still autumn days are enjoyable, but rarely the best for flying birds. Pheasants dislike heading into strong sunlight, often choosing to cling to whatever cover is available. Bright sun, high pressure and no wind will hinder the birds to climb to an appropriate height on the drives. It can also make many of the birds fly up and then pitch back into the drive from whence they were driven. Ideal weather of low pressure, cloud and a moderate breeze makes all the difference to the bird’s performance. Being able to utilise the wind direction can greatly improve the quality of the birds, if flown into a strong wind they will then lift and turn downwind increasing the quality tenfold. It is amazing how the weather can make a shoot day run smoothly or poorly, however too much wind can be as bad as too little. Birds naturally take off into the wind for lift before turning for home, so positioning yourself to raise them upwind of the beaters can produce excellent height as they swing back over the Guns. A flexible approach pays off, try changing how drives are driven if the wind is strong or take a chance and try a driving a covert in a different way.
Looking beyond the season, your pheasant strain matters. GWCT research has shown that some strains fly significantly better than others, this study showed pretty conclusively that the best were a lot better than the worst, but it showed that drive design was critical, for even the best birds will be poor over the Guns if the drive is not well laid out. Just as important is avoiding the old habit of breeding from late-season catch-ups—birds that would not or could not fly well are unlikely to produce strong fliers. If you’re uncertain about how to redesign a drive or where best to shift a flushing point, a Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust adviser can provide expert, site-specific guidance - advisory@gwct.org.uk.