Taber Pheasant Festival

[Zimmerling]

Pixel Shooter, I understand you now and I agree 100%.

I have been getting phone calls and emails all day on this. It may become more popular than we can handle, but that is a good problem to have.

[Zimmerling]

RESERVE YOUR HUNT

As of September 15 at 8:00 AM you can call 1-877-969-9091 to reserve a hunting spot. We have 30 release sites, all within a one-hour drive of Taber, all open to public hunting through a reservation system.

The rules:
1) The sites can be hunted from Monday, October 17 to Saturday October 22.
2) You can reserve one site per day for a morning (sunrise until 1:00 pm) or an afternoon (1:00 pm until sunset).
3) You can reserve up to three hunting times in the week.
4) You can have up to four hunters on each site.
5) When making your reservation you must supply your name, telephone number and address, as well as the names of anyone else in your hunting party. If you change the members of your hunting party between the time you make the reservation and the time you go hunting you must call the reservation line and make the name change.
6) Prior to going to the hunting site you must come to the Pheasant Festival Headquarters at the Taber Chamber of Commerce. You will receive a map of your site, as well as badges for each of your hunting party to wear so that the landowner knows that you are allowed to be on the property.

We will not be supplying maps of the property locations on the website and as a result you will not be able to pick a specific property to hunt on. When you arrive at the pheasant festival headquarters you will be given all the information you will need.

REMEMBER YOU DO NEED A GAME BIRD LICENSE AND A PHEASANT LICENSE.
THERE IS NO FEE FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE PHEASANT FESTIVAL, UNLESS YOU WANT TO ATTEND THE WIND-UP DINNER AND CONCERT ON OCTOBER 22 ($50/ticket).


Give me a call if there are any questions 780-903-3377

[Okotokian]

I was trying to get a group of guys together to head down there, but with the way it's set up with you not even knowing where you are going until you get to Taber that day it's pretty difficult. Your assigned site could apparently be anywhere within 100 km of Taber in any direction. Say you book a morning hunt. You might have to be heading an hour further past Taber (which is already a good distance). Can you even get your material in Taber at 6 a.m. so you can then keep on driving? It's also a bit of a waste of time if your location is an hour back towards where you came from.

Perhaps next year a way could be found to let people know where they will be going in advance (or even select locations) so they could decide if they actually wanted to commit to that. It's a bit like putting in for a draw, and being told the WMU it's for at a later date. But I guess that would defeat the purpose of actually getting people into the town of Taber.

Anyways, hope it's successful.

[Mark]

I'd be interested in going one day. I usually hunt solo, ( aside from my dog). If anybody like to team up and maybe we can reserve a spot. I'm open to going pretty much any day. PM if you're interested. BTW I'm in Calgary.

[hassihand]

Can't wait for the afternoon of Oct. 22! Got ourselves an afternoon booked and for myself it will be the first time hunting pheasant.

Does anyone have any tips or advice in advance of the big day? More specifically things like what size/type of shot and shells to bring, preferred choke, any other standard equipment that people tend to use etc?

Many thanks to those organizing this event, I fully intend to put some hard earned dollars back into the Taber area.

HH

[Pudelpointer]

Originally Posted by hassihand

Can't wait for the afternoon of Oct. 22! Got ourselves an afternoon booked and for myself it will be the first time hunting pheasant.

Does anyone have any tips or advice in advance of the big day? More specifically things like what size/type of shot and shells to bring, preferred choke, any other standard equipment that people tend to use etc?

Many thanks to those organizing this event, I fully intend to put some hard earned dollars back into the Taber area.

HH

Any 20 or 12 gauge will work. If you have the choice, a more open choke than full, and good quality shells with #6 or #5 shot (copper plated is always good). You don't mention having a dog, so team up with someone who has one if you can. It will increase the number of birds you see exponentially.

Good luck.

[hassihand]

Originally Posted by Pudelpointer

Any 20 or 12 gauge will work. If you have the choice, a more open choke than full, and good quality shells with #6 or #5 shot (copper plated is always good). You don't mention having a dog, so team up with someone who has one if you can. It will increase the number of birds you see exponentially.

Good luck.

I'll be using my shiny new Cynergy 12g Mossy Oak, (chambered for up to 3.5"). I've gone for upland a fair bit, just never shot pheasant. Is 2-3/4" the most common size load for this situation or do most go up to 3" (thinking 3.5" is way overkill)
At the moment I have IC and Mod chokes but can pick up others if more applicable.
Our group will have a dog for sure, I just don't know the fella bringing it or the experience of the pup.

Thanks a lot for your advice to the noob!

HH