Taber Pheasant Festival

[Camdec]

First time hunting the area. Some beautiful property, but really quiet on the bird front. Anybody having success seeing birds? Other than a couple lethargic looking birds near drop areas it’s been pretty quiet for our group. Really quiet actually. Is this the norm when temperatures drop in pheasant country?

[20shadow05]

The pheasant festival is always well run and the volunteers, ACA and landowners are all amazing.

As to this year, it was incredible, saw a ton of healthy birds, limited out each of the three days and the dog was amazing. Birds held very tightly but also ran in to an absolute ton of hungarian partridge putting in the miles.

[britman101]

For the pheasant festival it can depend on the property you get drawn. If it has decent cover the released birds should stick around. Remember these are released birds so they usually hold tighter. Also if there was snow on the ground the bird tracks will help in telling where the birds may be.
Were you using a dog during the hunt?

[Camdec]

Yes hunting with a dog. Thursday was cold overnight. I think -17. From the two sites we hunted it seemed like the birds being released were right at the parking area which was on the edge of both properties. I guess they probably can’t get into the middle of all properties to release, but I wondered how many wild or previously released birds may be there anyway.

[32-40win]

We did PM hunts on Thurs/Fri, AM on Sat. Truck showed up say 3;00pm on the PM shoots, one truck basically jumped the boundary fence, 75 yds from property we couldn't hunt ( residence), some birds went across the road, more went into the trees along the residential property line. We pushed few out of the thick reeds on the slough there. One of our guys found a hole in the ice up to the crotch.. We popped a few out of the trees. I'd popped one out of a tree, sat down on a deadfall log about 5 yds from that tree, now behind me, had a smoke, pointed out some birds in the other treeline for others. They came over to where I was "Dave, what's that behind you?", bird sitting in a branch crotch, eye level, 5 yds behind me, nobody thought to take a pic of that one.
Fri shoot was a really nice piece of land. Truck showed around 3;00 again, these guys gt out and walked in 2-300yds, in two places, N & S side of the pond there, not lazy like the other ones. A bunch of these birds wouldn't flush, dogs did better than we did. I got one nice flush and smacked it for first bird of the day. Think maybe we has 3 birds we got that flushed, couple that got missed. Pretty sure the dog got 5 out of 8, all came back alive, but, wouldn't or couldn't fly. That was a bit disappointing, but, that's the way it goes. Had fun though. I didn't do the Sat AM shoot, I'm told they found lots of birds along a treeline there, had a good time with them, apparently they flushed well.

[Camdec]

Weather was warmer for our last day and we hunted at a beautiful property along the Oldman River. Finished on a high note and found some birds. Big shout out to the organizers and landowners that make this event possible.

[rafternk]

Great pictures. Glad you got some birds. You're addicted to pheasant hunting now. Such a rush when they come out over good dogs.

[reel lucky]

Another great Festival!!!! Thanks ACA, Taber, sponsors, volunteers and landowners.

[DRhunter]

Awesome pics Camdec, thanks for sharing!

DR