Ancient and stimulating hunting is often carried out in the company of pointing dogs and yet some hunters still opt for pheasant hunting in the old fashioned way.
Whatever the hunting ground or technique chosen, the important thing is to choose the right weapon.
Particularly loved and practiced roughly throughout the Italian territory, pheasant hunting starts, according to the hunting calendar, on the third Sunday of September and continues undisturbed until January 31st. Obviously, each Region can make temporal changes by anticipating or delaying the opening and closing of the hunt according to the particular environmental situations or according to the different territorial realities. The fascinating and refined wild pheasant is perhaps one of the most hunted sedentary birds of all, loved for its meat and above all for the cunning and skill that the hunter must demonstrate during the hunt, which is therefore particularly stimulating. Ancient and elegant hunting is normally practiced in the company of pointing dogs, in the early hours of the morning, but not before the dew has been reduced by the sun's rays.
As this is a game of game hunting, it can obviously also be practiced in a rambling way. When the hunter chooses this type of hunting, the precise knowledge of the terrain that hosts him and above all of the habits of the pheasant becomes of fundamental importance for him. In short, a hunt that requires attention and experience. Within the reserves, in the past the pheasant was the subject of English driven hunts, also called in the old way, a technique mostly abandoned for the game in question as it is particularly complex. Despite having chosen the stakes with some care, the shot is always complicated and the game is disturbed by the batters and flies really high and fast; the hunter just needs to calculate the advance, which naturally varies from pheasant to pheasant, making the undertaking almost impossible. Suffice it to say that the advance required for the pheasant is normally one meter but from case to case it can even triple.
Pheasant hunting according to the old way is therefore a technique that has completely fallen into disuse, and is still organized only in some hunting reserves, at the request of hunters. The weapon used in this case is obviously the classic shotgun.
What not everyone knows about pheasant hunting is that depending on the technique chosen and above all depending on the territory for which one has opted, one or the other shotgun, caliber and cartridge should be preferred. In fact, things change considerably depending on whether you choose to hunt in a forest or in open places, such as moorlands or meadows.
To change will be the shooting distances, the fatigue of the hunter, the evolutionary modes of the game, all variables to be kept under control using the right weapon.
The recommended caliber for catching wild is 12, with some attention to the barrels and their choke. In fact, the rod must change depending on whether it is hunted in the woods or outdoors. In the first case, a short barrel (60-65 cm) with little or no choke is recommended. In fact, it should not be forgotten that the ballistic effectiveness of shooting in the woods is often opposed by foliage, and a short weapon that produces a sufficiently open rose will be able to compensate for the lack of possibility of a set aim. The shotguns that are recommended in these conditions are the side-by-side, for its immediacy in shooting, and the over-and-under, for its stability.
In the event that pheasant hunting is carried out in open environments, you will probably have to make long-distance shots that require particularly powerful cartridges. For this we recommend a long barrel that exceeds 70 cm equipped with a 2-star choke in the automatic and 1/3 in the overhead locks. The weapon to be preferred in this case is the side-by-side, the over-under or the semi-automatic.
Finally, it is a good idea to also keep the quantity of lead under control, which can be determined once again based on the hunting ground that has been chosen. If you are in a wood you can opt for a quantity of lead up to 30 gr with lead 6 or 7, while in the open they will be fine up to 35 gr.