America's Bird: The Many Faces of Pheasant Hunting

Steve Smith has hunted pheasants for more than five decades in every major pheasant state – he’s been to South Dakota thirty-three times, plus North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, as well as in his home state of Michigan. As the editor of The Pointing Dog Journal and The Retriever Journal magazines, he has been privy to the secrets of the great writers who were authorities on pheasant hunting, including his good friends Gene Hill and Michael McIntosh. In this book, he shows that there are more ways to hunt this great bird than any other, everything from walking them up in ditches, to shooting them as they fly overhead in a driven shoot in the British Isles, because he’s done it all. Shooting preserves, high-end lodges, private ground, public land. Hunting techniques for cover types – big fields, cattail sloughs, linear cover along creek beds and fencelines, small-party hunting as well as one man and one dog. Speaking of dogs, a subject near to his heart, he covers the flushing and pointing dogs and how to use them on pheasants. Guns and loads, shooting techniques. Advice for the traveling pheasant hunter, when to go, what to expect, and what to do not just in the good years, but the bad years as well. In all, this is the distilled wisdom of one of this country’s most well-known outdoor authors as he teaches you about this great upland bird, the one pursued by more hunters than any other. Smith is an expert – and with this book, he can make you one, too.