What percentage roosters are you shooting over a point?

[roosterdown]

On my SD hunt two weeks ago, the birds were generally not holding...perhaps one or two good points on roosters per day. Several more on hens. Different story early in the season, and I find it makes a big difference if you're hunting with a large noisy group vs stealthily cruising around solo with one or two dogs.

 

[Bluefish]

Interesting - public or private? Recently hunted some public land and the roosters were flying from a long ways off.

private. We had a few flush way out, but most held tight. Even had one flush 5 ft behind me. You could see some runners as well which never flushed. The fresh snow made that easy.
this land probably doesn’t get a ton of pressure, maybe hunted 1x per week or 2x/month.

 

[ianpadron]

I love my GSP's. They get hunted a lot and pheasants this time of year are hard on them. You get a whole lot of what jvolt says, tracking fast and pheasant getting up 20 yards in front of the dog. Honestly, pointers aren't the best choice for pheasant dogs.

You will have a lot of frustrating hunts. If you simply want to kill a lot of pheasants, get labs or springers, a lot of guys and blockers on every outlet.

Some days pheasants hold and some days they don't. Weather, pressure, day of the week, color of your pickup all seem to matter.

Go hunting and enjoy your dog and the day. If you want to shoot a lot of birds over rock solid points you need to find quail, early season grouse, huns, etc.

Sent from my moto g power 5G - 2023 using Tapatalk

Couldn't agree more! Runnin' roosters and pointers can be real frustrating. This year without snow it was as evident as ever.

Our method has evolved into surrounding good cover and sending the flushers in, and letting the pointer mop up on any stragglers that run out and hide in the sage flats.

Knowing my dog is on point 35 yards deep in the phragmites or cattails is basically useless. Send the Golden in to kick down the door and there is a 100% chance that bird is flying straight up, and likely getting dusted.

Sharpies and huns on the prairie however...good Lord, nothing more beautiful than a pointer doing their thing on covey birds.