Hunting late season birds can be frustrating if you don’t know what your doing. Smart birds will run until they have no other option but to fly. Figure out how to hunt them and you can have some of the best hunting of the year.
Get organized before you even get close to the field so you don’t spook the roosters. Roosters get up in packs and if you spook one, the rest will follow. This one simple piece of information is priceless.
How to Block a field:
Walkers & Dogs
Most everyone likes to walk because of the action or of course to stay warm on a cold day. Usually the dog owners get to walk all the time if there are few dogs in the group. The key of the walkers and dogs is to work the piece of cover and push the birds to keep the birds on the run.
As the walkers are moving the birds forward, the flankers keep the birds in the wedge, and really the only place for them to go is to fly in the gaps so hunters make tough shots.
The only other logical place for birds to escape is the dead zone between the blockers and the flankers. It’s unavoidable, you are going lose birds here, the key is to keep the percentage down.
Flankers
A very overlooked role in hunting. It works the best with a group size of 8+ hunters. Even if you only have 4 hunters, you can still create a “wedge” or a “V” with a walker, a dog working the cover and two flankers up about shooting distance from the walker.
It helps if the flankers are quiet and stay a little bit wide instead of walking right next to the cover so they don’t spook the roosters.
The real key to flanking is to walk along with the wedge at a even pace and keep the birds running to the end of the cover. When the flankers come to the end of the field it is their job to funnel around to the blocking position, take the corners or stay at the sides of the cover.
At the end of the cover, be patient and hold up and let the dogs work. Hunters get surprised when they see several birds piling out at the end of the cover, even when no one is doing anything. Birds sit tight, get nervous, and won’t move unless they sense danger.
Blockers/Posting
Blocking (or posting) is important and getting in place should be done in unison with the walkers and flankers. I have seen it a hundred times; Hunters and dogs pile out of the trucks, people start yapping, whistles are going off, and you look at the end of the field and there go 200 birds from that slam of the truck door.
Blocking can be the black sheep role of the group or the “demotion” because it can be cold and boring. I don’t see it that way.
Blocking to me is “the end of the line” and if you aren’t a good shot, you are going to get owned by the birds. I love to block. It can make you a hero or a laughing stock of the group over beers and steak later that evening.
The moment you get at the end of the field, the roosters are sitting there already. Even though you don’t see or hear them, they are there, and very nervous. Have your shells in your gun and ready to shoot. I have bagged 2 roosters in a row at the end of a field many times and the key is being ready because they will blast out of there at one time.
Dogs
Walk the dogs into the wind, so the birds can’t hear the dogs or hunters coming. It also gives the dogs more scent. Flushing dogs help in large plots.
Fill the gaps
Keep the group gaps equidistant and within shooting distance of each other. This will ensure good quality shots and makeable shots if a bird gets up in between 2 hunters.
Bird Flight Pattern
Birds will most likley (not always) bust out of the cover and shoot straight up if they are surrounded. They will then adjust their flight pattern and fly with the wind for speed purposes. If you are blocking, the might fly right by you at a blistering 30 mph, so be sure to lead your shot. I have had some tough overhead and side to side shots blocking.
Dead Zone
The “dead zone” is the area between the flankers and the blockers. You can’t do anything about these birds that escape.
Get after the birds
When you drop a rooster, put a mark on it with your eye and get after it. A lot of people fumble with a dog before their own eye. Keep your eye on it, then call the dog over.
Hustle into the field, be quiet, and get in place
Stop Often
Stopping helps make birds nervous. Often if you have few dogs or if a dog missed a bird, pausing can make a bird want to get up because they know that there was movement, and being motionless and quiet make the bird think you are on to them, so they will fly rather than run.
Walk to the end of the field
Walking all the way to the end of the field, while letting the dogs work the end of the plot you are walking is a must. Too often hunters work a piece of cover 3 or 4 football fields long only to give up at the very end of the plot when there are birds sitting right in front of their faces.
Zig Zag
If you have very few dogs in your group, zig zagging food plots helps the birds to keep running to the end of the plot.
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