By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
(Images courtesy Scot Linden, City of Redfield, SD)
Call them “ringnecks” or “Chinabirds,” or whatever you darned well please, there may be no other game bird that matches—for the upland shotgunner, that is—the fascination of the pheasant.
Vintage images of long-past pheasant hunts are being used to raise the interest of today’s wingshooters as can be seen by this image from a 1925 hunt on the Koester Farm. They dressed a lot different back in the “old days,” but they seemed to shoot pretty good, too!
Depending upon which history one chooses to believe, pheasants were brought to this continent in the late 1700s or late 1800s, but next year in Redfield, SD, thanks to an effort kicked into gear by Scott Linden, founder of the Oregon-based Scott Linden Outdoors and host of Wingshooting USA, the “official series” of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. He told TGM that the town is already putting things in motion for what has been dubbed the “Pheasantennial” in 2019.
Redfield calls itself the “Pheasant Capital of the World,” and what upland wingshooter hasn’t at least toyed with the idea of a fall ringneck hunt in South Dakota?
According to the promotional material, the 100th anniversary of the state’s first pheasant hunt occurred ten years after local citizens introduced these marvelous — some call them magnificent — gamebirds to the fields north of town.
Linden has been working with Redfield officials to get this celebration off the ground, and he is all in.
Even the youngsters have managed to get in on ringneck pursuits in South Dakota in years past. The kids in this image—Adrian holding pheasant and Von Versteg with shotgun—are probably retired by now.
According to some data, South Dakota has an annual pheasant harvest of more than a million birds. Some 200,000 hunters participate, and they seem to come from all over.
Anyone who grew up watching the old “American Sportsman” program on ABC might recall a couple of segments featuring the late Bing Crosby and Phil Harris, working the pheasant fields while occasionally breaking into song for what turned out to be an enjoyable afternoon for viewers.
Redfield is located in the eastern part of the state, west from Watertown and south of Aberdeen, and Highway 212 runs right through it east to west. This is farm country, which translates to pheasant country.
The upper Midwest is a wingshooter’s dream landscape. Once on a deer hunt to Terry, MT, I recall driving into town from our campsite and passing several homes with yards literally full of pheasants. That was a couple of hundred miles northwest from Redfield, but the memory has stuck with me for all these years.
According to Linden, the “marketing effort” for this celebration has already started. It will continue through June of next year, by which time pheasant hunters will likely have made their travel plans to be part of this event, and hopefully put some birds in the cooler!
Linden told TGM he plans to be there, and with any luck, so do I.
