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Shooting Forum - Firearms licencing information


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Pheasants

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  • 27-03-2008 7:55pm
    #1
    suttongun
    Registered Users Posts: 50 ✭✭


    Hello everyone,
    I'm new enough to shooting having my first season gone by and was thinking of getting some pheasants for the land I shoot on.
    If anyone has any advice on buying and releasing pheasants,prices etc, could they please help.

    Thanks very much,
    Suttongun


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    #2
    pullandbang
    Hosted Moderators Posts: 4,948 ✭✭✭pullandbang


    Ask 10 different people about releasing pheasants and you'll get 10 different answers....all of them right!

    You can buy 6 week old chicks and rear them on in a pen. This takes a lot of work and a lot of time.

    You can buy adults now from a lot of commercial shoots. These birds have been shot over during the past season and can be bought for about €7 a pop.

    I personally was involved in the purchase of 100's of such birds this time last year. They arrived and looked great. We duly released them in different areas using two different methods.

    The first was to drop 6 or 7 birds (these were all adult cocks) here and there. Not near roads but way up fields, lanes, woods etc. See pic..
    Release Day March 24th 007.gif

    The second was to deposit them in groups of 50 in good cover with feeders.

    The end result was a disaster. The pheasants must have been homing birds because there wasn't one to be seen later in the year. I don't know why and it was the first time we tried that. We'll not be doing it again.

    We've also over the years gone the route of buying 6 week old chicks, putting them in pens, feeding them, watering them...every night. The survival rate come Nov. 1st was always poor.

    We've also gone the route of buying adult cocks from a game farm for delivery in October. This has proved the most successful in terms of birds on the ground come the opening day. Mind you, these birds come in at about €15 a head so it's not cheap.

    It all comes down to your own resourses in terms of time and money. Are you going to let out birds for every poacher in the area to come and take.
    Have a look at the NARGC website www.nargc.ie they will have someting there that might help you decide.

    Hope this helps!


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    #3
    suttongun
    Registered Users Posts: 50 ✭✭suttongun


    Cheers Pull and Bang ,
    that was very helpful and the Nargc site is good too,I like the idea of getting them delivered as it would work out easier oveall.
    Thanks again


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