No rooster is worth getting someone shot for, man or dog.

Sometimes the birds won't get up much higher than six or seven feet before they're out of range, especially if the wind is blowing hard. Dick Cheney? Well, anybody who picks up a gun after he's been drinking should be shot before he can get out of the truck! A bird shot at "grass level" over pointers is probably going to be blown to pieces. Not ethical! This is not uncommon when hunting in herds. Game hoggitis! That's how people and dogs get shot. That's why I generally hunt alone. I think that the six foot minimum is okay considering that most guys won't shoot at them that quickly anyway. Anybody who knows what they're doing will wait for 1) certain identification as a rooster 2) the bird to quit climbing and plane off straight away.

Figure 4 shot maximum range is around 300 yards. How good are you at estimating distance to other humans while concentrating on a flushed pheasant?

MLH, 300 yard range for #4 shot???? Be careful alright, but not with where you're shooting, but rather with your lack of knowledge of the subject. You'd be hard pressed to get #4 shot to make it 100 yards unless you're shooting off the North Rim of the Grand Canyon! And when those pellets finally did hit the ground they'd be a lot less dangerous than an average hail stone. I have been shot with #4 at 80 yards (deliberately I might add) and I doubt that stuff could have hurt me even if I'd been bare naked or hit in the eye somehow. That jerk made the mistake of also shooting at my dog. I sent a round of #2 3" magnum his way and that sent him down the road.

I've never been much for the gang ambush style of hunting. Seems to be a dangerous proposition from conception. Nor do I hunt stupid (and I mean STUPID!) farm raised birds. Shooting clays is more rewarding. Sometimes those roosters have to be kicked into the air. Anyway, I am unfamiliar with this style of "hunting" so I can't say that I know what I'm talking about when discussing a minimum height for shooting. In this case, I am happy to be blissfully ignorant.

Sounds like those guys had too many barley pops on the way to Burns Creek! Dorks like that make gun control a plausable alternative. Thank heavens the fella with the gun didn't obey the six foot high rule or his pal would have been in the morgue instead of the hospital. Frankly, that whole story is pretty fishy. Probably was an arguement that went awry and they wanted to cover it up.

Ontario,
Nope, I know the guy that got shot. Both were good buddies. The guy with the shotgun just had nothing to do, but screw around, and didn't realize what was on the other side of the bushes.
There was an incident some years ago, at a public hunting, state plant site in WA State where a guy shot into some bushes along a ditch, and shot a guy through the side of the mouth that was in the ditch! The guy lived. But there were a number of shootings at that plant site. You couldn't get on the property, I remember, until 8 AM, and guys would line up at the entrance points, and rush the place at 8AM.

Ontario hunter...I have to disagree with you on the range of shot. Check out a sporting clays range. I think the law is, and I don't think it varies by state, as to how far away a station has to be from a down range operation like a trap range, or skeet that is on the property. I think it has to be 300 yds away for safety reasons. And they can't use shot bigger than 7 1/2's on the range. Given the right conditions they must believe someone could be hit at less than 300 yds. and possibly an eye injury. I also disagree with you on planted birds. We have state designated wildlife areas that get pheasant plants, and the birds get up quite wild like. No kickin'um to get them up. They will run, and sneak off without flying as well. Not much difference than with wild birds, and the difference for me is the excellent cover on the properties. Many areas that have some wild birds are worthless to hunt because of the poor quality of cover, and they just run rather than seeking cover, and then fly when approached.

Ontario,

Nah, not in my state of Idaho. I've had the truck there planting birds while I was hunting, and my dogs still had trouble locating them, and the flushes weren't easy shots. Anyway, it works for me. The cover is good, and excellent for my dogs to work, rather than plowed fields, and burned off ditches that we have now. The bird hunter just doesn't have places to hunt in most states..posted land, and ag practices that eliminate game. These planted birds that I hunt act like the pheasants did when I was a kid....before all the hunting pressure, and the birds ran, and why they have drivers, and blockers now. And my wildlife areas aren't crowded as well.

Sayfu, the developers have screwed your state up a lot worse than ag practices. I was born in Emmett and was just back to Boise to bury my uncle. Uggh! What a mess they have made of that country! And most of it is some of the best farming land in the country. I have fond memories of my dad hunting on my grandpa's fruit ranch. All torn up and turned into a development today. Pay-for-hunting doesn't work for me. Kind of a stretch to call a farm-planted hunting club a "wildlife area". What's wild about that?

Ontario, I live in Idaho Falls. Just 20 yrs. ago there were lots of pheasants in this area..then the ag practices changed...same thing in my Eastern WA. where I hunted. They use to leave the corn stubble, but now everything gets plowed under, and the ditches burned...that is toast for pheasants, they disappear. I agree with you on development, that takes their habitat as well, but in Idaho there are lots of farm areas that have few pheasants because of the ag practices. I'd say I do better on pheasants than anyone in my area, and it is because I have a jet boat, and hunt pheasants out of it. I have never known anyone to do it. I run up the Snake and get out, and hunt the heavy cover areas along the river that you can only get access to by boat. The plowed farms are adjacent to those areas, and pheasants can get grain when it is available, and then into the heavy cover along the river. I have hunted it many, many times, and have never seen another pheasant hunter...a few times I have seen a guy bow hunting deer.

Safu, if you figure out what my cousin's name is, keep it cryptic on this site. We need to keep identies discreet. Thanks.

We only hunt 4 in a party and the birds are at least 10 feet in the air before any shooting takes place.