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Private pheasant-hunting plot offers challenge to all skill levels
What: Introductory hunts are $200 per gun, including dogs of your choice — be it pointers or flushers — as well as a guide and five birds per person
When: Available seven days a week (reservations required)
Cost: Single membership costs $795, family membership costs $995
Calhan • It’s 8:30 a.m., and four of us creep in a staggered line about 45 yards apart. Our three dogs run in a semicircle just ahead, attempting to flush out roosters and hens.
The wind is blowing from the west and, though it’s 40 degrees, it feels like 20. We cross snow-covered ground through brush and trees, eagerly awaiting the sound of flapping wings.
After 10 minutes, one of the dogs startles a bird and we take aim.
The first shot wounds the bird, and my shot takes it down.
The dogs — Annie, Willow and Mariah — race to be the first to find the bird and proudly show off their prize to our hunting guide, Paul Warnecke.
For the 19-year veteran, it’s just another morning at Rocky Mountain Roosters, a 5,000-acre private hunting plot east of Colorado Springs. From September to March, pheasant hunting is the game here.
Hunters are allowed five birds per person. The guides release your group’s limit of birds and also control how far the dogs move, while the hunters concentrate on the sights and sounds in the field.
Rocky Mountain Roosters offers ample challenges for novice and advanced shooters alike. Hunters must set their sights on a bird quickly before losing the shot, and the response times have to be fast.
Plus, you must be accurate. Violators face a $2,500 fine plus all medical bills for injuring the dogs. If a dog is killed, the fine is $10,000 plus all medical bills.
“For the number of hunts we put through here in a year, with the number of accidents we have, they’re minimal” Warnecke said.
In less than an hour, I had my limit. After the hunt, you have the option of trading out your birds for frozen ones that have been skinned. Or you can prepare the ones you shot, as guides will show you how to skin the birds.
Pheasant season ends Jan. 31 if you wish to hunt on public lands, where you could “walk all day and maybe see one bird,” owner Brett Axton said.
At Rocky Mountain Roosters, Axton points out, you’re guaranteed shots. And it’s close to home.
