Hi all, I’m new to this Forum but looking for some guidance. I live near Boston and am looking to do some pheasant/wood cock hunting this fall. Can anyone point me in the right direction for woodcock? Also, I was thinking about trying Birch Hill and High Ridge for Pheasant. Does anyone have any feedback on that?
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Massachusetts Bird Hunting 2024
- Thread starter Demetri87
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We do well at high ridge for Pheasant, I have seen Woodcock there as well. It can get a little crowded near the beginning of the season. Last year they stopped stocking Bolton because it was always flooded, I feel like high ridge got those birds instead.
Feedback on pheasant hunting?
The stocking schedule for all the wma land can be found online. Check the schedule....find a wma thats stocked....then sit in the parking lot till you see the truck roll in....follow it.....and ground swat the pheasants a couple minutes after the truck leaves like half of the old farts in mass. You'll do fine.
All kidding aside (well.....im really not kidding there are tons of guys that follow the trucks and ground swat birds)
......pheasant are stocked on tons of wma.....just go find a stocked wma.......I mean....what "feedback" are you looking for?
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Bodhisattva
NES Member
I’ve never looked for the pheasant stocking schedule, but I know they do that for the trout
Yes thank you. I have found all of that info on the site. I grew up in NJ. Stocking there is Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. I haven’t been able to find that info on the site. Is it the same here for places that are stocked 3 days a week?
Good mix, we find pheasant in both the woods and fields. We often go without a dog and still have success. There are multiple ways into the area, all of which see about the same crowd. I see mass wildlife there more than other WMAs as well,
The Wayne F WMA was also loaded the one time I went but there was a ton of other hunters. Plenty of room to spread out in the fields but one group shot right over us on a trail between fields.
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They stock once a week in most cases......mid week. They used to do Fridays but not that often anymore where I was living.
Last 5 or 6 years if I went on a Wednesday there are birds, and its not that crowded anymore in N. Central MA and you don't get the douchenozzles there that used to be truck chasers. Lot of those fudds have aged out. Younger people are not taking up bird hunting that much and replacing them. Even Saturdays in bigger places like Barre Falls holds birds now. Town covers aren't known to a lot of the younger guys and they hold birds thru the week now.
Most people that are serious, know clubs in the area that stock and only hit state land as an afterthought to run their dogs more, and a lot of these people are older too and not bothering with state land anymore out here. They get their birds on the club land and go home.
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Beautiful property and decent. Big fields. Further west you go the less crowded things will be. That place gets some traffic cause its right off of 2.
I havent been there for 2-3 years....Barre Falls was close to me and it was great lately. I would have to let birds fly all the time, because I was limited out. So driving to another place just to run the dog, when BFD was good and had tons of fields, wasn't worth it.
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I ran into them mid week most times.....I would just leave and come back the next day, there were always birds left. Most times no one there but me and the stocking guy said thank you for being a sportsman as I was leaving and he was opening the gate.
At the town cover a time or two he would ask me to watch the gate and not let anyone in til he finished.
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