Every so often I get the bug for aerial archery, and going pheasant hunting. A few years back, I could get my son or friends to shoot and take turns throwing targets, but life happens and people move away or get other interests.Plus, my wife said no way is she standing out in the cold throwing targets in the air for me! So, I ordered a kid's wiffle ball thrower, it holds 9 balls and launches them 10 seconds apart. I do own a popcan-thrower, but it shoots things straight up. I'll let yo know if it works.

Sorry, I didn't think this went through and reposted with a photo.

Any shooting a moving targets will help, it's more to establish a consistent reaction to that target. You can even throw discs or frisbies yourself to practice. That will teach you to be ready. ;)

Not an easy feat , good luck!

Trap shooting, 20 guage, #6 high brass ;-)

kidding aside, good luck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY9mWiBBccs

Here’s a video I did a little while back. Just an old used soccer ball with holes in it from shooting. I shoot blunts at it when I kick it so arrows bounce off. If they stick in it, you’ll get broken arrows when it hits the ground. Not exactly like shooting roosters since the target is falling instead of rising, but still good practice.

https://youtu.be/tr_b903l9Kw

Don't matter how much you practice, when a pheasant comes up it's a new game. They generally don't fly like thrown items, but they do rise relatively slowly. Just go do some pheasant hunting and enjoy yourself. You may do better than you think. I've missed a lot more than I hit, but I have killed a few in the air. I don't mind catching them hunkering down in a brier patch either...pheasant is delicious and any way you take one with the bow and arrow is difficult. Have fun first.

I've taken a few over the years with my bow, but I only get the aerial archery big every few years. Should do it annually. I usually take my Lab- Bennie and a shotgun. I've never taken a wild bird with a bow, only preserve birds or birds we bought to train our Setters or Labs. (Last Thursday pic of a preserve hunt with my hunt'n bud.)

Archery bug...

They’re a lot of fun, fun or bow. Shot hundreds with the shotgun. Just a handful with the bow. I’d lose my dogs confidence in a hurry if I brought the longbow too often...:)

Amen, Nate! My dogs have given me the look sometimes with a shotgun in my hands. :)

I got two pheasant this year with a bow, that is about my average. One was dumb luck. The second, I saw it go head down in a small clump of fox tails. It was about a foot from my foot when it took up, I was ready for it and got him real close. I missed a few as well. A pheasant can get out to 40 yards plenty quick when they jump at over 20 yards, for me that is just dumb luck range, but I sacrifice an arrow anyway.

We would use a zip line and a target and stand slightly quartering away from it. Someone would fling that target down the line and we would raise our bows and fire. Seemed easier than chasing hand thrown targets all the time.

There seems to be a optimum time to shoot a pheasant...just after they flush and right before they start flying horizontal there seems to be a pause or slowed down motion. Once they get cooking it`s tough.

my dog would disown me if i brought a bow and was missing birds. i cant even imagine the look he’d give me and what hed tell the other dogs. hed be embarassed to be seen with me??. a pointer would be just the ticket for that kinda work i think. my springer wouldnt play that very well

BiHorn I know the look I would get when I missed! Is that a field springer?

Two-more, there's a thread on here going back several years on how to build a plastic 2 liter soda bottle thrower for solo practice. My son made two of them...works great! My sons and I used to shoot aerial all the time years ago...using cardboard discs, Nerf footballs, tennis balls .. whatever we could think of. I've done plenty of my own tossing when alone and it will humble you but sharpen your instincts also.

Do a search for that soda bottle tosser...might be the pictures don't exist anymore....possibly YouTube might have something similar.

It's a shame here in Illinois we no longer have any wild pheasants, loved to hunt them gun or bow. Strictly bow those last few years we had any to hunt. Did the penned raised released hunts too...not the same, had to put the boot to 'em to get up and flying.... Never shot one on the ground,,,was illegal.

Good luck!

Drop this in utube: Bowhunting Pheasant Bruce Garahan

Bruce Garahan from Traditional Bowhunter Dec/Jan 2013.

Found the post, and magazine. I appreciate the help! May have to try to build one, and send the pitching machine back. Thanks again!

thats lively looking lab yes ron hes very field breed. going for his master hunter in the spring. hes more dog than i deserve im thrilled to have him

i think any move target is good practice even if its not aerial. ive had fun shooting up kicked soccer balls in the yard. it amazing how fast you start hitting them.

Pretty Springer BigHorn...

Get yourself some Nerf footballs for both aerial and kicking/ throwing on the ground. The football shape will bounce in different directions more emulating a rabbit.

The Garahan flinger looks like it had a wood board base and a braced and rigid upright with a tennis ball pad. Two springs powered the hinge mounted board. The two liter pheasant sat loose on the board, but he added some soil to the bottles for weight and settled the soil to the top of the bottle before launching. A door hook and eye closer was used to hold the flinger in the loaded position. The hook was triggered with a looped cord around the ankle or foot.

If you make the effort to build one, please post a picture and share your ideas.

If the board slaps the tennis ball too hard, you could lower the mounting points of the springs to reduce the power. It would be similar to using a heavy arrow to reduce hand shock. If the launching board was longer, you might be able to move the bird further from the hinge to get an earlier release and a steeper launch angle. An alternate trigger could be a small, pivoting pine board mounted flat on the base like you might use to hold a shed door closed. A string to a screw eye could rotate the pine and release the hinge board. You might use a 3/4" block to mount the trigger even with the hinge board.

Photos from Garahan utube video.

I made one and it does work but will cost you some money. You can do the same by hand throwing a jug.

From J. Rob Davis's book "Faffy"

I have made that rubber band bottle launcher pictured in the last thread. Its a really cool design. However, the large bottles that are pictured don’t fly fast enough or far enough for my liking so I used vitamin bottles and it worked great. I have made several improvements to my bottle launcher. I will post them along with pics tomorrow

Don't let Nader D fool you with the Soccer ball. I've seen him shoot aspirins out of the air. Whatever works will help you with hitting pheasants

I learned how to shoot at pheasants by shooting at pigeons. Almost every creek bridge around here had pigeons under them. Kick a little gravel over the edge and out come the pigeons.

Interesting thread. The question a have for you guys when shooting air targets is do you use flu flu feathers to track your arrows down easier?

Just kick a tennis ball, plant your feet and shoot. In the air or on the ground, it’s about the same, except you don’t have to walk so a far to collect your errors...

;)

Bassman, I use Flu Flus for aerial targets and rabbits. Squirrels seem to get out of the way of them, if they're not close. I use regular fletched arrows for bushy-tails.

A pheasant farm would be the best!

As you can see I have made major improvements including elevating to a 45 degree angle using stakes to anchor the thrower in place and although it is not pictured here I took the pheasant feathers off of the back of the bottles and stuck half of a flu flu flu fletched arrow through the Center of the back of the bottle I also have added a battery powered trigger mechanism that is activated by a foot pedal. this device works great and I guarantee anyone that if they can hit a bottle thrown from the This they can hit a pheasant in flight it will throw a bottle about 25 yards I plan on Writing Another story about shooting birds in flight and I will go into more detail about the thrower in that article I will probably submit it to Trad archers world because they were kind enough to put me on the cover of their summer 2018 magazine

Thanks for the update, Bruce Bowzonly.

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