While the edges between a cornfield and a ditch might be obvious, don't forget to investigate any isolated patches of cover thoroughly, urged Young. "They're worth taking a gander at," he said, "especially later in the season. Areas that haven't been hit can be really amazing in the late season."

While reading a pheasant field correctly at the start of a hunt is important in Young's mind, so too is simply entering that field with the perseverance to exit the field hours later having left no stone unturned where a pheasant might be hiding.

"You can walk for six hours, put up a few hens here and there, and all of a sudden you can find a spot where there's 20, 30, or 40 pheasants, including 10 roosters," Young said. "When you tell your buddies, it will sound like a really good day, but there was a lot of hard work involved.

"You've got to keep after it," he added. "I've had a lot of experience here. The average guy may get discouraged and give up after four hours by thinking there aren't a lot of birds here. There could be a lot of birds, you just have to find that one spot."

In other words, there is often a price that hunters must be willing to pay if bagging a limit of roosters is the goal. What's that price? Keeping on keeping on!

"I'm a firm believer that if you want to shoot roosters, then you've got to get out there and put one foot in front of the other," Young said. "I enjoy getting out there and figuring it out. It's a game, in a way: You can't get frustrated; you've got to keep on going. If you put one foot in front of the other, repeat the process, then repeat it again 10,000 times if necessary, you'll eventually get into birds."

THINK AHEAD
Just simply being determined to find roosters isn't enough however. That's especially true if a hunter isn't in proper position when the pheasants erupt from cover. And to get in that proper position, often enough you've got to use the gray matter between your ears a little bit.

"When you're solo hunting, you've really got to pay attention to your dog," St. Pierre said. "It's kind of like when you're playing hockey or basketball where you have to think ahead of the pass. It's the same thing in pheasant hunting. If your dog is starting to get birdy, look at the cover ahead of you and try and figure out where the bird is going to flush and how you can get into position to make an accurate, safe shot when that bird does flush."

Does this idea of thinking ahead apply when you're hunting with a partner? You bet, said St. Pierre.

"You've got to be spread out enough to cover a lot of ground, but not so far where you're leaving a big gap between each other. Pheasants, a lot of times, they will fly as the last means of escape. They're notorious for running circles around the dogs, so if you're too far spread out, they'll shoot that gap between dogs and hunters. You've got to cover a lot of ground, but not leave too many openings there."

This idea even applies to a couple of hunters working likely pheasant cover without the aid of a dog.

"You've got to know your buddy, but you can hunt 'together' by hunting apart," Young said. "This is where it's advantageous to hunt with a partner you've hunted with a long time. You know what he's going to do and can kind of read his mind. As you work a field edge, you can hunt toward each other and know he's not going to shoot you. Of course, you've got to be careful doing that, but you can pinch birds toward each other."