THE TRIANGLE DECEPTION
Use this move when hunting long ditches or strip habitat, such as along a railroad track or a river.

One hunter is the point of the triangle, moving through the cover about 25 yards ahead of the rest of the group. The other two hunters should take the edges, pushing a wedge into the pheasant habitat. As the birds in the deep cover move out to the edges, they'll be kicked up by the two hunters at the base of the triangle.

The pheasant doesn't want to leave his hideout. So rather than flush, it would rather hold or sneak. Just when it gets around the point man, headed in the opposite direction, it runs into the next hunter. Strip habitat -- willows and tall sagebrush, cottonwood trees and junipers -- is taller than the surrounding cover. This high cover can obscure the hunters' vision.

Here again, the blue-sky-beneath-the-bird rule comes into play. Know your fields of fire to avoid endangering your partners.

THE FREEZE-OUT PLOY
Pheasants expect a motion offense, but they don't know how it's coming at them. If the dogs get "birdy," but they don't find lock up or flush, stop and try a freeze-out. What the roosters don't expect is for you to stop.

It doesn't take a lot of cover to hide a pheasant. I've flushed big roosters from cover that wouldn't have hidden a mouse. These birds are the ones that count on stillness instead of foot speed. You can beat them at this game. Simply stop and call the dogs back for another pass . . . then another. Hold your ground and wait the bird out. Either the dogs will find him, or he'll get nervous and make a break for it.

We once hunted an uncut wheat field along a creek. We knew there was a bird close by, but we hadn't found it. The springers cut back and forth, tails wagging, bodies quivering with anticipation. We walked slowly, watching them. As the dogs worked ahead, we moved with them until Randy, the dogs' owner, called a halt.

"Let's just wait here," he said. We turned and waited, watching the area we had just come through.

Turning and running, then turning again, noses to the ground, the dogs worked the wheat until, in a roar of wings, a long-tailed rooster sought elevation and the safety of the sage. My shotgun pushed twice against my shoulder as the bird swept by. My gun empty, the bird still flying, I heard another gun blast, and the bird folded -- an older rooster and presumably wiser. We admired him for his beauty before he joined the others in the bag.

Even the hunter without a dog can drive a pheasant crazy with the freeze-out. Start and stop at intervals, especially in the corners of fields, where the edge gives way to another type of habitat. When a slow-walking hunter stops and waits, pheasants get nervous. Even a tight-holding bird will get flush when it can't take the pressure.

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF DECEPTION
Plan your hunt . . . then hunt your plan. With hunter-savvy pheasants, it's a matter of knowing the fundamentals of deception. Strategy comes first.

Don't foretell the effect. Go in quiet. Hunt with your face into the wind and slow down. Use blockers when you can and work the edges.