It's human nature to try to be the best, to desire the best, to visit the best locations. But when you plan your next pheasant hunt, visiting the top location may not be in your best interest. For once, aim a bit lower.

Regardless of where you hunt pheasants, it's likely the prime property has been leased or bought. Access requires a checkbook. If you own your own company or a corporate jet, writing a check for a pheasant hunt won't hurt. But for the majority of the hunting population, high-cost hunts are out of the question. So sidestep the hotspots and hunt pheasants on the outside edges.

According to most state regulations, you're allowed only a few cock birds daily. You don't need to be in the midst of 1,000 pheasants flushing; 20 or 30 birds a day will do just fine. Zones less acclaimed for pheasant densities also offer more opportunities for access without paying high fees. Landowners there haven't been exposed to the intense commercialization of hunting, and haven't seen the flashing dollar signs -- not yet, anyway. Not only are landowners more willing to grant access, but the public areas also have less pressure, meaning less competition for you.

To make the most of a hunt that sidesteps the hottest of hotspots, do your research. It's easy to locate the hotspots in any given state. State conservation agencies publish pheasant densities and pheasant release sites prior to the season, but they don't hype the fringe areas, where hunting may be more difficult, but less competitive and less expensive. Here's how to find your own honeyhole on the edge of a pheasant hotspot.

PHEASANT FRINGE RESEARCH
Begin by studying game and fish department Web sites and requesting the latest data on the ringneck population for a particular state and region to pinpoint the state's best options. Ideally, get your hands on county-by-county population indices that show the population for the last season, but also indicate the seasonal harvest for the county. Several years of data can clearly show a trend for a particular county and tell you if the previous year's success was a one-time fluke or a regular occurrence.

Each state estimates its pheasant population differently. And even the best data is nothing more than an educated guess when it comes to tallying the population of a bird capable of disappearing in a golf-course setting. Some states use spring crow counts while others use summer roadside pheasant surveys.

A call to local conservation officers, state biologists and even county extension agents can reinforce paper data. It will also give you up-to-the-minute information on the effects of winter weather, spring rains and severe summer weather events, such as hail, that can annihilate entire populations of ringnecks in minutes.

Why should you locate the hotspot first? Even though you want to steer clear of the top pheasant counties, you need to know where the hotspots are located. Why? Like a bull's-eye, each consecutive circle away from the center puts you one step closer to an overlooked, unpressured honeyhole.