Pheasants hold in dense grass and shrub cover and will not leave until you push them. The reliable method is to walk noisily straight at the bird's bush with the shotgun already up, because a bird that flushes out of thick cover is fast and usually gone within seconds.

Hunting Simulator 3 how to flush pheasant: the four-step method

  1. Work the edge of the cover and listen for movement rather than scanning from a distance.
  2. Get your shotgun up before you reach the bird, not as it breaks.
  3. Walk straight at the bush, noisily — pheasants are used to sound and will flush themselves rather than let you walk in.
  4. Take the shot as the bird lifts, and do not wait for it to clear the grass.

The reason for step two is simple: a flushed pheasant is at full speed almost immediately, and there is no second attempt from the same bush.

The safer version: send the dog

The alternative is to send the dog out on the Scout command. It will find and flush the pheasant for you, which is the safest version of the same shot and the method most players use when the bird is buried deep in the brush.

It is also the version that fits the rest of the loop: the dog finds the bird, you walk up on it, and the retrieve order brings it back. The dog commands guide covers the five orders and when to switch between them.

When the bird runs instead of flying

Many pheasants do not fly at all when they flush. They run through the grass, and by the time you hear them they are already gone. So listen for the wingbeat and the call rather than only watching for the bird — and expect a bird that bursts out of the grass at ground level rather than lifting into the air.

There is no call while they hide

The launch patch stopped fowl from making noise while they are hiding. That removes the sound cue you would normally use to locate a bird, so you have to work the cover itself rather than wait for a call.

In practice this means moving the dog around the patch and working the grass edge by edge, rather than standing on one spot and listening.

The same problem in Texas

The Montezuma Quail works the same way in Texas, where the bird is even harder to put up than a pheasant. The small game guide lists what is in each reserve, and the small game gun guide covers the .22 and shotgun setup you want for those birds.