It's all changed, thanks to the power of the Internet. The DNR starts by contracting for a specific number of pheasants. Each participating property is then allocated a finite portion of these birds and the property manager then apportions that number of birds on a daily basis to certain hunting areas or fields.

That's all posted on the Internet, and beginning on Sept. 1 of each year, the hunts are available to be purchased in advance on a first-come basis from the DNR's Web site. It works wonderfully! Hunting areas are no longer packed with hunters. The quality of the hunts is much improved, and there's no reason to arrive on a property hours in advance to wait in long lines. The Web site to purchase a DNR pay hunt is www.dnr.in.gov.

DNR FREE HUNT
The pay to hunt season on DNR properties is always the Saturday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday after Thanksgiving. (In 2008, that's Nov. 22 to 30.) After that, it's the cleanup hunt.

Though pen-reared birds aren't the wily customers wild ringnecks can be, they aren't exactly pushovers, either. They will still run ahead of a dog, they will still flush wild at times, and they are strong fliers. Some of them are just lucky. The long and short of it is, the paying customers coming for the put-and-take hunts don't all bag limits. More birds end up in the "put" column than in the "take" column.

How many? Usually success runs about 75 percent. A pair of hunters bagging three pheasants is about par. If a property releases 2,000 pheasants during Thanksgiving week, at least on paper, when the season is over, there are still 500 pheasants running loose. The actual number will be something less due to lost birds, predation, escapes off the property or other causes, but there will be some number still available.

Two things are well known. Pen-reared birds won't survive through the winter. Most of the properties holding the hunts and the land under these properties aren't conducive to growing pheasants. The chance of residual birds surviving and becoming the foundation of a wild population is zero. So, they might as well be hunted and hunted hard, going to some hunter's home for a family dinner rather than becoming coyote or hawk fodder.

Hunts are held at Glendale, Willow Slough, Atterbury, Winamac, Tri-County and Pigeon River FWAs, as well as Roush Lake Reservoir. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, all a hunter has to do is show up at one of the participating properties, show his or her hunting license and bird stamp, and get a permit card for the day and head to the field.

Hens and rooster pheasants are still legal game (along with any quail, rabbits or squirrels encountered), and the limit remains at two pheasants per hunter. There's no fee involved. The hunters have already paid for the pheasants the previous week.

Since there are a finite number of birds available, the first several days of the cleanup season offer better hunting than later in the year. (The cleanup hunt's end coincides with the close of wild pheasant season.)