Fiocchi Pheasant Spring Fling

It was the best of October. It was the best of December. Yet it was neither. We were hunting pheasants in spring.

Yellow corn. Golden grasses. Pintails and snow geese carving calm, blue skies. Russet roosters bursting from the slough grass, labradors snapping at their tails. That was March 9, 2021.

A Fabarm Autumn side-by-side 20 gauge sends a swarm of Fiocchi Golden Pheasant #5 shot toward a Wings of Thunder pheasant flushing from an October cornfield — in March. Look closely and you can see the wad preceded by the swarm of pellets just behind the bird’s left wing. It caught up with the bird.

“Rooster! Rooster! Rooster!” Brad Donald shouted. Mark’s 16 gauge side-by-side barked and the pheasant crumpled. At the shot two more cocks lost their nerve and broke from the edge of the standing corn.

“Roosters!” Guide Joel Rieder yelled. Holly Hammond swept her 20 gauge past the bird. Boom. Thump. It bounced once before one of the labs scooped it up. The other bird flapped low and hard, quickly out of range, cackling its escape. And so went the morning, birds flying, everyone in our party shooting, hitting, missing, enjoying the fine weather and a fine pheasant shoot. But that was about to change…

Holly Hammond found March success with Fiocchi shotshells during our two-day Wings of Thunder preserve shoot near Kimball, South Dakota. Doesn’t that golden habitat look like October?

The next day dawned gray. Thirty degrees, a 15-mile-per-hour breeze blowing flurries that soon rose to a blizzard. We turned our backs to the wind, spinning to face it only at the sound of flushing birds or our guides’ shouts of rooster! The ground turned white. No one shot as well as they had in the sunshine and calm, but we still bagged birds.

Such is March. A lamb. A lion. And the perfect time for a pheasant hunt, made possible only because we were on a preserve where hand-reared birds are turned into the acres of standing corn, tall grasses, and woody wind breaks on hundreds of wild and wooly acres.

But this, many will insist, wasn’t a real pheasant hunt. True, but neither was it shooting cocks in a barrel.

Kali Parmley and her beloved labrador, Lincoln, hardly noticed the snow and cold. It was a classic December pheasant hunt in early March.

Wings of Thunder pheasant preserve near Kimball, South Dakota, maintains enough high-quality habitat and turns out enough birds that we were able to hunt roosters that had been roaming free for some time. They ran and hid, flushed wild, and flew strongly, many too far to even salute.

But why would a bred and born Dakota pheasant hunter “settle” for a preserve hunt? Well, aside from being able to hunt in March, I have other reasons.

My job takes me to all sorts of hunts and facsimiles thereof. While I wholeheartedly support wild bird hunting and the saving and creation of the wild habitats that supply it, I’m realistic enough to know that preserve hunting fills a role, too. Thousands of hunters who’d otherwise rarely shoot a bird get a taste of bird hunting at top quality preserves like Wings of Thunder. This introduction inspires many to dive deeper into bird hunting, to buy a shotgun, boots, vest, perhaps a dog. Next thing you know they’re pursuing wild birds, learning about good upland habitat, joining conservation groups, and lobbying for better upland bird habitat.

David Draper and his lab found the dense grasses, corn fields, and tree strips at Wings of Thunder preserve ripe with not only pheasants, but cottontails, whitetails, geese, ducks, sharp-shinned hawks…

Yes, preserve hunting pulls thousands of new hunters into the brotherhood and sisterhood of hunters. It also provides a great place to start a young dog. Or young hunter. Preserves enable older hunters to stay in the game, too. Perhaps most significantly, preserves support habitat that shelters rabbits, whitetails, mallards, pintails, geese and meadowlarks. It provides prey for hawks, owls, minks, and foxes. I don’t pretend preserve hunting is the ultimate option for upland birds, but it’s vastly superior to a golf course, overgrazed pasture, or leveled, sprayed, and plowed bean field.

Preserves are also great places to refill the freezer and test new guns and ammo. That’s what our group was doing. Holly, Tess Rousey, and Kali Parmley vied for top gun honers against Christian Hoag, David Draper, Mark Sidelinger, and me. Trust me, you don’t want to bet against any of these folks.

With its materials, styling, and high-quality construction, Fabarm’s Autumn 20-gauge felt and performed like a classic upland bird gun. Fiocchi’s premium shells didn’t compromise the shooting, either. I’d buy those shells for the image of the English setter alone!

I was testing a Ceasar Guerini Revenent 20 gauge over/under, a TriStar Bristol Silver 28 gauge side-by-side, and a Fabarm Autumn 20-gauge side-by-side. All of us were testing Fiocchi shot shells. Fiocchi, pronounced fee-oh-kee, is an old Italian ammo brand that came to the U.S. market around 1983. It is popular as a high-end competition shell, less well known in the hunting fields. But that, Marketing Manager Christian Hogg of Fiocchi USA insists, is about to change.

“We’re not going to offer the budget-priced “game and dove” shells,” Hogg told me. “Fiocchi has long been a manufacturer of high-quality competition shot shells — skeet, sporting clays… And you’re probably familiar with our Golden Pheasant line? (I was.) Waterfowl. Turkey, Centerfire rifle and pistol. Fiocchi makes and sells it all right here in the U.S.”

In other words, they have the ammo, just not the name recognition. But that’s only half their challenge.

“A few years ago Fiocchi in Italy acquired the Baschieri & Pellagri line of shotshells, so we want to introduce American hunters to those, too,” Hogg explained. “Best known of the B&P line is probably the Heavy Pheasant in 12 and 20 gauges. Competition shooters here probably know our F2 Mach Professional 12 gauge best.”

Christian Hogg is excited to be building the Fiocchi and B&P ammunition brands in the USA. A Montanan hunter, he knows what US hunters want and need.

Hogg told me both Fiocchi and B&P are ramping up to manufacture the kind of high-quality shells serious bird hunters want for grouse, chukars, Huns, quail — all the classic North American game birds. “Whether you shoot grandpa’s vintage 12 gauge pump or a modern autoloader or a classic side-by-side or sleek over-under, if you’re a dyed in wool, serious bird hunter, we want to make the best shells for you.”

Based on what I saw from 12 gauge, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, and 28 gauge shells during our Wings of Thunder preserve shoot, they are well on their way. We were cold cocking roosters at the usual upland bird distance, but also at crazy ranges like 50 and 60 yards (Mark, David, and Christian can shoot!) But Kali set the record to beat all records, tumbling a rooster hit but still powering away at a rangefinder measured 80 yards! That, undoubtedly, was a “golden BB” from a Golden Pheasant shell, but it highlights the kind of performance Fiocchi is shooting for.

Fiocchi has been importing hulls and primers from Italy and loading their USA shells at a plant in the Missouri Ozarks. A larger facility is under construction now. It will be building not only shotshells, but most of the centerfire rifle and pistol cartridges Fiocchi sells, too.

“Our goal is to significantly increase our output volume while maintaining or even increasing quality,” Hogg said. “To that end we’re finalizing some new bullets and adding new loading capacity.”

Given the current shortage of ammo of all types and sizes, this is welcomed news. And if the Fiocchi and B&P ammo are all as good as the pheasant shells we tested last week, bring it on.

After a productive day in the pheasant coverts, Tess Rousey awaits her ride back to the lodge.

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