The best way to prepare for the Minnesota pheasant hunting season is to visit a local pheasant hunting preserves a few times before the actual MN pheasant hunting season starts. It is amazing how these pre-season pheasant hunting trips will help rekindle your dog's dormant natural skills. The hunts also provide an opportunity for dogs to adjust to the warmer conditions they might experience on the opening day of the Minnesota pheasant hunting season. This is one of the reasons why I work my dogs all summer. Nobody wants to hunt with a pheasant hunting guide whose dogs are out of shape. The Minnesota pheasant hunting starts in October. Warmer temperatures and abundant food sources are typically the norms. Early season pheasant hunting success largely depends on how many crops are still present in the field. The pheasants are not very spooky during this time period of the MN pheasant hunting season but abundant food sources will make locating birds more difficult, even for the best pheasant hunting guides. Most pheasant will have left their grassy roosting fields well before the 9 AM opener. This is the reason I typically resist the temptation to hunt on the morning of the Minnesota pheasant hunting season, waiting to hunt the late afternoon hunt instead. The key to this pheasant hunting technique is pre-season scouting. Search for big canary, or buffalo, grass fields adjacent to large standing cornfields. These grass fields are prime pheasant roosting locations. An old pheasant hunting guide I once knew nicknamed these spots, "jam-me" lands, many years ago. Gain landowner permission well before the season. These early season types of hunts are short and sweet. Not only are they filled with plenty of wing-shooting action, but they are much easier on the dogs. It's amazing how many pheasants can fly into a roosting area the last few hours of legal shooting time. The key is to find a good vantage point, sit back, and watch where the birds fly into the grassy field. They will fly in as singles, doubles, and sometimes in flocks as large as twenty. Mark their landing locations. Pheasants have a tendency to pick a location that is visually different than the rest of the field. Sometimes it is a group of red willows or a clump of grass thicker than the rest. Pheasants flying into "jam-me" lands have a tendency to hold tight for the night. The hunt starts when you have identified a location holding six to ten birds. This is not a hunt for inexperienced pheasant hunting dogs. Your time is limited. You'll have at most an hour to hunt before the end of legal shooting time. I have experienced some of my best hunts as a Minnesota pheasant hunting guide in these situations.