One of goals in life is to do this before I die

Fun time for sure!

Sadly even in S.Dakota 1/2 or better of the Pheasants you kill were pen raised and released before season in order to get acclimated to the Wild. They fly just as hard/fast as the Wild One's. The state requires that the Commercial Operations release a given number. Farming Practices and Pressure have had negative effects. You can tell a pen raised one from a Wild one by looking at the nostril. A wild one has a "Divider" in between the 2 nostrils. They take a tool that punches a hole through the tissue on the pen raised and you'll see daylight when you look through from one side.

Yeah I think that is how they put the blinders on them right? I’ve been on a few tower hunts where they left the blinders on a few birds by mistake

The he blinders are to keep them from killing each other. When I raised them they fought all the time. I found that by putting multiple colored plastic balls they started busy with them for some reason. Chukar were the best i raised. Ate very little and were very strong flyers. Quail pecked other to death too. Hunting in that snow was pretty but dang it got miserable. Especially chasing grouse in the spruce trees. That’s now would dump down your back. We hunted a preserve in WI and it was fun. Most the birds were wild that we hunted since we always chose the backside that butted up to a large corn field and the birds liked hanging close to the swamp. Dave always knew the difference and I never thought about the nostril deal.

My good friend knows some folks up in as Dakota and wet talking about book there next fall and get after whatever we can. Might as well, ducks just aren’t like they once were.