CONTINENTAL-STYLE HUNTING MORE POPULAR.

Byline: Jim Matthews Special to the Daily News

The rooster came cackling off the top of the hill, flying faster and higher as it turned slightly to get the wind at its tail. It fairly rocketed over a line of shotgunners. Two other pheasants took similar courses.

The shooters unleashed a barrage of fire on the high bird, but not a feather was touched as it sailed to land on a grassy hillside behind the line and above the dog handlers.

``You'd swear they've been through this drill before,'' said one of the shotgunners standing at a hay-bale shooting station. ``I thought we'd be taking more birds down than we are.'' While he was talking, another pair of pheasants came off a hilltop right at him.

``Redemption time,'' said the hunter, swinging on the lead bird in the pair. He missed the first shot, swung farther ahead of the speeding pheasant and tumbled it cleanly with the second shot. The second bird sailed over without a shot.

``You know,'' a shooter from an adjoining station shouted, ``if you hadn't missed with your first shot, you could have doubled.'' There was hooting and laughter. Down the shooting line another pheasant came through the gauntlet, tumbled by the fourth shot fired at it. A big black Labrador behind the shooters ran to retrieve the bird.

By day's end, the 20 shooters managed to knock down less than half the 400 pheasants that had flown overhead during the Continental-style pheasant shoot at the High Desert Hunt Club here at the extreme West end of the Antelope Valley.

Designed to replicate the driven pheasant and grouse hunts in Europe, continental-style hunts are all the rage at game-bird clubs across the country.

In the old country, shooters stand by a station with a matched pair of side-by-side double shotguns and another person who loads the guns. They wear tweeds and ties. Sometimes hundreds of people called ``beaters'' push the birds from cover on large tracts of land, flushing them over the shotgunners. They take two shots at the birds, hand the empty gun to the loader, who in turn hands the shooter a loaded gun. It is all very upscale and social.

In the New World, the shooters generally load for themselves, and pumps and semi-automatic shotguns (sometimes with the plugs removed so five shots can be fired before reloading) are often used. They wear Levis and blaze-orange caps. And they spend thousands of dollars less than their European brethren - from $300 to $500, depending on the number of other shooters and how many birds are released, which is usually 15 to 20 per hunter. You'd need to add at least a zero to those figures for a similar hunt in Scotland or England or France.

The High Desert Hunt Club is the only Southern California facility where Continental-style pheasant hunts are conducted. Clubs in Virginia, Michigan, Kansas and Georgia are also known for the practice; many hunts are booked almost a year in advance.

The Flint Oak club in Kansas has been doing the hunts for 16 years, according to owner Pete Laughlin. And the interest in the shoots has grown steadily.

``A lot of people think it's like shooting fish in a barrel, but it's much sportier than they might think. The birds already have a full head of steam and they are difficult targets,'' Laughlin said. ``If we put out as many birds as guys say they shot, there'd be about 40 percent more birds than we actually use.''

Jim Black, publisher of ``Black's Wing & Clay,'' an annual guide to shooting ranges and hunting clubs, said there might be ``a couple of dozen'' clubs across the nation doing Continental shoots. Having a hill the right elevation is paramount; it can't be too high or too steep or too sloping, or the hunters never have a chance at the birds.

``These shoots are getting more and more popular, and the news is spreading by word of mouth,'' said Lisa McNamee, one of the partners in the High Desert operation. ``Everyone who shoots one comes back and brings a friend.''

General pheasant-hunting season lasts from early November to early December, but licensed game-bird clubs in Southern California can offer pheasant hunts from Sept. 1 to May 31. For more information on Continental-style hunts, contact the High Desert Hunt Club at [phone].

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PHOTO (Color) Continental-style pheasant hunts are becoming more popular at various game-bird clubs.

Daily News File Photo