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old16
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 7:47 am  Reply with quote
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Joined: 01 Feb 2006
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Location: Indiana

TB I agree with your last statement that it is the Quality of the hunt. I don't get the satification hunting what we call around here pen raised birds.

I could walk all day and if I never got a chance at a wild bird thats ok. I still enjoyed the time. But If I know I would be hunting stocked birds well I'm sorry but me and my elsie would go back to the wall and couch or maybe out to the skeet range and I get just as much satifaction. Bill

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hunshatt
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 9:46 am  Reply with quote
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Location: New England, home of fat teddy k.

I, for the most part agree with you, about stocked birds, on wildlife mgmt areas, and preserve birds. Unfortunatly the eastern seaboard enviroment doesn't allow for much more. yes we have some grouse, and woodcock, but the bulk of that is hours and hours away, as well as the hours and hours travel to canvas the areas and build contacts. Tuff for worker types on the coast doing 50-70 hour work weeks. I've cut my preserve hunting over the last 5-6 years(other than the "spot") to maybe Once , twice a year(I still go to work young pups). Same for wildlife mgmt area's. just cause it's to easy for me(I'm fair to middilin with a gun) and Beau, the super lab thinks it's like taking candy from a baby .
The birds at the "spot" on the other hand, are just as likely to be hold overs from last year, or birds that have been on the ground for days, weeks, or months. The've learned to avoid the very healthy hawk, fox, cayote population in the area. These birds are certainly less stupid than the year old stuff that get killed the first week or so out west, I'd be willing to guess, and by the time we(tjc, myself ) get to them in winter the've been hunted harder, more often and longer than I'd guess the birds that I hope to see in the fall have been. The big difference is the shear number of birds that get to 4500 acres. The bulk of the "spots" business is contintal type driven shoots, for well heel'd sports. 400 to 1000 bird releases with a average season being 25,000-30,000 birds. Probably 1/3, maybe more are killed durning the shoot(these are not your average tower shoots, the birds are released at the tops of bluffs in the valleys surrounding the property) and another % lost due to margianl shots(I don't do these as I'm not loaded , and it's not how I hunt) Make no mistake, the are more than semi-wild, and you have to bust your ass to get to them.
A little more useless info. I learned to shoot pheasents in Enland, as lad. My dad was stationed at one of our bases. I rough hunted the base rod and gun clubs acreage (on different bases thru out the uk) as well as the fields of the farmers who were near us in the village I lived in. The birds Tjc and I shoot at the "spot" are all those birds were and more.

Tim
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TJC
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 12:37 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 20 Mar 2005
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Location: NH

Wow, this thread has taken on some life. Very Happy

Everything Huns said is it. I also belong to a couple of gun clubs here as that is it if you want to hunt pheasants here in NJ.

I've hunted pheasants in Norton, Kansas which is 6 miles south of the Nebraska border. I can tell you this, I have to hunt harder and so do the dogs at "the spot" than I ever did on wild birds out there.
Only thing I can't compare is my dogs on the birds out there as I didn't have them out there with me. But I can compare the birds we hunt to the birds out there and the western wildies have nothing on these birds we are hunting. Mostly because of the varied terrain we are hunting. Out west it was large fields, some gulleys. Here it is fields, swamps, mountains, woods etc. These birds have many more avenues to escape and therefore challenge the dogs twice as much.

Parker, good choice in dogs and not a bad choice in guns either. I just happened to get into the Merkels and truely like them. In fact, may be ordering another one in a smaller ga. Something around a .410 strikes me as being neat. Very Happy

As far as the Labs, nice pets. Wink I guess they just can't make up their minds as to what color they should be. Razz
Now Beau the Super Lab pheasant hunting machine, he can clean a steak bone faster than anything I've ever seen. Very Happy He also flushes birds too, after you wake him and Huns up and get them moving. Very Happy Wink Razz

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hunshatt
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:29 pm  Reply with quote
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Location: New England, home of fat teddy k.

I'd hate to see the grief, beau ,the super lab would take, if I weren't one of your hunting buddies.....
Thudddddd
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Wolfchief
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:35 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 782
Location: Indiana

I know I'm not gonna make any points with this post either but had to at least state my opinion....I've bought dumb, pen-raised birds to train pups, and hunted the put/take stuff, hunted the gamebird habitat stuff in western Indiana (wild, for all intents and purposes), and also rarely hunted the preserve birds, chukars, pheasants and some quail.
In the 90's my son and I hunted wild birds in Iowa and North Dakota and in the 2000's, friends, my son, and I have gone to South Dakota. And there are more wild birds than most would believe, not 15 miles from where I now sit.
I can empathize with those of you who live on the East coast and your choice is hunting preserve birds or not hunting---not much of a choice.

I would have to say in my experience, the wild prairie birds are much more challenging and fun to hunt, hands down....they'll run on you, double back, spurt out the sides, run circles around even a good dog, flush wild, get up in waves, and generally play hell with your "battle strategy" to corner them. When you hit these birds, if you don't kill them stone dead, they do everything in their power to escape, and will spur you when you pick them up if they possibly can.

There may be preserve birds that do this, but from what I've seen, they'd be few and very far between....it's just the nature of the beast....I hope those of you who possibly can, will have an opportunity to experience this....there's nothing like it....

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TJC
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:51 pm  Reply with quote
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hunshatt wrote:
I'd hate to see the grief, beau ,the super lab would take, if I weren't one of your hunting buddies.....
Thudddddd


As my lovely wife says, I only pick on the one's I like. Wink
Now throw Super Lab a steak bone for dinner before he eats that cat. Very Happy

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TJC
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:53 pm  Reply with quote
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Location: NH

All in all and all kidding aside, it doesn't matter where you hunt. As long as you get to hunt.
Further, most of us have been blessed with having great hunting partners such as Labs, Setters, Pointers etc. No matter your choice of guns or dogs we are all very fortunate that we share a common enjoyment, Bird Hunting.

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revdocdrew
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:59 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 28 Dec 2005
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Location: Glendale, AZ

Well said Tom-what a blessing to get to hunt, somewhere. We all need to work to keep those 'somewheres' available (but don't have to tell EVERYBODY about our 'shrines' Laughing)
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hunshatt
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:08 pm  Reply with quote
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Location: New England, home of fat teddy k.

It's tuff for me to be a smart ass when you guy are getting all gushy, jeez, go and ruin all my fun
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TJC
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:10 pm  Reply with quote
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hunshatt wrote:
It's tuff for me to be a smart ass when you guy are getting all gushy, jeez, go and ruin all my fun


If it makes you feel better, go ahead and break my "stones".

Being someone who hunts with German dogs and shoots German guns, I can take it. Wink

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MGF
PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2006 12:26 am  Reply with quote
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I don't want to get into a nut-busting contest, but I'd rather go to a preserve, spend a half-day letting the dogs do what they love to do, and shoot a handful of birds than not go out.

I know it's more shooting than hunting, but where I live and the time I've got ... it has to suffice for about half my trips in any given season.

Re which dogs. I'd as soon as shoot over a pretty Llewellin as anything, but I've loved and hunted over a couple of Labs as well.

My two brothers and I once took out my oldest brother's yellow Lab out on what we were pretty sure would be his last hunt. On only one good nostril (cancer) and a surgically repaired leg (injury), he still wanted badly to go, and he hunted well. I stll have a picture of him bringing back a bird on the last retrieve he made for me. No one could tell that old boy he still wasn't a hunter.

He was big, beautiful dog with a gentle soul ... and I have to stop typing now.
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