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Joined: 19 Apr 2014 Posts: 429 Location: Maine

Was it the Jack Russell crack?

Joined: 15 Dec 2016 Posts: 36 Location: Down East Maine

The only driven bird hunts I've witnessed here in Maine are the 95% of bird hunters who drive the dirt roads in a pickup looking to ground swat a ruffed grouse with a 12-gauge.

A few years ago my ESS and I were headed home after a rewarding day, with two ruffs and a woodcock in the bag. We stopped to talk to three guys wedged into the front seat of a pickup who had been "driving" for birds. "We haven't seen anything all day," they said.

Anybody willing to walk with his dog can have what amounts to hundreds of square miles of good cover to himself in northern or eastern Maine. Just stay off the roads. And don't get lost. We got some big woods, bubbas.

Driven hunts in the East, indeed.

Joined: 19 Apr 2014 Posts: 429 Location: Maine

I concur

Joined: 19 Apr 2014 Posts: 429 Location: Maine

Last post for me... yes thank goodness the crys go out.
All the hunts most describe are daily/ weekly events during your hunting seasons with dogs, solo, or with friends on public or private lands. A true driven hunt (UK) with all that goes with it is probably a once in a lifetime event not a daily occurrence. Very few will ever experience this type of hunt. When shots are made at difficult distances and angles and a handler can stand there with three dogs at his side, no leashes or E Collars and send them off one at a time to make some long blind and marked difficult retrieves I wouldn't mind seeing that in the least bit. Each to there own I guess. So as they say in England "Cheerio" Oh but that goes with the thread about shot shell fillers.
Done

Joined: 05 Nov 2016 Posts: 189 Location: Montana

Griffon just described a hunt I am quite familiar with:

......shots made at difficult distances and angles and a handler (I handle and hunt at the same time) can stand there with three (Albeit 2, for me) dogs a t his side, no leashes or E collars and send them off one at a time (must admit neither of my girls are refined enough say "cheerio" and let the other jaunt off uncontested to find the bird) to make long blind.. (marked birds are for trials, my girls are hunters) ... and difficult retrieves.

Yes, Quite. Sounds like any old day I'm afield. Afield in the great American West. Most often on public lands.

Hopefully the political breeze of the day won't turn what I love into the European experience described in this thread. I don't plan to let it.
Hope others on this forum are on the same page........

If not, I guess we still have 16's in common......

This thread has gotten about as testy as I've witnessed on this forum and it is still considerably more civil than most other gun/shooting forums.

We all have different bird hunting opportunities and preferences and we make our choices accordingly.

I went to Scotland to shoot Red Grouse because in my view that is where wing shooting began and I wanted to experience the history first hand. As mentioned above, I enjoyed the pigeon shoot, rough hunting and the driven shoot. Will I do it again? Nope, only because I can't take my dog to the UK.

My love of bird hunting is primarily based on dog work and not the shooting. I'm perfectly content to suit up Annie in her hunting vests and walk out my back door with my favorite 16 Ga. SxS.

I enjoy Annie's excitement, her strong desire to hunt, her solid points and her enthusiasm for the retrieve. I'm also perfectly content to shoot only one or two birds an outing and the two bird scenario is when a double flush occurs.

I spent a good part of my life in So. CA and like many of you, I traveled a long way to find good bird hunting and because of that I especially appreciate where I have lived for the past 22 years.

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2125 Location: Hudson,Wy

For a poor boy I have been lucky enough to figure out ways to do things that I only once dreamed of. It has been an interesting life, hunting and otherwise. One thing I don't foresee though, is the ability to go back overseas as an adult and try the driven bird thing in U.K. or Spain.

Truth be known, red leg partridge in Spain appeals more to me than the U.K. or Scottish experience. Perhaps that is because it would be like finally getting revenge on all those chukars. If you have never hunted chukar in the wild, well that statement may be foreign. Those who have hunted the little demons will understand and chuckle a bit.

However there is an experience that many can enjoy for almost no cash right here in the States that does provide the type of shooting and does demand high skill levels: pass shooting waterfowl. Some of my fondest memories are of the hours I spent on a good pass during a windy morning flight of snow geese. It lacked the hoopla and ambience of an organized driven shoot, but who cares? I am unashamed to proclaim that I am in it for the birds and the experiences directly tied to hunting them. The rest is just filler.

That is the heart of the matter. Birds. Take that away and the rest unravels. I read articles in magazines and too often they go on way to much about lodges, fine wines, dining, cigars, and pomp. Filler. Not my trademark. Bird hunting is diverse with a wide range of choices. Would I enjoy a driven shoot? Probably. Would I trade the finances that keep me hunting the great wide open for 5 months to try it? No.

Well over a thousand times I have watched the sun dip in silence below a magnificent skyline with no additional witness other than my dog and the birds that eluded our efforts. I don't know of any duke or prince than can claim the same. If I never have their driven shoot, I think I will be okay.