Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Upland bird hunters?

I go more than birds harvested, typically.

This pic is from a few years ago. Great day for a few guys.

I really miss pheasant hunting.

Cool pics bud,

yeah, if I could hunt them in this area, within 100 miles or so, I'd certainly go after them. Unfortunately, they're not on approved list and although we're within their range, I personally haven't run across any.

I'm just checking now on the CDFW page to see if grouse is open in the Warners or up the hill from me. Fall turkey is not until Nov I believe, but I might have that wrong. By that time I might be hunting frozen turkey, in the store or in the woods.

This. ^^^

Doves are just shooting. Quail are hunting to find them, working with your pal, a dog to get into them, and shooting and then watching you happy buddy haul ass to get what you shot.

Several factors have combined to practically eliminate our pheasant population.
first, consolidation of little forty and eighty acre farms and elimination of fence rows. All of the rolling hills with small six and ten acre fields which irrigated every which direction have been consolidated under pivots.

second, fur is worthless, so fox and coyote populations are uncontrolled. Even the one neighbor sold all of his sheep, and quit shooting predators.

third, Raptor populations are higher than fox and coyotes.

I used to love taking a few blue grouse incidentally to deer hunting. Most of them shot with a 30-06 with 165 ballistic tips over 60 gr H4831. I could usually get two or three out of the trees on the walk back down the mountain after a day of deer hunting.

Love it! I have 3 German Shorthaired Pointers and watching them work is my idea of happiness.

Heaven on Earth.

Back in the good old days of SW KS pheasant hunting I had a mammoth sized chocolate lab.

Dad had run over her when she was a pup so she had bad hips from the get go. But that meant she was slow and stuck right by my side. Until she got wind of a bird close and she’d give me that look like “come on boss” and start on the trail at a wallowing lope. She’d bull through whatever thick thorny mess of cover and root them out to put them up. The shooting was usually easy as they flushed close, nothing as satisfying as pillow casing a big rooster with an ounce and a quarter of 6s at 12 yards. Cripples she was slow but she’d stick with it and run them to ground, didn’t lose many when she was around.

More than one time a guy asked if I was really bringing that old dog at the start of the day. At the end of the day they’d be wanting to buy one just like her. I could take her and hunt slow like we were sneaking and stalking and not walk past birds and kill most of the ones we put up. With her staying so close and us being pretty quiet we didn’t put many up wild out of range either.

End of the day we’d clean birds on the tailgate and she’d crush and gnaw the elbows off all the wings we cut off. Then eat all the guts out of every bird as we cleaned them. Big old stinking bloody filthy dog that I had to lift into and out of the truck because of her hips. I always snuck her into the motel room and gave her a couple aspirin in a slice of cheese at bedtime. Good times.

Sam, early season sharptails, with the chance for a hun, is my favorite too. I still hunt deer, but don't shoot at them much. I'm located near Circle.

Doc…..Those blue sunglasses on you remind me of Elton John …..👍🏼

Been a great season so far, just got home from the fields with a tired pup.

Big game hunting is like getting groceries, you gotta do it and the quicker and more convenient the better. Hopefully you can get it done in a couple days and then have fun chasing birds again.

If you like kicking up birds solo, just wait til you get to work with good dogs.

100 miles?
That is surprising. I figured they were most everywhere in N Kali, as they’re also in NW Nevada and S Oregon. The habitat shown in your pics sure looks like they could live there.

Good luck with grouse and turkey, regardless.

Hunted the pheasant opener the day of my wedding. Same with anniversaries the years it fell on it.

I’ve seen plenty of them not 20 miles from where Geno lives. Always wanted to bring my dogs and hunt my friends place there, but between the stupid regs in Cali about guns and ammo and the joy of carrying a dog in a semi with a small sleeper, it never happened.

Chukar hunting in Nevada cured me of bird hunting.....

My sister is a big fan of grouse, which means I get to borrow her flush it all lab when I go hunting. Compared to the Brit Span we had as a kid the lab's fairly inept. A bunch of far-flushed birds is a small price to be paid for spending a good day afield with a sweet natured dog.

LOL...Owen took this after he fell down and damaged his phone, but you know what it shows.



Taken with mine when they got down to the trucks.

Yep... a picture is worth a thousand words, I do miss the sage hen season though

Chukar hunting: Fist time. Is for fun, afterr that its for revenge. Those birds are tough to hunt.

Gambels and mountain quail, occasionally band tailed pigeons. Mountain quail are pretty challenging too.

My long time black powder friends and I have been doing an annual bird hunt in the northern tip of New Hampshire for around 30 years. We started out with muzzle loaders but have grown older and lazier so now use modern guns. This allows me to miss faster. This annual trip is one of the highlights of my year. The weather is usually nice, the fall colors are out, getting to spend some time with old friends and maybe a bird or two will be bagged. It don't get no better than that.