Originally Posted by battue
Disagree on a couple items.

If some want to call it purist, they have good reason. However, it goes behind shooting skill. It encompasses Dog work, getting a pup or new Dog, training, the excitement of going. The point or flush, retrieve on land or water, and the appreciation of when they accomplish an extraordinary difficult situation. The Dogs own enthusiasm and desire for the hunt. And when and if a Dog figures out their place in the the puzzle of Bird, Dog, gun.

Without the Dog, I wouldn’t spend thousands yearly on Upland hunting. I’ve been known to go out without the gun at those times when I’ve killed enough for the time being. And I knew one individual who gave up the gun completely. He said, “We can’t point him tomorrow, if I kill him today.”

The shooting is not the entire reason for the doing.

Addition: Years ago I was introduced to a “purist” in Arizona. His passion was chasing Mountain Lions on horseback while his pack of Dogs were on the trail. He cared less for the shooting. Went out with him one day, no Mountain Lions were cornered, but it was a hunt with some serious Dogs.

Not being all that comfortable horseback, and hanging on when the Dogs got hot, gave me an appreciation of his purist form of hunting. grin

Some folks do center their enjoyment around the dog work. I have too, and trained a few of them. I enjoy watching lion hounds as well as both flushing and pointing dogs do their thing. It is also however, the dog doing most all the actual hunting and the shooter doing more hiking and shooting, than hunting. I have done plenty of hunting with all three types of dogs and throughly enjoyed it all with a sense of satisfaction.

I also hunt birds on my own quite often and have learned how to up my success on birds such as chukar without a dog. I have killed plenty of wild pheasants and chukar without a dog and not by sluicing them. As far as ethics and sporting matters go, why not keep the dog at home? Doing so really teaches a person how to bird hunt.

There’s lots of ways to look at these things.