Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Pheasants on a budget?

DD, its a bad year. I have heard better reports on the grouse than I expected and I will be giving them a go here pretty soon. Pheasants are in pockets here and there but widespread disaster is the rule.

Agree totally on poorly trained dogs, no question about that. Dogs can be a handicap. There is no substitute for experience. Most peoples dogs will not do well in an unpicked cornfield or in a strip of cover with hundreds of birds in it. They don't have that experience.

For what it's worth, I would never allow my dog to (or watch anyone else's) circle "100 yards ahead" of me; that is going to accomplish nothing but blowing most all the birds out of a cover. Dogs need to stay close and learn when to apply pressure for the flush. Pups get lots of callbacks in my world. Once pup is 20 yards away, she better be circling back to me.

For what it is also worth, in my opinion any dog is better than no dog when it comes to finding a downed bird. Hunters without dogs will shoot some birds; my experience is that they'll also find fewer of them. A poorly trained dog is generally able to be taken to the spot where the bird was downed and be able to find it, even if he won't bring it to hand. If you have to shoot five a day to put three in your bag, well, you do the math. Days get harder and longer.

Good luck with a dog that stays 20 yds from at all times when wild running roosters , Huns, chukars are running 50 to 200 yds ahead of you
Anyone who does a lot of hunting on pressured wild birds on public land knows the answer to this . That is why it is crucial, if possible, to expose your dog to as many wary wild birds as possible imo. A good bird dog with good breeding will figure how to properly hunt wild running birds.


Wild roosters, but mostly hens, will sometimes hold tight and run behind you but wild pressured birds will run quite a ways ahead of you or just take off a 100 yds or more a way on public land if you are not quiet. I have arrived dozens of times at public areas parked my vehicle to have wild bids flush a 100 or more yards away.

Sure on on private land with planted or unpressured birds the rooster might hold tigh in limited thick cover but a dog that has a lot of experience on roosters Huns chukar knows to run and circle at least 100 yds ahead in open cover when birds run


Your experience hunting non pressured or planted birds might be different

Have never experienced a problem with my dog's the past 30 years bringing a grouse goose duck woodcock quail rooster to hand

That's the basics any bird dog should do imo

I expect the only way the dog gets that experience is through exposure to wild birds,,,the more times the better,,,,,an owner just needs to understand that the "learning times" could be tough!!

Sounds like BKin SD uses flushers and ribka runs pointers which would be consistent with their philosophies on how a dog should work. It is always amusing to listen to one group run down the other about which is "better" when both dog types are great for what they do when put on the correct ground type. A coworker had nothing good to say regarding pointing dogs over his labs as he hunted mainly preserves with strips of milo and corn for cover. Birds run in there as there is nothing to stop them. When I took him into the woods for grouse and woodcock, he had an eye opener on how a pointing dog worked. He had comparatively easy shooting as he could somewhat approach the dog from more open cover which gave him a chance to swing the gun. A single instance of right cover for the dog.

Pointers do not do well on pheasants in row crop fields, picked or not, as that is the absolute worst possible cover in which to get a bird to hold for a point. Much the same can be said for strip cover like fence rows, ditches, and shelter belts that are not overly wide and lack undercover. Cattails can be good or bad depending on the amount of canary grass, reeds, and what other lower story cover is available. Pointers also are not the best for groups of hunters conducting drives as that is not conducive to their hunting style. For these areas and conditions a flusher works best if one insists on taking birds as meant by the dog's breed type.

Pointers excel in larger areas of more open cover such as grassy CRP. as pheasants hold in these areas and often tend to be scattered about. A dog that can range a fair distance and hold point can save a lot of time and foot steps in covering ground to find the birds.Pointers are also beneficial on other bird types as many of them hold well in more open cover than pheasants and may be even more spread out. Huns, and prairie grouse come to mind first as I have often walked for miles before contacting them. Their cover requirements and population size are such that a dog that works only a couple dozen yards will leave you covering much of the property yourself which is time consuming and tiring.

I run both types of dogs depending on the cover type/size, the condition of the dog, the experience level of the dog, and personal whim. Just as I would pick the gun, ammo, clothing, or footwear for a given hunt, so do I for the dog. The proper tool for the job to be done generally makes things go better. There is no "best" dog type, just the "best" for the individual. The better one understands the various types of dogs, the better one can appreciate their differences and capabilities.

Hey I didn't run anybody down. I will not argue that hunting prairie grouse is much more a pointing dog game. By all means, have at it. Similarly, if someone wants to plod along chasing pheasants with a pointing dog, they can go right ahead and knock themselves out. It matters not to me. If someone wants to only shoot birds from points, I can understand that. Have at it. If I thought having a pointing dog would work better on pheasants, I'd have one.

I'm planning on going this year to SoDak to see what I can kick up on "walk in areas" or other public spots.
But, for me,its a chance for memories and exercise. I just love walking around new to me areas and exploring. Don't have a dog. As I said, I just like "the hunt" and seeing new terrain. Do I want to take a few birds? Heck yeah, but if I don't, I won't go home disappointed.
As for the OP, I would strongly suggest saving up some extra cash and hiring a guide, or going to some preserve. If you want to see plenty of birds, and since you've never tried it, that would be my recommendation.
I'm in it for the memories at this point, me and my dad, me and my son. I'll be by myself thinking about time with them.
I hope you find something that fits your budget, best of luck to you.

good points and yep comes down to one's own style and taste

probably came across too preachy in my last post

I hope everyone is safe and has a great time. This isn't the best year to be trying to come here. Things are way off this year. If you are coming, I would suggest taking a look at south central SD, as they seemed to have timely rains and stayed green all summer. North central SD had the worst of the drought.

Apparently the hard winter followed by the drought-stricken summer was very hard on them. That said, there will be pockets of good numbers and then pockets with very few if any birds. However, even a bad year for SD has usually translated to a good to very good year elsewhere.

gracias

ND down 60% or more statewide.

I talked to my farming friend in Chamberland and numbers of bird are way down . Corn crop was good .

Can't figure out what the drought did to affect the hatch. There were at least some insects around all summer, so I don't see how they would have "starved to death." We didn't have any bad storms that would have killed them. We did have early spring rains that caused good grass growth and there are plenty of weeds around, so they should have had decent nesting cover.

The other odd thing is that we are still seeing very young birds out there--as in little ones that can barely fly off the ground, so they must have been hatched only two months ago. Since pheasants don't double-hatch, it means that the early nesting birds were unsuccessful for the entire early summer. That makes no sense.

Anyway, if we don't keep on having a mild fall and early winter, those little birds won't make it once the cold weather hits hard.

Pheasant numbers are down here in northeast MT.

Last year was very good.

Last year you'd kick up say 20 birds. This year maybe 2-3 on the same walk.

Sam,

Heard the same basic news from your "Uncle Boone" on Thursday evening when we had dinner with him, Alice and Allison in Helena.

Sure hope it's better next year!

We were surprised with the numbers of birds, still not high but better than expected. All adults though.

I travel to the middle of Kansas and find plenty of birds on public property. It is about 3-4 hours east of many of CO's pheasant areas but worth the extra drive time. I also did western NE last year and had great fun. New pup seems to find quail easier than pheasant but the human dogs put up enough pheasant. Still 10 hours of drive time shorter than SD

That's awesome. Glad to hear it. I was seeing quite a few Kansas pickups driving around this past weekend.

This is probably why...

PHEASANT.
Regular: November 11, 2017-January 31, 2018.

AHA ! Makes total sense to me. Good luck!