Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Is anybody, OUT THERE?!

First time here and the topic is blank! So I'll start it. Love to upland bird hunt and got started 10 years ago Grouse hunting. I am now known as "Lady Grouse Hunter" and love it! Those road chickens better hide cause the season is closing in!

Hi Lady Grouse Hunter..as with you it's my first time here.i just came over from the Alloutdoors forum and like'd what I seen here,So I thought I'd make a new home here.

Hi. Another AO Coffee Shop person. Is this where we talk about bird, dogs, and shotguns?

Welcome everybody. As you can see from my number of posts, I've been around for a while. Many of us are refugees from Shooters/Hunters. I love to hunt grouse. Unfortunately we don't have many here in Kalifornia. But, it does get me into the high country, and, sometimes, I get to chase Ptarmigin while I'm there. Any Mtn. Quail hunters here ? E

I have three Brittanys and hunt quail,pheasant and grouse.The areas I get to are Ks.,Iowa,Mi.,Mn.,SD. and of course here in Indiana.<P>------------------<BR>Birddog of Indiana

Welcome to all the new faces! Need anything, please email. I'm always available.<P>I have a Springer pup that will be a year old next month. He's in his fourth month of formal training, and he's gonna be a winner!<P>I hunt upland game to excess, my wife would claim. Mostly, in order of season, doves, quail (valley, Gambel's, mountain), chukar, pheasant, and bandtails, mostly in Southern California and old Mexico. I bring a shotgun and get into sharptails and Huns (as well as ringnecks) as often as I can in Montana. Will be going out to Arizona this year and hopefully will get into some Mearns and scaled quail.<P>I've been using a Belgian Auto-5 12 gauge for 25 years-plus, until I finally tried the Belgian Sweet Sixteen my Dad has been shoving in my face for ten. As usual, he was right on about the Sweet Sixteen (he moved on to Spanish doubles years ago).<P>Looking forward to Jack's (Springer) first full season on Mexico ringnecks and Gambel's in front of that Sweet Sixteen, I can tell you. It just doesn't get any better!<P>Any shotgun reloaders making the rounds yet?<P>Rick Bin

Thanks Rick..as to the reloaders question I always have my Hornady 366 ready to get going.Generally keep about 75 boxes of reloads ready.<P>------------------<BR>Birddog of Indiana

Now we're getting somewhere. The guys around the hunting campfire are a salty bunch of dogs who sometimes sound as if they needed a little more socializing on the playground (I'm taking my ball and leaving-good, go back where you came from--- kind of nonsense). Rick: I'd rather carry a 16 in the field than just about anything else. I have an odd addiction. I love old "hardware store" guns. I enjoy scraping up cruddy old Higgins and Crescent arms double guns, get them working correctly (I'm no gunsmith however) and give them a second run. If they could talk, I like to think about the midwestern families that these guns fed. Prairie chicken, dove, duck and small game. I too run a springer. Trained him myself, in my own odd way. After 7 years of terrorizing, bold flushes, I figured I couldn't possibly create a blinker, he loves to hunt to much. So I trained him to Honor and even back my wirehair. What a hoot. He looks and works like a typical springer, and will flush if another dog isn't pointing his track, but if he comes up on a pointer who is locked, he tightens up. It is quite a sight and something I don't recommend any flushing trainer attempt to do. I'm just blessed with a good dog and got lucky with his trainability .<BR> John, birddog, lady grouse. What do you say we adopt this as the forum that we were used to at A/O?

I be new here.Coming over from AO.<BR>Chukar hunting is my thing.<P>------------------<BR>

i prefer waterfowl, but living in sd, you can't not hunt pheasants. grouse and huns are enjoyed by me, as well.<P>just picked up a 12 ga o/u at a gun show, can't wait to try it out on pheasants this year. much lighter, quicker to shoulder, and points so much better than my 870 super mag. expect to get my hands on a 12ga sxs this fall.<P>why can't i seem to find these guns in 20 ga. and get what i want????<P>------------------<BR>Hunting is not a matter of life or death. It is much more important than that.

I guess Ithaca is coming out with a new series of sxs guns this fall. They used to make a nice double gun. We'll see how this one is. It should be available in a 20. What type of 12 did ou get. My only 20 is a browning citori. Can't go wrong with her. It is a real consistent gun, although my preference is 16. <BR>I can't see how you aren't busy busting ducks in the fall. You gottem' all. They swing west of Mn. right at the canadian border. I ish I had the problem of keeping myself busy with S.D. pheasants. I have to work mighty darnhard to limit out on Mn. roosters. And huns? Once every fifth time out I might bump them. And then I'm so darned surprised, I rarely get my gun shouldered.

Hi lady. I'm new from AO too. Never hunted grouse just whatever flies over South Texas. I have Vizslas and my wife and I have a bunch of Ruger ou guns. Love 'em, I think they are the Timex of shotguns. Good to be here.

To all you new folks,welcome to the campfire.I hunt woodcock,doves and bobwhite quail in SC.I enjoy hunting quail the most,but unfortunately there numbers are shrinking fast.

irvingdog: the sxs i'm getting is an ithaca. my uncle has had it for a lot of years, and he's getting to where he doesn't hunt much anymore. it's nothing fancy, really, but i want it cuz that is the gun that i used on my first pheasant.<P>as far as the ducks go, oh yeah, there are a lot of them here in the fall! i hunt ducks once or twice a year is all, though, and then focus on the good stuff: giant canadians!<P>i hope ithaca produces these guns, you can sign me up for one!<P>------------------<BR>Hunting is not a matter of life or death. It is much more important than that.

Hey there Irvingdog how far are you from Long Prairie,Mn.?<P>------------------<BR>Birddog of Indiana

I live in a suburb directly north of Minneapolis, so I'm roughly an hour and a half from Long Prairie. However, I have a cabin in Morrison county, on a nice lake called Fishtrap, and that is maybe 30 miles as the crow flies from long prairie. Do you have family up there? It is a nice part of the state and very convienent to access. Close enough to I94 to get there quickly, and far enough away from it to avoid being trampled. Gotta dash, I'm off to fishtrap right now. Walleye and bass beware...............<p>[This message has been edited by irvingdog (edited June 22, 2001).]

Irvingdog..no family there but I do have a good friend that grew up there and now lives about 10 mile from there, Bill Balcom is his name.We used to go to his place back in the 70's and 80's grouse hunting and back then there was aton of birds there.

Lady Grouse Hunter.<P>As with a few other now here, I am a refugee from the dying all outdoors coffee shop forums. I see yer from Maple Valley, I lived on the Cedar River near Maple Valley for about 15 yrs. <P> Soooo, yer the reason that the grouse were all hiding out last season here in Wash. eh? <P>------------------<BR>Scott

Boy everybody I never expected all the responses! Welcome to all! I came over from o.a. as well but am really from huntingnet.com <BR>Eremicus, I'm going to try and find some Mntn. Quail here in Washington this fall, Never hunted them before but it sounds challenging, so while I'm out after Grouse I'll keep a ear open. An tips would be appreciated. What do they sound like anyways? Cafe' Racer I had problems finding birds in my areas also. Did find a<BR>few in Ellensberg though. I think their just rebounding from a low cycle. My friend has seen Quite a few Spruce, Blues & Ruffed in the Granite Falls area on the way to High lakes in recent weeks.

Great to see new faces and the enthusiasm displayed by you refugees. Welcome aboard.<P>I like to shoot anything that is legal and has feathers. Guess I would prefer ducks the most, but a hot dove shoot is about as good as it gets too, or there is the joy of watching a good pair of dogs work a covey of bobs, or what could be better than the wide open spaces of wheat fields dotted with huns, or......<P>Gun of choice in almost any serious hunting situation is a Winchester 101 with tubes, tubed Improved Cylinder and Improved Modified, until it becomes clear that some other combination is better, but it rarely is.<P>Thanks to having to help with and train 3 children in a row, I did not replace my last lab, a sad lack in my life which I am actively trying to overcome. Youngest child is just over 2 now and have a little more time available for dog training.<P>One person mentioned the current acrimony in the Hunters campfire area, believe me, that is really unusual, and, while I am not going to sit here and say there is never any controversy or cross words exchanged, it is usually a pleasant place to kick back and go with the flow, or start you own topic and see what happens, sometimes it is amazing how far off the original thought they can go.<BR>At any rate, glad y'all could stop by, stay awhile and tell me all your pheasant spots. LOL just kidding CAT