Well guys how was you last years bird season???
We had a better than average season in many ways..Blue grouse were down a bit compared to normal, but my goldens got their nose in a few..It was great to see my young pup grab her first ever grouse..
As for doves, they are pretty poor here, got a couple, but the pup ate one!!!!She was less than four mths. old when that happened so forgiveness was in order..

We had some excellent shooting on ruffed grouse for us..before deer hunting, we tried some spots for ruffs had a very good season..both dogs did rather well on these fellows..but they are not the magicians of the east coast..
Sage grouse was a bit below average..missed some excellent chances that would have had us up to par, but that is the way things go..lucky for me, my dogs forgave my miserable shooting those days..

Ringnecks, this was a better than average year for us..but usually I only get a couple..My old dog performed extremely well, but the little pup missed out on that hunt..During the last afternoon of the ringneck hunt, I got into some feral pigeon shooting..killed about 10..my best shooting of the entire season..

We also got a couple chukars, and a few huns..since that shooting is a 4 hour drive, we were happy with the results..may give it a try next week..

Did a bit of waterfowl also, a few ducks, but one morning lucked into a flock of Canadians..that was a treat..My pup had a ball, but was awed by the size of the birds..

Hope you had a safe and enjoyable season..still some bird hunting left here, but it will go on the new license for 2013..

Pictures speak for themselves. Drought was good for the birds, one of the best years I can remember...













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It was great. Wish I couldve hunted more, but who doesnt?

I achieved my goals. 1. Get my young Brittany on wild birds 2. Shoot a wild bird over my Brittany (off of a point).


Nothing but Huns this year, and with my poor wingshooting (which will be corrected this summer at the range) I only bagged one bird. Sadly to say my dog pointed enough birds for me to limit almost every day I took him afield.

But thats ok, got a new pup to get ready and 3wks off in November next year. Which is a good amount of bird chasing time.

KS was bad, very little cover, and only older birds.

Now all the cover is drifted over with snow (western KS) so my hopes aren't very good for next year.

Terrible!

We had the worst conditions for chuckar survival in my lifetime. What few birds we had carry over didn't reproduce, and many starved this summer.

Still, in our DOW's infinite wisdom, we kept the same liberal season and limits...Second Sat. in October to the first Sun. in Feb. Limit is 6/day and 4 days possession.

Congrats to all! Hail mucked us out though.

Shrapnel, as usual beautiful photos..I for got turkey when I did my thing..got a few..one with my old adl .22-250 and one with my little special field 12 ga. Are rifles still legal for the fall hunt in Mt.??? I hunted there the first year I retired at the time, rifles were ok..

Rifles are legal in the fall, I like to use several and love to shoot turkeys, sometimes even with a bow...

Personally, it was lousy: I had to have my right shoulder completely rebuilt in mid-June and my surgeon ("Dr. No") would't let me shoot anything bigger than a .22. I cheated and took my .410 single shot hunting in October, but with the drought--NO rain in the area we hunt this season so far, very little last season-- we found tiny coveys of quail and even fewer chukars. So we just shot in the air when we flushed birds and let the dogs work. The dogs were disgusted. I brought home two cottontails, and my son made em into a pie.

Got the go-ahead to shoot a real shotgun this week and am going back to a slightly wetter area, but of course it's the end of the season, so I expect a fairly scant number of birds even there.

HOWEVER being out in the boonies is worth EVERY little bit of effort, and even if it's just scouting for next year, it will be a ball. Taking an Italian Zoli 20 ga SxS with light loads, and my Single Six with the .22WRM cylinder in it (just in case I jump a coyote or a jack rabbit too far out for the 20). Our bird season ends 1/27.

Shrapnel, what's the Russian machine gun you are carrying in some of those pix? And is the Winchester with the turkey a '92 or a '94?

Very neat pix!

I believe that "russian machine gun" is probably a Saiga .410. But thats just a guess (possibly a .223).

My second guess is thats its not select fire (not NFA registered), which of course would make it just a regular old gun (not a "machine gun")

It is a Saiga 410, the killingest grouse gun ever. I bought one for my son, as a gag, when they were only about $165.00. After the first time we went grouse hunting and that thing fired as fast as you could pull the trigger, never failing to feed. I decided to get one for myself and it has killed tons of grouse and I don't think I have ever cleaned it.

The Winchester is a Model 1894 in 25-35...

I just KNEW it was one of them evil black guns! .25-35s are sweet, aren't they! When I was a kiddy we thought they were deer guns. Of course after we got enough money to read gun magazines, we learned they were to puny even for blacktails and sold them all to collectors....

Ours was outstanding once the rain stopped.
Best Pheasant year I've seen in the 10 years that I've lived here. So good that I kinda ignored the Chuckar, Huns, and even my beloved Grouse. Something that I'll try to rectify next year, God willing.

Don't discredit the 25-35 too much. When I was a kid, that is all I had to hunt with. I shot this 7 foot Griz with my dad's old SRC. Once between the eyes and it was all over 'cept the skinning...

Yeah, I've killed a few critters with mine. But NOTHING that could "bite back" except hogs, which mostly don't.

That skull is amazing. For once--a first--I will actually say "awesome"!

Thanks for posting those photos. I saw more birds in those photos than I saw all season. It was my worst season that I can remember. Had a lot of great hunts, but hardly any birds. A few wild quail, but coveys were small, so I didn't shoot any of them. Grouse might just be extinct in my coverts. Somehow, with all my days afield I missed the woodcock flight. Poor pup tore his ears up around Thanksgiving and has been a cone head ever since. All that said, I had a great time tramping thru the woods and briars with my dog. Had a lot of great days afield. Maybe next year I'll find the birds, too. It is after all, hunting, not bird shooting.
Bfly

I was plesantly surprised at the amount of birds we saw. With the loss of cattail sloughs being dished under I thought it would be tuff to find them. Managed to shoot at least two roosters on all but a couple outings

Been a great year for shooting birds here in Montana!

Ducks: wood ducks primarily. great numbers of ducks, but they liked to come in with 5 minutes left of shooting time. regardless, having my kids with me (4 yr old boys and 8 yr old girl) to witness waves of hundreds of ducks was priceless. Shot some nice ones including one that is in the taxidermists freezer as we speak.

Geese: Another great year with the kids. Same field as the woodies. Limited out quite a few times.

Pheasants: Shot 1 bird prior to Nov 15th cuz of elk, deer, and waterfowl hunting. Late season in MN was great, finished with 18 wild MN birds. Good, not great bird numbers. Any rooster shot after Dec 15th in MN is a trophy and we rocked birds the last 2 weeks of the season. I love hunting them in the dense willow swamps full of snow. Awesome! South Dakota was not as good as years past, but we were out there late and the birds were shot to ribbons before we got there.

I think I posted some of these shots earlier in another thread somewhere on 24, but here are a few.

GuNR's second birds season.













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Nice photos. Get in to any Huns? Looks like plenty of sharpies and phez...

My 2 cents about NE Wisconsin and Central Upper Michigan. Grouse hunting was average at best. Had to put on a lot of miles to produce flushes. Only saving grace is there were enough Woodcock around to keep us shooting and the dogs interested during the dry stretches.

Noticed this year more birds in pairs and triples than normal? Not sure why. Still loved every minute of it though.

Remember those pics MTmiller. Great season for you

Beautiful Yellow Lab you have there,I lost mine in Oct after 12 years, still not over it.

My bird hunting opportunities have been extremely limited for the past couple of seasons. I moved to west Texas in the fall of 2011, and we were still settling a lot of business in the fall of 2012. Not to mention the fact that we don't have a lot of upland bird hunting here in west Texas...

So Riley the Mighty Pheasant Dog had little opportunity to do what he loves the most this past couple of years, which is hunting roosters.

I was able to get out in January a couple of times to a pheasant preserve near Fredericksburg, and we did have us a good time. Each time they put out 4 birds, their usual, and both times Riley & I managed to scoop up and nail five. These are strong birds,and not the usual easy put-and-take pheasants. All in all, we had a couple of very satisfying hunts.

Here's one of the few pics I managed with my iPhone... Riley looks unhappy in this one, I suspect because I made him sit still for the photo while an open bag of Cheeto's lay just off-camera...





I'm building a pigeon coop and plan to trap and keep/raise pigeons soon for year-round training purposes. Next fall we'll be heading to Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma for some wild birds. I can't wait!