Today I ordered a case and a half of shotgun shells for next fall's bird season. Got some from RST and Polywad. They should last several years, or more depending on how the hunts go and the numbers of birds. Got some spreader loads for my old 30 inch full choked pumps. It will make them far more suitable for upland shooting.
Also, I loaded 100 trap loads for Wed. The local trap club is open for practice. Figure I will run 25 rounds each through the model 12, model 97, model 37 and model 31. Love those old pumps. Later will shoot my 870's a bit. After Fri. the days will start to grow shorter. Bird season opens Sept. 1!!!!

Yep. Bought a mountain bike and will be hitting the trails hard and running the dogs afterwards. (got to get everyone in shape)

Bought a Badlands Upland Vest, and I think I'm about to build a drawer system for my Tacoma to fit under my dog box.

Saving money for a bird huntin trip to Northern CA; our drought down here has made the quail population too thin to hunt in the huntable areas, with many public land closures due to fire hazard. And that will only get worse.

Might also try the east slope of the Sierra, too, although they have also have drought there and the terrain is murder for a 70-year old. But I haven't shot a mountain quail for YEARS....

Working out and shooting is an all year endeavor. The bug hits when you step out on the porch one evening and there is change in the air. You can smell it. It's then you know the time is near.

Geese must get the same restless feeling when it's time to go.

you are quite right battue, but in this state, forest grouse opens Sept. 1... So summer is hardly over before we are hunting.. Dove shooting here is pretty limited.. Probably don't kill a days limit for the entire season.. But some years the grouse shooting is very good. Then the middle of the mth. sage grouse opens, and Oct. 1 sharptails, huns, and chukars.. Saturday the days start to get shorter.. Hopefully this year I will be ready.. Already, have the Sept. 1 opener planned, if all goes well.. Will hit the mt.s for blue grouse in the morning, then hunt elk that evening...

Im looking forward to trying my hand at grouse hunting (never done it).

Im really looking forward to Oct....then its on!!

I do miss the dove hunting we had in Texas, but they can keep it..and the heat!

Never hunted doves in Tx.. But have hunted them a lot in AZ. It was during their second season in Dec.. Had a ball.. Really went though a lot of shells in two or three weeks.. Likely will never have shooting like that again. Grouse in the forest can be a pretty iffy thing.. Had a spot that produced dozens of grouse, then bang..Nothing.. A bunch of sheep were moved in and grazed to mountain, and the shooting has never been the same.. they are fun when you find them, but many times a .22 is all that is needed...

Oh I forgot about Ptarmigan, that opens Sept 8th I believe.

Sounds like you have variety and then some. Combined with your travels to different parts of the country, I'm a leeeetle envious.

Must say there is Grouse hunting and then there is Ruffed Grouse hunting. I think you know which one I prefer. Then again it's all good.

A Campfire group trip for some great Dove shooting would be a blast.

JWP you going to Colo. for the ptarmigan??

battue, You are quite right about the grouse hunting and Ruffed Grouse hunting, and I would add eastern ruffed grouse hunting. Like eastern gobblers, they are a whole different ball game.
Our western ruffs are pretty calm compared to eastern birds.. Being on the wrong side of 65, and having very poor hearing, I appreciate the less educated birds of my country. But it is still a great thrill to try those eastern grouse.. I haven't been to Az. for several years now shooting doves.. The second season opens in Nov. and goes to about the first weekend in Jan.
When I first retired, we spent part of Dec. and all of Jan. in Az. hunting doves, then quail.. But the continued lack of rain in that area has destroyed the quail shooting.. Last few times I was down, I didn't even shoot at the couple quail we saw.. There were lots of doves though.. It would be a great trip, no doubt, but some ground work would have to be laid.. Several of my old shooting spots now support homes, and of course NO TRESSPASSING!!
Sad, but quite true. We may make a tour that way come winter and end up in Tx. for some hog hunting and exotic game shooting. I will try and check out the dove situation... We used to headquarter around Wilcox. It was great hunting in the years right after I retired in 1999.. Sure something to think about..

That's the plan, to head towards hipsterville..

We are both on the wrong side of 65 and I'm damn close to the right side of 70. So what, it is what it is and it is still cool. It's gonna get worse, but I'll worry about it then.

I know what you mean re hearing. Because of it I hunt even slower than I have to.

10 cases of trap loads, 3 cases of #5 Golden Pheasant, and 3 cases of 3" #2 Winchester Supreme steel. One thing we have a lot of is bird shooting. Work the dog daily, provided I get done working before it gets dark. Hard to beat a frosty October or November day and lots of empty shotgun shells.

ranger1, what do you use the trap loads on??? I shoot lots of them at doves when I get to Az. Never tried them on huns or chukars.. Also those Golden Pheasant #5's, had a couple boxes, but they seemed to really kick. For me the old 3 1/4- 1 1/4- 5's worked about as well... Just interested in the reasons behind your selections.. Nice to hear there is still some great bird shooting in the U. S. What we have here is fair to good, but limited due to winter freeze up for waterfowl, and the best upland hunting is about three hours north of here. With good bird hunting, and some deer, life would be sublime...Your a lucky man.

Trap loads are used for trap every Thursday and for sharptail and huns. The Golden Pheasant #5's are my my go to pheasant load, they pattern perfectly at 30 and 40 yards through both of our Browning shotguns and just plain knock the dog chit out of pheasants. I've noted far fewer cripples with them, especially when birds are flighty and flushing wild at the edge of being in range. We do have it pretty good here, I've got no complaints!

I been liking those GP #5s myself.

Joined a trap league with some coworkers.

I think sometimes they loaded my shells with no shot or made the targets out of armor. Either way, I have to practice more.

Heard a story that a lot (a batch) of targets got loose with too much resin. Story was that one bird that didn't break had 17 hols in it. Dunno if you can claim that, worth a shot?

Shot a round for the first time in over a year last week, felt the same way. Actually my swing was rough and the muzzle didn't always go where I intended. Muscle memory games need practice.

We focus on grouse/wc in Northern Michigan (Opens Sep 15) until the first week in Nov when its SoDak time. Started riding the bike with dogs running alongside July 1. Will mix in some swimming and woods walks on cool days soon too. Shooting skeet/5 stand with the bird guns.

Don't need any more upland gear, probably already have a lifetime supply!

NB

Natty, our forest grouse season opens Sept. 1.. I do need to get some skeet shooting in.. Trap shooting has been my shotgun sport for years, but skeet is much tougher, but here skeet and 5 std. are tough to come by.. Hunted ruffs a bit near Mac. City last fall.. a fair amount of birds.. Didn't get any woodcock though.. That is one bird I have only killed one or two in my life.. Doubt I get to S. D. this fall for roosters.. Our fall plans have eliminated that trip I think, but may get some shooting in when we go though Ks. later in the fall... My dogs are getting daily exercise for the coming hunts.. Can't wait. One would think after over 50 years of gunning the excitement would have become less, not so..

Ruffed Grouse season in the northern counties begins Sept. 14th and Woodcock begins Sept. 21st. We wait until after the Bear season hunting with dogs is over, which is usually the 1st of October. Bear hounds, bird dogs and bears sometimes make for interesting encounters. The last few years we have encounters with wolves no matter what date we hunt.

My hunting pards and I like to shoot skeet year around to help our success ratio in bagging flushed birds.

What has changed for us is we used to chase a lot of grouse in the hills, but find the flat land of the north best suited for our current ages.

I feel your (joint) pain, roundoak. I USED to be a chukar hunter....

Bought an SKS/Ithaca M100 20ga SxSc IC/M for grouse and woodcock and a BRNO ZH204 (7x57R over 12ga) for grouse while deer hunting. Sold a nice M37 20ga with factory VR & IC choke.

SuperCub, I had a couple of those model 100's 20 g. when I was shooting doubles.. Nice guns, but the last one I had shot both barrels low..

I had a M200 for quite a while and was offered a very good trade on it for a shotgun I never used or in the end didn't like that much. I sold the trade and started looking for another SKB. I finally found one this spring and it won't be going anywhere if it shoots as well as the first.

Hope it does..they are nice handling guns.. The first I shot some game with it, but never patterned it.. Sold it to help make a hunt to Alaska in '81..

Shooting skeet with the bird guns, and running the dog.
Sept 1 is only 48 days away.

Looking forward to the upland season this year for the first time in a long while. Have been doing much more big game hunting, but we have a new vizsla pup and my daughter really wants to go out hunting with her. (It is technically her pup)

I am looking forward to some dove hunting soon.

Just picked up a Franchi Affinity 20ga. It will be my go to bird blaster this year. I was going to get a Montefeltro, but for a little more than $200 less the Affinity works...plus they didn't have any 20ga Monte's.

Less than 30 days now.. like 18 days..!!!!!! I need to shoot a bit of trap or skeet..

I thought it would be nice to extend the grouse hunting a bit into deer season so I was going to use this BRNO 7x57R/12ga for such.

Found the 12ga bbl was x-full, so it's back to the drawing board on that thought till I can get the choke opend up.

SuperCub, don't over look those spreader loads.. I bought 5 boxes from I think it was Polywad.. They turned my Ithaca 37 from a long range duck gun into a ruffed grouse gun.. They were reasonable, but shipping was a pain.. then you can shoot this fall and still have a long range gun!!

That's a good idea now. I'll look into that.

Checked out the farm yesterday AM- lots of doves feeding in the cut wheat. If weather holds for another couple of weeks, should be a great dove season in E. Colorado!

If I can get around better by then I hope to take the dogs and shotgun up to Wyo for a Sage chicken hunt and scout for Antelope as well.

I am looking forward to Sage Grouse as well. Actually I think I'm going to go after Sage boomers instead of Ptarmigan this year.

To the "oldsters" here: Oh, I hear ya! Those damn canyons in the Eastern Sierra's where I love to hunt the birds seem to be getting steeper! But, I just can't help myself; I just keep going after 'em. Fool that I am. Ain't it friggin' great?

And then there's the chukars that like lava beds....

Should be a nicer walk! Good luck!!!!!

Ohhh, you got that right!

Its official, i'll be in the mountains for the opener of blue grouse. I've never seen one in the flesh, but I've got an idea of the type of habitat they prefer.

We'll see if me and the pups can find them.....(not getting my hopes up lol, should be fun though)

Best of luck.. With these guys it is usually either feast or famine.. Haven't spent any time in the mts. this summer except for a couple trips for brookies early.. We usually kill a few some times quite a few.. Also enjoy going for ruffs in the northwest.. My sister in law is coming in Sept. so that may goof up my ruffed grouse trip, but I have lots of other tags to fill and birds to shoot.. good luck...

That's the same tale I've heard from others regarding the snowys. You're either on them, or not.

Oh well should be fun. And I have an elk tag, so it will be a hunt/scouting trip (if I don't see birds).

Re: Blue grouse- Hope you have a great time. We hunt them every year starting Sept. 1st. The ones around here are not the fool hens like may be found some places. We hunt the clear cut edges a lot, and hunt them like pheasants- lot harder to hit at times. Round count to birds taken is sometimes 'significant'...

bird season is about on us. dove starts sunday sept 1st. right now its looking good, lots of white wing and morning doves and a few ring necks coming in to the tanks morning and evening,Quail look better this year than the last 5 yrs, lots of birds and we have finished our 2nd hatch and i am seeing a lot of pairs we may get at least 1/2 a 3rd hatch.coveys are bigger this year than the years past,with 15 to 25 birds per covey, will be able to tell more after the fall shuffle,if the weather holds and we dont have any freezing rain early we should have a hell of a great quail year.my labs are ready for dove, and pointers will be ready for the oct.15th opening of quail. we are covered up with turkeys but dont hunt them much, should be a fun a productive year. rio7

Im considering going down to black gap in late December/early Jan for some desert quail. Heard anything about how they're doing over by Big Bend?

dont know about big bend country, its 8 hr drive n.w. from here.rio7

Dove opens Monday the 2nd; worked on the farm last Saturday, had 100's of birds in the sunflowers and corn. Should be a fine opening day, gonna shoot my old Belgian 16ga A-5. Good luck with your gunning gents!

We had a lot of work this summer that was supposed to happen this fall. Looks like my fall is going to be fairly clear for lots of hunting this year.

Pics of the new-to-me M100.

SuperCub, sharp little 20 ga., hope it shoots as nice as it looks..

I have the shotguns laid out, ammo, old hunting coat, ready for the morning..
I 'll use my old 37 12g. with 1 oz. loads of 5's and 1 1/8oz loads of 6's in spreaders for the first shot.
My wife will have the little 870 28 ga. with Estate 3/4oz of
7 1/2's. Good luck with dove, grouse or squirrel what ever is the game...

Ill be taking the kids out chasing the doves and blue grouse... Should be blast!!!!

Ruffies for me tomorrow!
because the bush is so dense this time of year I use a much heavier charge than normal- I usually use just a skeet load for them.
Going with a full 1 1/8 of of 5's and a stiff load of FFG in the Westley Richards hammer double.
Cat

Ours doesn't start till Oct 1.

Cat, 5's for ruffs!!!I thought I would be the only guy using that load... We don't have any here, only blues, but I usually get a few when I head north for an early deer hunt.. I try to get there 3-5 days early so I can shoot grouse for a bit.. Not sure the plan will work this year.. Maybe only a day..

You are not the only one. When I can find 5s or 6s in a 16 gauge they are a first choice for Ruffed Grouse. They penetrate. Odd to some and certainly not traditional, but they work better than well.

Toby is going to need to get a trim here shortly.

Toby is a handsome boy . . . .what breed?

English Cocker. Flushing Dog, similar to an English Springer only smaller and more color variations.

Nice dog. I just made an app't to have our old lab put down on Thursday.

Better days for her. Note the paw up on the rest. Ready to go!

Sorry Cub. Labs are cool.

Give her a good by hug from here.

Thanks .... We are going to miss this old girl. Labs are cool, but we'll never get another given the shedding. We had them on the farm as kids, but I've never seen anything shed as much as this dog.

I think the next one with be a Pudelpointer.

https://www.google.ca/#q=pudelpointer

Super Cub, I am so sorry about your lab.. We never get over them we only adjust.. best wishes..

battue, that little cocker has the most loving face.. He reminds me of my goldens.. Very loving dogs.. They have almost human expressions and actions.. I feel sad for those who kennel their dogs away from the family and ever worse for the dogs..

He is a special Dog. Not the best hunter I've had, but the two of us stumble around until we run into something.