Favorite bird to hunt

[WCT12]

dry field waterfowl hunts

Ducks then snows then darks in that order

 

[a pebble]

Blue grouse!

 

[MTBackroads]

Huns and Chukar

 

[Muleyczy]

Huns and Chukar

I like you avatar pic. Good looking dog!

 

[MTBackroads]

I like you avatar pic. Good looking dog!

Thanks!

 

[DBow77]

Dove and Chukkar.

 

[m rosi]

Pheasant. State stocked, not wild, not pay to hunt preserve, not private hunting club. The hunting is challenging (understatement) and the birds are good to eat. I don't have to ask anyone permission, pay anyone, travel out of state, lease or own land, or join a club. I can drive to and park to a public pheasant release site in a Toyota Prius if I had one, no need for a fwd or awd. It gives me and other hunters areas to concentrate our effort with a reasonable chance at a pheasant. These public lands are maintained for pheasant hunting so other than rotation of mowing there are no drastic changes in the habitat from year to year (or bird numbers for that matter). I like hunting spring turkey. I am an avid waterfowl hunter. I know the best bird to eat is the ruffed grouse. I appreciate woodcock, which are attracted to pheasant stocking sites anyway. I have LIVED in South Dakota and hunted wild pheasant, as well as hungarian partridge, sharp-tailed grouse, and priairie chicken out there. Up until the early 80s I hunted wild bobwhite quail. If wild bobwhite were still abundant and widespread, it would be a hard choice, but the access would also have to be good. If I lived in the western states that have wild chukar, that would be my favorite, however. At least as long as you can get up in the mountains and people still are not driving around like they are everywhere else. When the motorheads and the "cruisers" ruin the chukar mountains, as they ruined everywhere else, then I would again place state run pheasant stocking programs at the top of the list, by a long shot...

 

[TheGDog]

SoCal. And while I enjoy Doves coming in to Mojo and static deeks and Dove-A-Flikrs... there's definitely something to be said about pursuing Quail in Desert flatlands terrain (think Mojave) with a breakbarrel Magnum-class Pellet rifle and leafy-suit. The more open nature of that kinda habitat makes them almost never be flying around, and you've got enough space to peep them scurrying over to another piece of low-lying bush, so you , maybe 35-40yds away, can hoop-scootch over to viewing the other side of said bush, and be prepared with your kwik stix to make a shot.

Tried ducks at Wister something like, wanna say 4-5 times so far. But if you don't have a Dog to go fetch the bird outta the water? Wading in to get them is sketchy as HEYELL!

I've learned that in order to have your feet NOT sink into the muck (which is a VERY sketchy scenario out there, for as you attempt to pull the one leg free.. the force you're exerting with the other leg is causing THAT one to then try to sink into the muck!), ya gotta do short choppy constantly moving steps, and ALWAYS remove everything from your pockets BEFORE you go into that water, just in case you have a bobble and potentially oopsie and fall when in the water. I've come close to "taking on water" but never quite got there yet. And I'd highly recommend bringing along a pole with a wide base to it to use as a third point of contact when in the water. Has saved me a number of times. I just used a Primos Trigger stick tall that I had.

Unless you already know which sections to pick, and have the decoy setups where you can make them all appear to move in unison with the bungee-type cord attached to the contraption that the like 4 decoys are attached to. And feel at least half-a confident that you understand how to do the couple of different duck calls... personally? It's just not worth the super long 3+ hrs to drive down there and either sit in pretty chilly mornings.. OR.. VERY HOT dez conditions.

And... if you mess-up and pick the wrong section? You can get eaten-alive by mosquitos out there. Have a friend whose an ER Dr and when she saw the posted-up pic of like the triceps area of my arm? she legit thought it looked like shingles.

the one cool thing though.. about Wister? Like on those cold mornings? You'll be in your section, all sitting down to be tucked-in among the desert bushes... and then outta nowhere just like a couple yards above your head, you'll occasionally experience a whole big flock of someother bird you're not there for... swooping by over your head very close by! that part is kinda neat to experience a time or two.

the one good thing I will say about pursuing ducks though.. is it makes you very adept at perceiving and identifying their siloheutte shapes in first lite / early am. And that seems to also make your brain get better at spotting Doves on the wing a ways off too.

 

[TheGDog]

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but the dove hunting sharpens my shooting skills better than any other bird.

FOR SURE Dove hunting has helped me with improving being able to take advantage of rushed jump-shot opportunities when it comes to all other species. Still not great on judging how much to lead in front of the bird w/ shotgun when they're on the wing. But!.... that's where the Mojo and static decoys and Flikrs come in... you making THEM come to where YOU want them to go to! Meanwhile you're tucked-in someplace overlooking that scene, such as in-between two junipers, sayin' "Hi!" to the hummingbirds that come visit throughout the morning