Upland Bird Hunting

[J&D Cattle]

I've been doing a little bird hunting with a couple of buddies at one of those buy your bird places. It's a lot of fun but I'd love to get out and chase some wild birds with our dogs. Anybody have any guides, outfitters, or public land they would recommend? Quail and pheasant are probably the species at the top of my list. I'd certainly entertain about anything though. Thanks
J&D

 

[Bright Raven]

Nebraska had great pheasant hunting when I was out west. I also hunted pheasant and sharptail grouse in North Dakota. Prairie chickens were good hunting in Wyoming.

Nebraska had pheasant hunts that would provide lodging, meals, dogs, and guides. I assume they still do. You can get the same packages in North and South Dakota.

 

[J&D Cattle]

I've done some googling and searching but really looking for a first hand account rather than the reviews these guides post on their website or facebook page. A buddy and I are taking our sons tomorrow for their first hunt. Will have some chukar and pheasant planted for them. The boys are awfully excited.

 

[kenny thomas]

Some adventurous CT member could start a side business of offering a place to hunt birds plus either supplying or arranging for room and board for a substantial payment. I would try it at least once.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Some adventurous CT member could start a side business of offering a place to hunt birds plus either supplying or arranging for room and board for a substantial payment. I would try it at least once.

It all sounds good except that word "substantial". "Minimal" payment has a better ring to it. :lol:

 

[greybeard]

Would people pay, for the opportunity to shoot aquatic rats?

 

[Till-Hill]

My old man guides out at the LT ranch. You won't find a better hunting/lodging experience. It's not cheap but you pay for what you get.

http://firesteelcreeklodge.com/upland-hunting/

 

[J&D Cattle]

My old man guides out at the LT ranch. You won't find a better hunting/lodging experience. It's not cheap but you pay for what you get.

http://firesteelcreeklodge.com/upland-hunting/

Unfortunately my pockets aren't that deep but man that look like a great place. I hear the Dakotas are the place to go for pheasants. Maybe one day.

 

[True Grit Farms]

There's some great pheasant hunting in Pennsylvania.

Wild birds? We saw quite a few ruffed grouse while we were in TN, VA looking at property. First one made me jump, sounded like over grown quail taking flight. Never been pheasant or grouse hunting.

 

[Brute 23]

Pheasant is over rated. I think the limit is only like 3 per day in the US.

Quail hunts... get out your $$$. That is where the big boys play.

If you are doing pen raised birds... Chukor are the way to go. They jump up like a quail but are larger like a pheasant. When I had more time one of my buddies and I would partner up and buy a couple hundred small birds of each for like $1 a piece. We would put them in some old wooden horse stalls. They mature in like 90 days. If you give them room to fly they will develop better and fly better for you. We would work his dogs in the off season with them. Its was like that movie birds. We would bail in there with dip nets and start netting them to take to the pasture and work dogs. Some times we just netted a few and threw them straight on the bbq pit.

Nothing is like wild birds but its pretty fun for the dollars spent IMO.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Pheasant is over rated. I think the limit is only like 3 per day in the US.

Quail hunts... get out your $$$. That is where the big boys play.

If you are doing pen raised birds... Chukor are the way to go. They jump up like a quail but are larger like a pheasant. When I had more time one of my buddies and I would partner up and buy a couple hundred small birds of each for like $1 a piece. We would put them in some old wooden horse stalls. They mature in like 90 days. If you give them room to fly they will develop better and fly better for you. We would work his dogs in the off season with them. Its was like that movie birds. We would bail in there with dip nets and start netting them to take to the pasture and work dogs. Some times we just netted a few and threw them straight on the bbq pit.

Nothing is like wild birds but its pretty fun for the dollars spent IMO.

The big boys I know shoot pigeons. Usually a $10k to $25k entry fee per gun.

 

[kenny thomas]

The big boys I know shoot pigeons. Usually a $10k to $25k entry fee per gun.
[/quote]
Are they good eating?

 

[True Grit Farms]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon-shooting
Here's what I'm talking about. Kenny there's way better things to eat at the shoots than pigeon.

 

[kenny thomas]

But are they good eating.

 

[True Grit Farms]

But are they good eating.

I bet they'd be real good eating if you were hungry. I've never tried pigeon, curious myself on how they eat, but I hope to never be that hungry.

 

[Brute 23]

Pheasant is over rated. I think the limit is only like 3 per day in the US.

Quail hunts... get out your $$$. That is where the big boys play.

If you are doing pen raised birds... Chukor are the way to go. They jump up like a quail but are larger like a pheasant. When I had more time one of my buddies and I would partner up and buy a couple hundred small birds of each for like $1 a piece. We would put them in some old wooden horse stalls. They mature in like 90 days. If you give them room to fly they will develop better and fly better for you. We would work his dogs in the off season with them. Its was like that movie birds. We would bail in there with dip nets and start netting them to take to the pasture and work dogs. Some times we just netted a few and threw them straight on the bbq pit.

Nothing is like wild birds but its pretty fun for the dollars spent IMO.

The big boys I know shoot pigeons. Usually a $10k to $25k entry fee per gun.

;-) Shhhh....

 

[greybeard]

But are they good eating.

Squab.About a month old pigeon. Dark meat is what I remember. Got kind of a duck taste but still good. People pay big $$ for them in high end eateries.
(don't look like $35 does it?)

 

[JMJ Farms]

I've done a little quail hunting. And done a lot of guiding. Pen raised birds. But bc they were raised in very large flight pens they fly really really well. We also used to put out pheasants occasionally but unless you break one of their legs (which we never did) they are pretty bad about running off before you get back. Theirs an art to putting both quail and pheasants out so that they stay put until you get back with the hunters. I really enjoyed it and made some pretty good cash doing it. Another thing we done quite a bit of was a continental pheasant shoot. We would throw the pheasants out of a 40' tower, one at the time, surrounded by 10 round bales of hay with two hunters at each bale. The bales were evenly spaced all the way around and about 50-60 yards from the tower. You'd think this was certain death for the pheasants but you wouldn't believe how many make it past. It's fun and an excellent way to train young retrieving dogs.

 

[tater74]

I've hunted pheasant when I lived in Idaho many years ago. Lots of fun. Good eating too. All wild birds.

 

[kenny thomas]

But are they good eating.

Squab.About a month old pigeon. Dark meat is what I remember. Got kind of a duck taste but still good. People pay big $$ for them in high end eateries.
(don't look like $35 does it?)

That looks nasty