Upland Bird Hunting

[sstterry]

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

My thoughts exactly!

 

[Brute 23]

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.

I started doing it in college with my roommate. I'll never forget the first time having to reach in the box and grab the birds out then put them in the grass with out letting them go. :lol:

We turn cows in on a pasture and let them eat and stomp some of the grass down. The best ones have sprayed, dead huisatche or mesquite that hasn't fallen over yet. The cattle graze around them and leave clumps of grass. We make a pocket with our hand or foot and set the bird in the pocket.

The only bad thing is making sure there isn't a rattle snake already occupying that bush in the warmer months.

Taking a shear or some thing to pluck a huisatche or mesquite and then letting it lay after you pull it makes excellent quail cover.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I'm doing a tower hunt with a bunch of friends in 2 weeks or so.

I consider that shooting not hunting myself.

 

[True Grit Farms]

About like shooting crows i guess.

I can see you've never crow hunted with a shotgun before. I've been to a lot of dove shoots, pheasant shoots and pigeon shoots, had some shooting opportunities every time. Ever heard of eating crow?

 

[Dave]

We use to hunt and eat bandtail pigeons on the Washington coast. They were fun to hunt and ok to eat. But the population got low enough that the game dept closed the hunting off. You still see them but not in the number that were around in the 50's and 60's. If you want to hunt chukars you can come here. They are wild birds and there are plenty of them. But I would not advise anyone over 35 years old and not in great shape to do it. They sort of like the steepest ground they can find.

 

[Stocker Steve]

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.

Used to be good pheasant/quail mixed bag hunting in sothern Iowa. Have not been back for a long time. I think high corn prices and heavy rains have really hurt the bird populations there.

Only hunted NE Nebraska once. Every motel had red carpet. What's with that? Lots of Missoura boys there, some in bib overalls and old trucks. Not much public land and access is an issue.

Hunted SD alot. Their residents only season opens a week earlier and they pound most public ground. The big guided operations have stripped out cover so you can walk easily, and they plant birds each morning for you... High rollers like to brag how many minutes it took for them to shoot a limit of boot birds before they went back to their card game. I would look into a reservation license and/or west river if you like to walk. Walleye/smallmouth/pheasant is possible on the river.

Lived in ND a while. Still hunt there. Their pheasants are in pockets found mostly in the soutern third of the state. Plan to do alot of scouting. Not as commercialized as SD. Good place for a mixed bag trip - - sharp tail/pheasant or duck/pheasant are possible. Hun numbers are low.

 

[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.

I started doing it in college with my roommate. I'll never forget the first time having to reach in the box and grab the birds out then put them in the grass with out letting them go. :lol:

We turn cows in on a pasture and let them eat and stomp some of the grass down. The best ones have sprayed, dead huisatche or mesquite that hasn't fallen over yet. The cattle graze around them and leave clumps of grass. We make a pocket with our hand or foot and set the bird in the pocket.

The only bad thing is making sure there isn't a rattle snake already occupying that bush in the warmer months.

Taking a shear or some thing to pluck a huisatche or mesquite and then letting it lay after you pull it makes excellent quail cover.

Yep. We have a good bit of cover most of the time. The number of hunters in each group determined how many birds we put out. Usually 5-6 per covey. We would bag them up in pillowcases at daylight. Then go put out 8-10 coveys. (Spin them around 5 or 6 times and make them drunk then dump them out gently and move away very slowly. There's an art to it if you want them to stay put. Spin them too much or not enough and they will fly. Also need good cover) Go eat breakfast and then go back and hunt them. Depending on how hard the hunters wanted to hunt and also how good they could shoot on the rise we could usually pick up the majority of the singles. I enjoyed working the dogs. The people not too much sometimes. But I also met a lot of fine folks.

 

[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.

Used to be good pheasant/quail mixed bag hunting in sothern Iowa. Have not been back for a long time. I think high corn prices and heavy rains have really hurt the bird populations there.

Only hunted NE Nebraska once. Every motel had red carpet. What's with that? Lots of Missoura boys there, some in bib overalls and old trucks. Not much public land and access is an issue.

Hunted SD alot. Their residents only season opens a week earlier and they pound most public ground. The big guided operations have stripped out cover so you can walk easily, and they plant birds each morning for you... High rollers like to brag how many minutes it took for them to shoot a limit of boot birds before they went back to their card game. I would look into a reservation license and/or west river if you like to walk. Walleye/smallmouth/pheasant is possible on the river.

Lived in ND a while. Still hunt there. Their pheasants are in pockets found mostly in the soutern third of the state. Plan to do alot of scouting. Not as commercialized as SD. Good place for a mixed bag trip - - sharp tail/pheasant or duck/pheasant are possible. Hun numbers are low.

Excellent info, thanks. My son and one of his friends, both 12, had a great time shooting the planted birds this weekend. The boys shot pretty good but the Dad's got to knock a few out of the sky as well. Boys are ready to go back.

 

[J&D Cattle]

We use to hunt and eat bandtail pigeons on the Washington coast. They were fun to hunt and ok to eat. But the population got low enough that the game dept closed the hunting off. You still see them but not in the number that were around in the 50's and 60's. If you want to hunt chukars you can come here. They are wild birds and there are plenty of them. But I would not advise anyone over 35 years old and not in great shape to do it. They sort of like the steepest ground they can find.

I plan to do a little scouting around when we visit my MIL this summer or early fall. She lives North of the Tri-Cities area. Her husband was talking about maybe planning an elk hunt in the mountains which he said I think was around 100 miles from them.

These farm raised chukars down here are great eating.

 

[Dave]

We use to hunt and eat bandtail pigeons on the Washington coast. They were fun to hunt and ok to eat. But the population got low enough that the game dept closed the hunting off. You still see them but not in the number that were around in the 50's and 60's. If you want to hunt chukars you can come here. They are wild birds and there are plenty of them. But I would not advise anyone over 35 years old and not in great shape to do it. They sort of like the steepest ground they can find.

I plan to do a little scouting around when we visit my MIL this summer or early fall. She lives North of the Tri-Cities area. Her husband was talking about maybe planning an elk hunt in the mountains which he said I think was around 100 miles from them.

These farm raised chukars down here are great eating.

Elk 100 miles from the area north of Tri-Cities. That could be either the Blue Mountains to the SE or the Clockum to the NW. Either one it is spike bulls only on the over the counter tags. They draw for branched antler bull tags in all of Eastern Washington. Still a fun hunt just not for trophy animals.

 

[J&D Cattle]

We use to hunt and eat bandtail pigeons on the Washington coast. They were fun to hunt and ok to eat. But the population got low enough that the game dept closed the hunting off. You still see them but not in the number that were around in the 50's and 60's. If you want to hunt chukars you can come here. They are wild birds and there are plenty of them. But I would not advise anyone over 35 years old and not in great shape to do it. They sort of like the steepest ground they can find.

I plan to do a little scouting around when we visit my MIL this summer or early fall. She lives North of the Tri-Cities area. Her husband was talking about maybe planning an elk hunt in the mountains which he said I think was around 100 miles from them.

These farm raised chukars down here are great eating.

Elk 100 miles from the area north of Tri-Cities. That could be either the Blue Mountains to the SE or the Clockum to the NW. Either one it is spike bulls only on the over the counter tags. They draw for branched antler bull tags in all of Eastern Washington. Still a fun hunt just not for trophy animals.

Blue sounds right now that I see it typed.

 

[TexasBred]

We use to hunt and eat bandtail pigeons on the Washington coast. They were fun to hunt and ok to eat. But the population got low enough that the game dept closed the hunting off. You still see them but not in the number that were around in the 50's and 60's. If you want to hunt chukars you can come here. They are wild birds and there are plenty of them. But I would not advise anyone over 35 years old and not in great shape to do it. They sort of like the steepest ground they can find.

I plan to do a little scouting around when we visit my MIL this summer or early fall. She lives North of the Tri-Cities area. Her husband was talking about maybe planning an elk hunt in the mountains which he said I think was around 100 miles from them.

These farm raised chukars down here are great eating.

My son in law goes pheasant hunting somewhere in Kansas as well as South Dakota. I'll see if I find out where he goes.

 

[Dave]

I plan to do a little scouting around when we visit my MIL this summer or early fall. She lives North of the Tri-Cities area. Her husband was talking about maybe planning an elk hunt in the mountains which he said I think was around 100 miles from them.

These farm raised chukars down here are great eating.

Elk 100 miles from the area north of Tri-Cities. That could be either the Blue Mountains to the SE or the Clockum to the NW. Either one it is spike bulls only on the over the counter tags. They draw for branched antler bull tags in all of Eastern Washington. Still a fun hunt just not for trophy animals.

Blue sounds right now that I see it typed.

That would be the area South of Dayton and Pomeroy. The Northern edge of the blue mountains. I never hunted there but I do know some people who do very successfully. I now live about the Southeast corner of the Blues. I see some pretty impressive sets of elk antlers displayed in people's homes, stores, and some just in the rafters of barns.