Mild weather hunting

gimruis said:
80 yards? My dog rarely gets more than about 20 yards ahead. If a dog is at 80 yards, the birds aint flushing even remotely within range. You aren't shooting at roosters that flush at 90.

The last time someone brought a dog with that ranged that far they didn't get invited to come again...
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Are you hunting pointers or flushers? I have always had pointers and where we hunt, have always liked to keep them within gun range. But some pointers will range out quite a bit farther. Guy I hunt with occasionally has field trial dogs. I don't like hunting with him because his dogs will run 200-300-400yds or more. He likes it because if his dogs do actually point a bird (rare) it might hold for the 15 minutes it takes to walk there.

I have no problem with a pointer ranging out to maybe 100yds but prefer closer. But it better not be a flusher because you'll never get a shot off.
 
AtTheMurph said:
But it better not be a flusher because you'll never get a shot off.
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I hunt with a british lab, so its a flusher. I don't know if a Brittany is a pointer or a flusher to be honest, I have no experience hunting with one and probably never will.

20 yards or less most of the time here, that way when a rooster flushes at that distance or shortly beyond it, its within range. My dog was never really much of a wide ranging dog, even when she was younger. When she got further ahead, that's where the e-collar came in. Unless of course she was on a runner.
 
gimruis said:
80 yards? My dog rarely gets more than about 20 yards ahead. If a dog is at 80 yards, the birds aint flushing even remotely within range. You aren't shooting at roosters that flush at 90.

The last time someone brought a dog with that ranged that far they didn't get invited to come again...
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Brittman is over in pointer land, so dog range is much different. Whenever I hear of big running pointing dogs, well, it's just not my cup of tea. I picture a guy on a horse watching his dog 300 yards in the distance, and waiting to ride on over after a point. English pointers often run very large, and are more of a prairie bird dog, or made for the large quail plantations in the south. Only my opinions. I really don't understand how a dog that ranges hundreds of yards away is very effective for wild rooster hunting in MN. Roosters are cagey and tough and as we all know don't stand still at this point in the season.
 
The horse riding hunters are usually in the south hunting bobwhites. I have had a dog on point on a covey for close to an hour one time. Bobs will sit there, and sit there and sit there. Dog will too.

I know a trainer/field trialer here in Indiana who trains his EPs on horseback. He let's them go and waits for the GPS to beep dog is on point. Told me not unusual for dog to go 3-5 miles then point. He gets on horse to go find the dogs. I guess you could hunt like that, but why?
 
You know a Brittany points bird’s right?

My dogs range is often tied to the cover thickness. Thick aspen, cattails, or thick grass and they typically are out around 30-40 yards tops ... again they tend to cast out and work back which works absolute wonders on pinning birds.

Most points occur say 25 - 60 yards out from me I suppose ... I have had dogs go on point nearly at my feet and well out past 100 yards.

Majority of my shots are at flushes under my feet to 10 yards out or so. Typically have plenty of time to lift my gun and wait for the bird to get out to a range where I do not blow them up. Pressured birds tend to flush out in front of the dog a little sooner and thus out a bit further (I suspect they hear me or us walking in).

I prefer my dogs in that 40-60 range, but am fine letting them stretch out if birds are sparse or cover is such that I can see them at times.
 
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This thread made me wonder how far my pointers actually go. So I made a script to analyze my last GPS track for a quail hunt. Black line is one dog and blue is the other. Not sure what to do with this info but hey cool graph.
Quail Hunt Distance Away.jpg
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
Now that is cool. I’ll buy lunch if you can mark the points and flushes on there.
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I'll think about adding points onto it. But flushes would have to be manually added. And I don't think there's any actionable items that would come out of the info. So it's not really worth that effort of checking. More of just a cool thing to see.
 
BRITTMAN said:
You know a Brittany points bird’s right?

My dogs range is often tied to the cover thickness. Thick aspen, cattails, or thick grass and they typically are out around 30-40 yards tops ... again they tend to cast out and work back which works absolute wonders on pinning birds.

Most points occur say 25 - 60 yards out from me I suppose ... I have had dogs go on point nearly at my feet and well out past 100 yards.

Majority of my shots are at flushes under my feet to 10 yards out or so. Typically have plenty of time to lift my gun and wait for the bird to get out to a range where I do not blow them up. Pressured birds tend to flush out in front of the dog a little sooner and thus out a bit further (I suspect they hear me or us walking in).

I prefer my dogs in that 40-60 range, but am fine letting them stretch out if birds are sparse or cover is such that I can see them at times.
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Was this meant for me? I have a Brittany!
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
Now that is cool. I’ll buy lunch if you can mark the points and flushes on there.
Click to expand...
I was able to add in the "points", they are the bolded sections. But it's honestly pretty garbled data, unless you have the classic 2 minute long point while you walk over, most of them don't really show much info beyond them having stayed in the same spot for a few seconds. This specific hunt was a lot more flushing work as the dogs worked into bushes finding singles.
Quail Hunt_With Points.png
 
LittleBigHorn22 said:
I was able to add in the "points", they are the bolded sections. But it's honestly pretty garbled data, unless you have the classic 2 minute long point while you walk over, most of them don't really show much info beyond them having stayed in the same spot for a few seconds. This specific hunt was a lot more flushing work as the dogs worked into bushes finding singles.
View attachment 6994
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Okay more cool data, but hasn’t convinced me to get a pointing dog yet. That said I saw some really good vizulas at an agility trial and am thinking of adding one to the household.
 
Hunting with any trained dog is a pure joy! But for me a old man I need a pointer they go on point and don't leave till I get there sometimes in the cattails it's a problem.
 
Ill never own a pointer and horse but would love to try it once. I see them out on the SD grasslands on the grouse opener and it looks like a blast.
 
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