Recent content by cyclonenation10

Completely agree. I took my 5 month old golden with me all year last year. As long as their recall is fine and you're not worried about shooting, can't hurt a thing. Thousands of bird flushes, exposure to all sorts of shooting, different scenarios, etc. Builds a very confident dog in my opinion.

Have killed hundreds of birds over mine the past several years. Best retrievers that I have ever hunted with, can hunt very long, and hard. Will run mine for multiple days straight with no breaks. Thrive in the cold. If you're going to be hunting a whole lot in warmer temps, that would be the...

Absolutely love my two. All I have ever hunted with so I'm probably biased. Can't beat the personality - especially for house dogs the rest of the year.

No question. From talking with folks in the DNR who do the surveys, it does sound like they had several routes along poor habitat that usually prodcue just a few bird sightings that produced multiples of that this year.

Anecdotally between eastern iowa and NW IA, I have not really been seeing any more birds than any time the past 5 years either out driving or running the dogs. I hope they are right, but I'm not convinced yet. I think it will be a good year regardless, but I don't think it is as good as the DNR...

Would recommend hunting the public ground during the week and save your private access for Saturday/Sunday. There are birds around that area for sure.

Yes more rain here today as well. I was encouraged to get this picture yesterday morning on my trail camera along one of the firebreaks.

Similar with rain here on this side of the State. I am hopeful that the bulk of the broods hatched without issue in June - as the weather was near perfect at that time.

I really wish PF would have included pictures in that link as well for chick ages.

In my experience it seems the dog "knows" when they need to grip harder or not.

Glad to hear. I was mowing our clover/alfalfa firebreaks last week and kicked up a hen very close to me - got out and could hear some very small chicks (could not fly yet). Needless to say, I left that area unmowed.

I will plan on it!!

It would be a sight to see the entirety of each of your farms in CRP!

Any idea why there are far fewer pheasants at your one farm vs. the other? I assume just not as many acres of habitat?

Beautiful!