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A friend gave me 4 boxes of the "Federal Blue Box" in 1 oz #7.5, 28ga a couple of years ago. I have no idea where he found them but I use them for desert quail and they are lethal. If I could find them in #6 I'd buy a case in a heartbeat. Entirely subjective, but my experience is that they far...

The best British labs and the best trainer is Blaine Winans, Winans Retriever Kennels in Dodge City Kansas. He has the finest kennel and training grounds I've ever seen. Look him up, give him a call. Worth the effort. Worth the drive.

Its a wrap on another season in New Mexico. Early was pretty good, but the area I hunt has been very dry and severely overgrazed so the quail are struggling. Most of my season was "armed dog walking", but the dogs and I need the exercise and every once in a while we'd find a few quail...

Same thing in central New Mexico. Hot, dry. Quail are spotty, run miles just for fun. The dogs and I are getting a lot of "armed dog walking". At least they are happy and I'm keeping (somewhat) slim.

Your story brought to mind my one "run in" with a local sheriff's deputy, in Kansas. In all the years I've hunted I've only had my hunting license checked once and never had any interaction with local law enforcement until a couple of years ago. I was hunting a very large Pheasant's Forever...

Though it is nice to be able to hunt a time or two in January, I hunt both in SD and KS and just don't see enough hunters to effect the pheasant population. If the weather is really bad, as it can be in ND, most hunters aren't going to go anyway. I believe SD enacted their extension to keep up...

My 11 year old lab has been hunting hard in ND, SD, KS and now New Mexico (quail). I've worked hard to keep her weight down. She actually weighs less now than she did 5 years ago. There is no doubt she is tired at the end of the day, but she works as hard now as she did when she was a pup...

I hunt North Dakota, South Dakota (my state of residence) and Kansas. In all 3 there is considerable pressure on the game management agency to contract walk-in areas so that the state can advertise how much land it has available for public hunting. In all three states, the amount of WIA land...

I went down the TSS rabbit hole this year. I shoot 28ga exclusively so I thought it would help increase the pellets in-pattern at longer ranges. It did, but the first thing I learned is that at shorter ranges the pattern is very tight so I missed birds that I normally would have hit with lead or...

Lights are back on in NM. Pretty warm for December though. I hunt mornings and quit when the temps go over 60F to (hopefully) avoid a snake encounter. I've been lucky so far, but have a 10 month old pup that has been through snake avoidance training, but I don't know how much stuck in her young...

Because I could find it at the time, I use #6 bismuth (28ga) on both pheasants and quail. Works well for me.

I had a lab break a toe bone at 4 years old. She lived to 14. It would heal then rebreak. It was at the base of the toe so the vet didn't want to amputate. She lived with it, but if you can, get your pup healed up now. It's not worth the long term pain to the dog if you want to push hunting him now.

I I'm too old to bust heavy cattails anymore. I let the dogs do the heavy work and try to place myself strategically where the birds (might) come out. This only works on smaller patches, at least for me. I will only do this if I'm sure the ice will support the dogs. I really don't want to to...

I normally don't hunt with anyone else. For sure, never with someone I don't know well. Strangers, not a chance. Just this year I had a "friend" that I've hunted with for years shoot at a low flying bird that was directly between me and my dogs. He didn't hit the bird or us, but he's off my...

You got that right. You have to trust your dog. The only time I use the "hunt dead" command is if the dog doesn't see the bird go down or if I'm asked to look for a bird downed by someone else. Just a couple of weeks ago I shot a rooster that dropped both legs but was still flying strong. He...

Updating my comments above, we have been hunting our 9 month old lab pup with our 11 year old lab this fall. I started by hunting the pup by herself on pen-raised birds to allow her to find, flush and retrieve without being out played by the older dog. That worked fine, other than the first time...

It's expensive, but if you really like to shoot your 28ga you might consider tungsten shot. Quite a number of folks are using it for turkeys, waterfowl (including geese) and pheasants from .410 and 28ga guns. It allows you to use much smaller shot, thus getting your pellet count up to or above a...

And use gloves. A short lead with a loop gives you something to really hold on to. Depending on the dog and the situation, those short leads can burn your hands as the dog takes off. Remember, you are training the dog. Things like that happen fairly often.

"Silent hunting" is exactly why I really like to use ecollars on my dogs. I've hunted with folks that jump out of their vehicle and start whistling, tweeting, yelling and whatever trying to get their dogs under control. If you don't think pheasants take notice, you haven't hunted wild pheasants...

I've had Beretta and Browning O/U's. The Berettas were by far the stiffest out of the box, to the point of having to break them open over your knee. The "removing lubricants" route made it even worse, so I chose to lubricate moderately and shoot the guns. I shoot of lot of skeet and sporting...