CO Hunter
New member
As I mentioned in a previous post, I have several fields (WIHA) that I’ve hunted over the last 5-10 years. I’ve seen some of the same escape routes used and since I typically hunt solo with my dog, I find that I’m often on the wrong side of the draw/thick stuff/plum thicket (insert any obstacle that makes a shot difficult or impossible!) when I have perhaps pinched the birds enough where they have to fly. I have found that typically without a blocker birds get up at the end of the draw and sometimes along the way depending on the cover.
Specifically for the fingers that offshoot a larger draw, I find that those areas present better shots because the cover is smaller and defined- bordered by cut field/winter wheat in some cases.
After all that...I guess my fundamental question is do you all think that walking a main draw then veering off into a side channel has likely pushed birds from the main draw into the finger or were the birds likely already in the finger and I just pushed them to the end? Or were they perhaps already at/near the end of the draw and have nothing to do but flush when I get close enough? If so, then a stealthy approach and “ambush” at the tip of the finger draw could be productive to outsmart a bird or 2 from their typical escape route. Or perhaps pushing the finger back into the main draw to change things up a bit? Has anyone tried to just forgo the linear walking pattern of a typical draw/finger to quietly approach an end or bisect a draw at a “birdy” feature such as plum thicket, change in cover, etc? It’s putting all the eggs in one basket as opposed to pushing cover with the hope that a bird or 2 holds tight enough for a shot somewhere between point A and B. I understand and use natural “blockers”- road, winter wheat, thin cover as much as possible to contain the birds....just trying to figure out if there is a “better” way of going about this.
I get the saying that you find birds where they are, but spooky public land birds can also be where they are because you just pushed them from where they were... That was more rambling than intended...while there are no absolutes, I’m just trying to better understand some different tactics to try to put to use. Thanks for the forum’s insight and expertise.
Specifically for the fingers that offshoot a larger draw, I find that those areas present better shots because the cover is smaller and defined- bordered by cut field/winter wheat in some cases.
After all that...I guess my fundamental question is do you all think that walking a main draw then veering off into a side channel has likely pushed birds from the main draw into the finger or were the birds likely already in the finger and I just pushed them to the end? Or were they perhaps already at/near the end of the draw and have nothing to do but flush when I get close enough? If so, then a stealthy approach and “ambush” at the tip of the finger draw could be productive to outsmart a bird or 2 from their typical escape route. Or perhaps pushing the finger back into the main draw to change things up a bit? Has anyone tried to just forgo the linear walking pattern of a typical draw/finger to quietly approach an end or bisect a draw at a “birdy” feature such as plum thicket, change in cover, etc? It’s putting all the eggs in one basket as opposed to pushing cover with the hope that a bird or 2 holds tight enough for a shot somewhere between point A and B. I understand and use natural “blockers”- road, winter wheat, thin cover as much as possible to contain the birds....just trying to figure out if there is a “better” way of going about this.
I get the saying that you find birds where they are, but spooky public land birds can also be where they are because you just pushed them from where they were... That was more rambling than intended...while there are no absolutes, I’m just trying to better understand some different tactics to try to put to use. Thanks for the forum’s insight and expertise.