Golden hour

We go through this every year about shooting wild vs. "released" vs. "game farm" and practically speaking, some folks just don't have the opportunity to hunt purely wild birds, but they want an outdoor experience and maybe they want to start out a new dog or new hunter, maybe a child/grandchild, on pheasants and this is the only way, for now that they can do it. Not all of us can camp out for a month in top pheasant country and pound the prairie endlessly for the wildest birds. I shot my share of wild ones this year in Montana, Iowa and Illinois and it's literally a blast--but to keep the dog happy, there are preserves that provide flight pens, early release etc. and they will run, juke on you and fly hard too. I know from experience that good shots can miss those birds the same as the "wild" ones. You just won't hear them admit it. If you're hunting on a preserve where the birds are walking away from you, you need to find a higher quality operation.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
No challenge whatsoever.
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There's a big part of it. A really big part. But not the only part.

I've been to game farms a good bit. That's what we call them in MN, not lodges, resorts, outfitters, etc. I came into hunting as an adult, and can tell you my learning curve was massive. Skye never sniffed a pheasant till she was 3 years old. Our first day ever was on public land. I did go to game farms with friends and it helped learning basics. Shooting, watching the dog, the whole bit was new to me. As I progressed, those trips became less. The last time we hit the game farm probably 2 or 3 years, and usually after the real season closed.

This is just my opinion but when you've gone out and hunted a wild bird, in his territory, on his terms, and manage to shoot and retrieve him, you've really done something. Something you can take pride in. And I think the dog knows that too.

When you go and fork over some dough so a bird raised under a heat-lamp with zero survival instincts, thrown into an artificial field 15 minutes before you jump off the school bus for a shoot, that is only the weakest imitation of the real thing. And the problem is, when people tell others they went hunting, but in fact were only shooting domesticated pseudo-pheasants, that can have a detrimental effect to real pheasant hunting, a watering down of it, making it look so much easier than it really is.

I'll never fault anyone for going to a game farm before or after season. Or living in a state where wild birds no longer exist. But why anyone would drive to a state like MN, SD, IA, ND, or even the highline in Montana, and hunt pen-reared pheasants when the season is open on wild birds is beyond my understanding.
 
Bob, I agree with much of what you wrote. Especially the part about pride in an accomplishment of bagging a wild bird. Last weekend my son (now 43, been hunting with me since he was 9) and I hunted wild birds in east central Illinois. There's not a lot of "typical" CRP cover there, we usually are limited to filter strips, weedy ditchbanks, small corners of waste, etc. It's linear cover for sure and the birds are quite wild and jumpy, particularly in mid December. The limit is 2 roosters per hunter and we each limited and given the wind and snow, we were proud of that. You can't miss many birds because you don't get many chances. I've hunted pheasants for 35 years and shot my share of the very wild ones. But it frankly pisses me off when someone gets on their holy horse and starts dissing the way others hunt without understanding, or CARING what their situations are. I read it from the same people every year, and that's just bullshit, and I'm tired of it, and I'm done with discussing it.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Ace cares. For sure. Of the 4 flare nares I'm aware of running into on public land, 3 acted nothing like a wild bird. They each literally ran right by me (in medium grass) before finally flushing, being very closely pursued by my dog Buzz. Why they chose to run at me I have no clue. Guessing they thought I might protect them from the brown, furry, wolflike creature on their tails. They were wrong. Maybe pointing dogs don't care, but experienced flushers definitely do. No challenge whatsoever.
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Brent, my apologies for leaving out Ace in my reply to GH about if I lived closer. To see the four dogs working a big WPA would be awesome!!!
 
There are many reasons people may choose to (or unknowingly) shoot flare nares. Some, like the ones Wolfchief mentioned, are pretty legit. And even if the reason is that you want something fun to do & can't find any wild ones on your own, I don't have issues with hitting up the game farm, lodge, outfitter or whatever it's called in your area. But keep them the hell off SD public land. We've got the most amazing population of truly wild pheasants in the country, hands down. Our public birds (& most non-public) were hatched & raised in the wild like 100 generations before them & shouldn't, in any way, have their wildness impinged upon, from any perspective - genetics, fair chase hunting, reputation, or anything else. I'm really, super blessed to live where I do & be able to hunt as much & as without effort/expenditure as I do. I'm also really, super proud of our wild pheasants, want others to experience them as much as possible, & want to keep them & that experience as unclouded as possible.
 
My son in law and I usually go up by his home town pheasant hunting once every fall. This fall they bought a house had a baby so it was tough. I said let’s go to a preserve that was 10 minutes from his house. My treat. My son who hasn’t hunted in years, ended up coming and he got a couple and was walking on cloud 9. The dog had fun when we were done they had a nice cleaning station. We got done and then they treated me to beer and wings and watch football for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. Was it wild bird hunting, hell no, was it better than sitting on the couch, hell yes. I just never would call it hunting, I call it dog training.😎 I got a membership so I probably will do it again after the season is over.
 
I’m about to join a Hunt club/preserve. Mainly to be able to hunt with my son when he has time because, as a college student, he doesn’t have the time to take off except on the weekends and SD is a 9.5 hr drive from here. But also because I want to hunt more, and maybe get a dog for pheasant, future duck hunting, and maybe some quail. I miss hunting birds as much as i did as a kid. Deer hunting is losing its call to me. Bird hunting makes me happy beyond description. so any time I can spend doing it is great.
 
I've taken brand new pheasant hunters to preserves and helped them get into the sport. Many got invited to go along to KS and/or SD with me at a later date.

I've taken lots of young pups to preserves and helped them learn the game. They later hunted with me in KS and/or SD.

Heck, I even used to stock farmed trout in my backyard pond before the grandkids came for a weeklong visit. Great times.

I get it....I'm just a thoroughly bad man. At some later date, maybe when I'm pushing up daisies, I'll try to be ashamed of shooting preserve birds. LOL.
 
Many Game Farms donate to conservation organizations. These businesses also donate hunts to veterans, handicap hunters and youth groups. I’m delighted to help contribute to at least part of an outdoor experience. Shooting a wild rooster is not on everyone’s bucket list. Maybe it should be. Not every wild rooster I bagged over the last 60 years in seven Midwest states had a PhD in survival. There are stupid wild pheasants or you wouldn’t bag one. Be happy they don’t shoot back.
 
In my state of Wisconsin, especially in Fond du Lac County where I'm at, most of the large tracts of once pheasant habitat are gone. I'm 50 years old, I grew up tagging along often as a youngster with my Dad hunting wild pheasants, grouse and woodcock here in Fond du Lac County.....this was in the mid 80s. And I grew up listening to his stories and looking back at photos of his hunts. He never really had to travel out of Fond du Lac County, especially the west part of the county for pheasants.
Those days are gone in this state. For too many years, the public lands were managed for not much else other than to pack as many deer hunters on them for the 9 day gun season as possible. Even the waterfowl marshes, to include the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge and state portion of the Horicon marsh are shadows of what they once were in this area.
Now, to shoot pheasant consistently in Wisconsin, it is put and take.....even some of the properties allow for harvesting of hens because they are released.....not stocked or planted, but released. Often times, most of the hunters know the release dates and track the release trucks. The birds have no chance.
I have seen some carry over from released birds that have managed to evade all the hunters and the hawks, especially the hawks! Some of the local clubs will also release birds on certain sponsored properties. The tell tale sign in this county is flushing hens. The DNR isn't releasing hens on the properties. There are also several Hunt Clubs that release alot of birds, that do get pushed around and off of the private properties..... some of these make it through a season and a winter.
I've seen hens with clutches on these state properties near some of these Hunt Clubs. Last winter, one such property, my dog and I flushed a dozen or so hens, nary a rooster left to be found.
So, I do believe nature and instinct will take over if a released bird or three manage to make it.....at some point, they make "wild" birds to hopefully survive.
I do think that our DNR is trying to do better with properties in the last 5 years or so.....I believe they are realizing that good pheasant habitat is good wildlife habitat!
I do probably 2 to 4 Hunt Club hunts between December and March.....a couple of those are memorial hunts, a couple are fun hunts and a couple are competitive hunts..... it keeps the dog on birds into March and let's him have some fun, especially with the chukar hunts we do!
Nothing will replace the hunts that he and I have had in the Dakotas, and I wish I could have gotten out there more with him too.
 
I think golden hour was mad because he was on public land and he shot a released bird, and he's never really put down these game farms before that I know of. I might add that I did hunt one of those game farms around 2003 or 4those Gregory South Dakota in March. It was one of the strangest things I've ever done, and I slayed a whole bunch of those birds because they were easy. The first two days I think I had 12. I don't think my dad shot any. That was the last time he hunted. I just knew that I would never do that again, because there was something about it that seemed superficial to me.
 
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