Upland4Ever
New member
I know bird numbers keep dropping, but are hunting wild birds close to over. Has it came to preserve hunting?
Is it really over?
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wisturkeyhunter
New member
I think anybody who's alive now will be able to find birds to shoot on public land in America for the rest of their life if they put forth the effort.
Doves, ducks, and turkeys can all be hunted with dogs if you find yourself in a place without upland birds or on a down year.
Doves, ducks, and turkeys can all be hunted with dogs if you find yourself in a place without upland birds or on a down year.
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Upland4Ever
New member
I agree with you guys don't get me wrong, but myself, dad and brother hunted and hunted some more all over Nebraska. We saw more quail the pheasant.
Been wondering the same thing. Preserve hunting seems the way to go for me right now as all I care about is getting my young lab some action. I'll always hit my favorite spots for wild birds but Colorado is looking pretty sad as far as pheasants go (at least for the near future). I don't believe wild bird hunting is over, it's just going to take a few years to recover from all this drought we have been suffering through.
mnmthunting
Banned
I think I will have a pic or two of limits of wild roosters to share this year. 
More work, more $$$, more time. :cheers:
Public areas that hold wild pheasants are getting very crowded early in the season. Go later, mid week.
More work, more $$$, more time. :cheers:
Public areas that hold wild pheasants are getting very crowded early in the season. Go later, mid week.
NO Its not over. You just need to get involved in Pheasants forever and Quail forever. They are great groups of local upland hunters, who work to improve habitat. 100% of funds raised go to your chapter. Its a lot of work, but it works.:thumbsup:
captaincoot
Banned
I was pretty blue a couple years ago But a couple mild winters and some good hatches. I'm pretty happy with what I'm seeing hens everywhere this spring:10sign: CRP is full of hens and ducks are looking at my nest I made for them:10sign:
But a couple mild winters and some good hatches. I'm pretty happy with what I'm seeing hens everywhere this spring:10sign: CRP is full of hens and ducks are looking at my nest I made for them:10sign:I don't believe it is over. It is changing, but like Coot said I am seeing birds and where there is habitat there should be birds. The winter was cold but the feed was available so they came through the winter in great shape. Now it depends on the weather during nesting. Our last group of hunters last year got their limit on their last day, so there were birds out there.
wesslpointer
New member
The wild Pheasant is over in a lot of states and it well be over in the rest if there is not a change in the management. WILD Pheasants are a CROP! The hunting on both private and public land is a BUSINESS that supports a tradition, life style and the rural communities. If you build homes do you put a framer, electrician or plumber in charge NO you have a builder because he or she understands the big picture how to turn a profit and build a business. Biologist's are a trade for some a religion. You need trained business people in charge that under stand the bottom line is PRODUCTION of wild pheasants. YOU CAN NOT CONSERVE A NON NATIVE GAME BIRD. YOU CAN CONSERVE THE TRADITION, BUSINESS AND RURAL COMUNITES THE HUNTING OF A NONGAME BIRD SUPPORTS.
I am now 60 years old. I remember when I was 14, and the old experienced hunters were lamenting the current times then to the old days. Most days I could 4 to 5 coveys of quail in a short day, in the 1960's and 1970's. Then I believed that the guys bemoaning the bird population were also lamenting their ability to raise and train dogs, their physical ability to "do the time " in the field. I had a lot of long hauls in or out of the field with little or no results, muttering as to why I'm there? Barely get out, and find a promising patch to go again! When I was on my own, I did the prairie bird experience, never got over it. It's huge difficult country. Most hunters I have introduced, went once, and never return, to hard, to expensive, to far away. Quail hunting? All the dog expense, endless scouting areas, to be productive. Charlie Waterman a great author-quail hunter said it took about 3 hours of scouting for 1 hour of hunting.... that was in the middle 1970's! My point is nothing has changed! Sure we have had bad weather, areas of poor production, agricultural challenges.... we are a hunt and seek sport.....simple answer make it better with your effort, or go to where there are birds! I do both. Or you can sit by the fireplace, with a shawl on your lap and a shot of whiskey, watch golf, and discuss the "old days". Now when I am ready for a preserve.... well I think a preserve resembles wild bird hunting, like porn movies to real sex! Both are simulated, and completely unsatisfying. Once you have the best, why go back? Heck most of my dogs will pick up a preserve bird and retrieve it, they recognize fake too!
It's not over everywhere, it's a cycle there have been cycles since time began. I don't remember the soil bank days or the heydays after WWII. Birds have always been cyclical. I remember when I started hunting you could shoot ducks with lead, but there weren't many and you could not shoot many so I walked out the back door and shot pheasants, prtridge and woodcook, and a few huns. There are alot of ducks now and someday they will drop (they need water). Pheasants will come back in some areas, not in others, they cycle. Will I be around to see it? who knows. The cycle will turn, till then, you have to decide if you want to walk behind a dog and not shoot much or sit still for days on end waiting on a deer, oops their numbers have drooped over much of their range as well. We each have our own perspective through a short window that our life encompasses. Nature has a much bigger window. They will come back and there is good hunting now, as good as one could ever need, you just have to find it if that is your driving need.
I think some kinds of bird hunting is over for the most part in my part of the country. Quail have been gone since 1978 and know hope of a return, at least in my lifetime. Pheasants are all but gone. They could make a return if farming changed but I will not hold my breath. Cover being destroyed every day like crazy. I see places gone every time I go someplace. Seems every farmer has his own dozer and hoe and are taking out every place something could live. Very sad. Not even a field mouse can make it around here. I see this trend has moved all the way west when I go to South Dakota to see my daughter and hunt a few days each fall.