My club closed

W

William Bua

New member
I am a new member from pheasant hell, otherwise known as California. I just got a small mailer informing me that the club I have hunted for the last 25 years is closing. When I joined this club 25 years ago, there were plenty of wild birds to go around and they also planted pen raised birds for the lazy pavement hunters. The hunting got steadily worse until 5 years ago when all the wild birds just vanished. As poor as the old club became, I am now a hunter without a place to hunt.

Any suggestions ? I have never hunted out of California and I have no connections nor any long lost uncles in South Dakota. I'll all ears!
 
Sorry to hear about your club. Wish I could help but I know nothing about hunting in California. I'm sure the first question people are going to ask is what part of California are you located in?
 
Location

I live in Sacramento, but the club I belonged to was the Richvale Hunting Area which was located in Butte County just South of Chico Ca. The wild birds seem to have all died off about 5 years ago statewide. The refuges have wild birds, but they also have a bunch a yahoos hunting them and you have to stand in line for hours with no guarantee of actually being able to hunt. I hunt without a dog (not by choice) because of condo living and at the state refuges, you need a dog after the 1st day of the season. The $20.00 per bird clubs require that all members use a dog in the field (state law) so I can't even join a pen bird club. I have a bunch of emails out to different clubs and I am driving around the whole area trying to find birds and private land to hunt.

I am 50. As a kid, I used to bicycle pheasant hunt when birds and land were still plentiful. I never thought I would ever need to join a pheasant club, but at 25, I had to join one because of urban sprawl in the Sacramento area forced my hand. Now, it's changing farming practices and West Nile virus spraying that has finished the job of killing all the wild birds. I may be have to travel to South Dakota every couple of years for 3 day hunts as I can afford to just to keep going.
 
William,

I was a member of RHA also starting 3 years ago. That first year my brother and I shot 12 wild birds out there, the bext year 6 and last season only 2. After opening weekend you can pretty much get on any refuge. If you'd ever like you could hunt with me and my springers at Greylodge for a day or two, we usually see a good number of pheasants, quail and turkeys up there.
 
club

to bad about your club but from the rumors that i hear you should have no trouble finding some quail and keeping up with them, flags be damned.

cheers
 
Quail hound how does the access to the refuge work for Pheasant ?

I used to Duck hunt Delaven and Sac alot but have never hunted Pheasant on them.
I will be shooting at Hastings this year after not shooting there for years.
 
oilcan said:
Quail hound how does the access to the refuge work for Pheasant ?

I used to Duck hunt Delaven and Sac alot but have never hunted Pheasant on them.
I will be shooting at Hastings this year after not shooting there for years.
Click to expand...

For opening weekend you most likely need reservations (like duck hunting) or you can brave the "meat line" and get on if there are openings. After opening weekend the majority are done and you can usually get right on if you arrive around 6:30. The hard part is getting to know the refuges as most make you choose a parking lot. Greylodge lets you chose east or west which is nice since you can change lots on the side you chose. I hunt Greylodge, Los Banos, San Luis, and Mendota mostly with some success but I'm wanting to expand this year and hunt a few new ones. I hear Grizzly Island can be good. I say even if you don't use them much buy a type A season pass, and your duck stamps (I don't duck hunt but still buy them) because the support habitat work on our NWR's. Once you put in the work and find the good cover you'll see birds. Last year my brother and I and the dogs flushed 20+ birds on mutiple days on multiple refuges.
 
Thanks i'm getting a new Dog but he won't be ready for this years state season but i will be looking into my options for next year.
 
I have been looking for someone in the mid west to share a ride to S D this year but would not deny anyone the opportunity to maybe join us . I have a posting in the group builder forum check it out.
 
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