My shooting

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Weimdogman

Well-known member
So I stated in a earlier post that I am always happy if the others guys I hunt with shoot all the birds. I surmised they never went 70 for their last 70. Of course I got some flack about that. I explained I hunted every day with great dogs on ground I knew. Short barreled shotgun wide open choke lead shot. Never had/took a tough shot. So this season 5 for the first 7 and the 2 misses were shots I never should have taken.
Missed the next 2 then nailed the next 4 before I missed on another poor shot choice. Shot 6 in a row then missed my last 2 shots yesterday. 2 of us did limit out.
Today 20° with 20 to 30 mph wind hit my first 2 then missed 4. 2 were layups from my feet with the dog on point. Young roosters that stayed low going almost straight away. Embarrassing misses.
 
I’ve been trying to keep track of the days when I don’t shoot the best. This year anyway I think they have have all been on partly cloudy or overcast days. I’ve always been streaky though
 
We were hunting late in the day and the low sun did create a problem on a couple birds that I couldn't focus on to even shoot.
 
I always have to laugh when guys talk about high phez percentages. Time to try ruffed grouse (partridge a local term) in the tag alders, quail in creek banks and plum thickets, finally Huns on the windy prairie. All are more unpredictable than a roo phez. I have never hunted chukars, but I’m sure your percentage is much lower. All is good when I follow the south end of my north bound dog.
 
Hey I am 61 and back when I did the 70/70 I was 24. There were no fewer then 8 birds today that my younger self would have bagged. 4 of which I never shot at because I was too slooow to get on them.🫣
 
Weimdogman said:
So I stated in a earlier post that I am always happy if the others guys I hunt with shoot all the birds. I surmised they never went 70 for their last 70. Of course I got some flack about that. I explained I hunted every day with great dogs on ground I knew. Short barreled shotgun wide open choke lead shot. Never had/took a tough shot. So this season 5 for the first 7 and the 2 misses were shots I never should have taken.
Missed the next 2 then nailed the next 4 before I missed on another poor shot choice. Shot 6 in a row then missed my last 2 shots yesterday. 2 of us did limit out.
Today 20° with 20 to 30 mph wind hit my first 2 then missed 4. 2 were layups from my feet with the dog on point. Young roosters that stayed low going almost straight away. Embarrassing misses.
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I know all about those shots you shouldn't have taken. If I hadn't taken two frustration shots, I would have shot 100% on the pseudo phez this year. Finished up yesterday. Love my new to me Saur/Beretta s56e 20. Crumpled a rooster yesterday at around 35 yrds. mod. barrel. I would have never taken the shot with a 20 on wild birds. Love them double triggers..
 
Wind River said:
I always have to laugh when guys talk about high phez percentages. Time to try ruffed grouse (partridge a local term) in the tag alders, quail in creek banks and plum thickets, finally Huns on the windy prairie. All are more unpredictable than a roo phez. I have never hunted chukars, but I’m sure your percentage is much lower. All is good when I follow the south end of my north bound dog.
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I was once deeply addicted to sporting clays and grouse hunting. So, when it came time to head west, those pheasants seemed like floating beach balls!!:LOL:
 
I am actually (well was) pretty damn proficient in shooting and killing ruffed grouse. I can tell you that you also need to understand what a hit ruffie looks like. When I hunt with another person, it is amazing that they do not see that "the grouse was shot".

Ruffed grouse - 20 ga. O/U and snap shooting. I will use that gun on a rare occasion for prairie birds, but the results are not always pretty.

I do a lot of hunting with one or two others who have killed far, far fewer birds ... I never shoot first on a bird under point and flush ... so many of my pheasants that I kill are out there a bit.

I suppose I will jinx him, but my current Britt has not lost a bird in 3-4 years. It is amazing where we find them.

I usually shoot poorer the first time I have to add a layer or two and especially when I have to wear gloves. Man I never needed to wear gloves until I got older. Hate 'em.
 
I've read so many books on upland hunting I can't remember exactly which one it was, but the guy compared speeds of upland birds in flight. The interesting thing is all the birds were pretty similar in speed, although pheasants on open prairie with a stiff tail wind were the fastest. The thing that makes ruffled grouse tough is shooting in the forest and the strobe effect of the timber/brush. What adds difficulty in quail shooting is the covey flush, and I do think they accelerate faster although top speed isn't that fast. Often with a pheasant it is one solitary bird in open country.
 
Quail in Mesquite are my toughest shooting ever. Pheasants in old growth in the river/creek bottoms are extremely difficult.

Easiest pheasant hunt I ever had was early season birds on state ground in a park like setting. There were young trees about 15 feet high planted every 50 feet. Kind of resembled a orchard. There was lots of grass,weeds,forbes all around for cover. Temp was about 50 and a slight breeze. We didn't have dogs but walked around and scared up the birds most of which would fly up 20 to 30 feet to clear the trees then be gone. Was a rewarding hunt for my high school buddy and I.
Those trees bordered a little slough that was basically a bowl. We shot a couple roosters as they flew in for roosting. Great memories.
 
Bob Peters said:
The thing that makes ruffled grouse tough is shooting in the forest and the strobe effect of the timber/brush.
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Yes, the habitat they are in is what makes them difficult to consistently bag. 8 out of 10 times one flushes, I don't even see it. All I hear is a "whirr" of wings and never even get a visual on it. And the rare times I do actually get a visual, the shot presented is poor too.

I could see a well-trained pointer being a valuable asset in the grouse woods. It would allow the hunter to get into a better shooting position before the bird flushes.
 
Seasoned ruffs most always flush away and through the timber and rarely pop out and fly down the trail. Early season many a ruff jumps up in a tree when a dog has it on point.

I found killing ruffed grouse to be the easiest. No waiting ... locate, point, and shoot. Did not matter if it was heavy green leaf cover or later October barren woods. I was able to locate (see) many a grouse that others simply said - I just heard it. Often my best days (birds shot per hour) were the first three weeks of the season and I do not shoot birds sitting on the trails.
 
Terrible shooting again today. Missed 2 birds clean. Hit 2 that never slowed down. Hit 2 that I bagged but had to shoot 1 twice and watch it got 250 yards and then sky and drop dead. Dog was watching it all the way and took off but marked it about 50 yards short. It was up a slight rise in a disced corn field. Very little wind and from the wrong direction. He did search when I resent him and he delivered to hand. The other hit bird flew even further and didn't come down dead but dogs got him out of the road ditch about where I guessed he would be. I did knock a third bird down with 1 shot but he ran into the cattails with 2 dogs in hot pursuit. He did not get away.

Need to clean birds now but I have discovered ,for me , they clean better cold.
 
Weimdogman said:
Terrible shooting again today. Missed 2 birds clean. Hit 2 that never slowed down. Hit 2 that I bagged but had to shoot 1 twice and watch it got 250 yards and then sky and drop dead. Dog was watching it all the way and took off but marked it about 50 yards short. It was up a slight rise in a disced corn field. Very little wind and from the wrong direction. He did search when I resent him and he delivered to hand. The other hit bird flew even further and didn't come down dead but dogs got him out of the road ditch about where I guessed he would be. I did knock a third bird down with 1 shot but he ran into the cattails with 2 dogs in hot pursuit. He did not get away.

Need to clean birds now but I have discovered ,for me , they clean better cold.
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Hey, shooting a shotgun well is for many people a very difficult thing to learn. If you learn the right way from Day One it is not too difficult, but very few people do that. I shoot a lot of clay targets every year but all that does is make me either under-lead or over-lead the danged roosters! Because birds fly much differently from clays, there is really no way to learn to hit birds other than to shoot birds.
 
I know I am not leading the birds far enough. Shot 3 again today with 3 shots. But 2 of the 3 were not hit hard. We recovered all 3 but 1 was very challenging.
My dog was right behind it running across a bare field. Bird headed back into the cover and dog flipped it and it flew off struggling. Well buddies dogs got into it with a coon at that time so the shit show was on. Found the bird after we finished the rest of the area and came back looking for where we last saw it.
 
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