Off season pursuits for better upland hunting.

[oldandnew]

Upland bird hunting can be a year long hobby. Forget golf, make yourself a better upland bird hunter. Best pursuit of a successful season, use a "johnny house", to keep birds. Practice makes perfect. Keeps your dogs in shape, re-enforces the pointing or flushing instinct, can even shoot, and develop better retrieving skills. Fitness is also a goal for the hunter, it's sure more enjoyable to upland hunt, without being exhausted, like your dog, it's hard to get to mid-season, before we are in condition to be at our best. Legs make birds, and it helps your shot after you walk 300 yards to a point, way out there! Casual clay bird shooting will keep your eyes and reflexes sharp, especially with a new gun. pattern your gun! with the shells you use! Any maintenance or improvements can be made here. Speaking of new boots, you are courting sore feet by waiting till the season to break them in. Use them often during off season, avoid the blisters, sore spots, pressure points, will make you a better hunter. I want my boots to be like house shoes by the season opener. I examine all my gear from my truck, dog trailer-dog boxes, down to gloves, shells, even dog food. Evaluation of new gear, replacements which are useful, like I now use Kamelbak hydrators in early season prairie grouse season, not canteens. Less bulky, saves a lot of steps, up and down, to get to a windmill! Off season scouting is best just after the season, make new contacts and properties that are available. Last but not least, talk up the value of the sport, especially young gunners, lots of time the magic of going to help and watch dog training will create enthusiasm to hunt, which they will pursue, love the dog, dog loves to hunt, they hunt because the dog does, and enjoy it. Future, even short term, is in their hands! Off course, last but not least, habitat improvement, do what you can! If you can't physically do it, take time to raise funds and support the conservation efforts. Somebody said the raising of $1.00 will translate into $4.00 in application. Best example is the, Federal Duck stamp, and Pittman-Robertson funds which built the National Wildlife Refuges, tax self-imposed by sportsmen to help the ourselves. I don't talk about golf games, baseball races, I enjoy them, but my conversation is bird dogs, last season, good or bad, and next season. By the way I ignore the pre-season prognostications, I am going anyway! Help yourself have a great opening day!

 

[crockett]

Great thread! I was out putting up trail cameras in the deer woods the other day. I won't be able to get in there again now until June, so it's a fun "time-capsule" picture of who's still around for the next few months. For upland hunting, much of my off-season work involves staying in shape, friggin' with the riggin' (fixing, buying, selling, maintaining equipment), shooting clays, and making plans. Most years in involves training/refreshing a dog, but at the moment I have an old and very well trained dog who is semi-retired, so the focus there is just to keep her in the best shape possible to try to make sure that she gets that "one more hunt" in. So this year I'm helping my friends who have dogs, whenever and however I can, to train and condition their dogs. More than anything though, in this province with essentially NO public pheasant hunting land - I spend time maintining relationships with my generous hosts and working to expand that network for next year. I drop off a post-season thank-you card to everyone who hosted me. The card always has a picture of myself and the dog in it, not because I'm THAT vain but so that they're more likely to remember me when I come back in the late summer to renew permission. For some particularly generous landowners I bring a wild game pot pie all made up and packed in a disposable tinfoil container. I used to bring a bottle, but one year I gave a bottle to someone who should not be given a bottle, so I learned my lesson there after getting an earful from his son. Then I keep my GPS handy during my travels for other outdoor activities in the off-season and mark every promising looking pheasant cover. Then begins the sleuthing - trying to convert waypoints into names and phone numbers... Once I've got that list I start calling and knocking, prepared with my thickest skin to be rejected from most, but welcomed or at least tolerated once in a while... And then starting all over again!