Pen birds

[Upland4Ever]

So I've found some duck places starting to release thier own birds, just to think them made fun of pheasant hunters.

 

[oldandnew]

They have tower shoots where ducks "flighted" from a tower to get fed in a pond a mile away. Nilo farms ( Winchester/Olin) did this in the 1950's. Normally they are pass shooting. East coast duck clubs raised and released mallards, as juveniles for years. I know of a Maryland club that did 60,000 per year. Whether pen raised pheasants or ducks, except for water it's the same thing. Until in the 1980's Nebraska raised and released pheasants on Sacramento-Wilcox, for 50+ years. Many states still do, ( New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey), I don't get the point? Is duck hunting now degraded, as to pheasant preserves, because neither one is actually hunting, it's fantasy, like a strip club, might do in a pinch, but not the real deal. Part of the thrill, in hunting is to get skunked, or die trying. The pen raised birds are the deal for young dogs, young kids, eldery or infirm, or those with know other options. I raise really good birds, because you need birds to make a birddog, period, I'm sure duck retreiving with ducks does the same. I guess my though on the pen raised bird discussion helps us who need to raise them for dog duty. You can free range and shoot african antelope in a fenced compound too! In might be a big fence, but their out there. Maybe we need a forum on preserves, and stories of how we found those 4 birds on a 40@ field, who got there about 10 minutes before we did.

 

[quail hound]

Lots of the duck clubs in the Sacremento Valley raise and release mallards on their land. Guys pay big bucks for blinds up there ($15k per year for a 3 man blind) so I guess they expect to shoot their 7 greenheads.