Pheasant and/or ducks?

We are retired. Hunt with 2 labs.
Start with ptarmigan in August, the waterfowl in Sept in Alaska.
Then drive down to winter in MT and hunt mostly upland until it closes Dec 30,
then back to waterfowl until it closes mid-January.
I usually hunt every weekday in MT from sunrise to noon, then skip weekends,
shoot sporting clays or skeet on weekends and avoid hunting crowd.
 
AKSkeeter said:
We are retired. Hunt with 2 labs.
Start with ptarmigan in August, the waterfowl in Sept in Alaska.
Then drive down to winter in MT and hunt mostly upland until it closes Dec 30,
then back to waterfowl until it closes mid-January.
I usually hunt every weekday in MT from sunrise to noon, then skip weekends,
shoot sporting clays or skeet on weekends and avoid hunting crowd.
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If you had at least 1 Weimaraner to spell those labs you would probably enhance your retirement by 1000%. 😉
 
Both. Braque Francais type Pyrenees. Never seen a pointer swim like him. He loves it. I had a Weim who would do both and could swim for miles, but se never really loved the water. Also had a Vizsla who was the same. He'd retrieve but water wasn't his gig.

The braque will literally dive into the water and completely submerge. Take him out on my boat in FL and hang on the beach and he swims all day long. Never had any trepidation. I think that's weird for a bird dog.
 
AtTheMurph said:
Both. Braque Francais type Pyrenees. Never seen a pointer swim like him. He loves it. I had a Weim who would do both and could swim for miles, but se never really loved the water. Also had a Vizsla who was the same. He'd retrieve but water wasn't his gig.

The braque will literally dive into the water and completely submerge. Take him out on my boat in FL and hang on the beach and he swims all day long. Never had any trepidation. I think that's weird for a bird dog.
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Did a search. Interesting breed. Surprised we don't see more of them.

Braque Francais (Gascogne& Pyrenees)Info, Temperament, Training, Pictures

The Braques Francais (singular: ‘Braque Francais’) are medium-sized dogs that developed in France. They are found in two distinct breeds – the ‘Braque Français, type Gascogne’ and the ‘Braque Français, type Pyrenees’, with the latter being smaller and more common. These canines have a natural...
www.101dogbreeds.com www.101dogbreeds.com
 
Kismet said:
Did a search. Interesting breed. Surprised we don't see more of them.

Braque Francais (Gascogne& Pyrenees)Info, Temperament, Training, Pictures

The Braques Francais (singular: ‘Braque Francais’) are medium-sized dogs that developed in France. They are found in two distinct breeds – the ‘Braque Français, type Gascogne’ and the ‘Braque Français, type Pyrenees’, with the latter being smaller and more common. These canines have a natural...
www.101dogbreeds.com www.101dogbreeds.com
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Not many breeders/importers around but becoming more popular. I have never seen a Gasogne in the USA but have run into two other Pyrenees, on in the city of Chicago while I was visiting my daughter with my dog. Surprised us both.
 
Black lab. She is mostly a duck dog but I hunter her on dove, rail, prairie grouse, pheasant, ducks and geese.

She gets to waterfowl hunt about ~30 days a year and we try to hunt pheasant 10-12 days a year. We also hunt dove, rail, and grouse when we have a place with birds. I'll admit that she isn't the best at upland hunting, quartering to cover ground and finding birds, so I keep her close to me and let my buddies bird dogs handle that, she is the primary retriever.Dixie with dove.JPGrail.JPGDixie with S-T grouse.JPGDixie with pheasant.JPGDixie with duck.JPG
 
I have had labs for a while, after switching from spaniels. Hunted the oldest one almost exclusively on pheasants, maybe 1 or 2 duck hunts a year. But, mostly because I had a lab and live in a place with better duck than pheasant hunting, I started duck hunting more and more. These last couple years I have found myself hunting ducks more than upland birds. Then I got squirrely and worried that as I age I would have more trouble keeping up with flushing dogs and would eventually have to buy some boring pointing dog, so I bought a springer for one last go at true pheasant hunting. I'll probably hunt her a little this year on teal and early season ducks, but...I've seen her swim and she's not going to cut it as the kind of duck dog I want. My younger lab is going to be 7 this year, but when she is retired, I will likely need to get another retriever. Considering a Chessie next time, my labs have been such generalists/multi-tool dogs that the idea of having a specialist dog of the best pheasant breed (ESS) and the best duck breed (CBR) appeals to me.
 
Duck hunting is a lot of work. I'm old enough now that lugging 2 dozen decoys in waders in 3 to 4 of water at 5 in the morning isn't worth the effort. Once I got into my 50's, 40 years of duck hunting had lost its appeal. However, I have thought about buying a layout boat again and giving it one more go before I start receiving medicare. I love to shoot doves though and so do my labs.
 
westksbowhunter said:
Duck hunting is a lot of work. I'm old enough now that lugging 2 dozen decoys in waders in 3 to 4 of water at 5 in the morning isn't worth the effort.
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I used to be an avid waterfowler too. But I quit doing it because there weren't nearly as many ducks. I used to duck hunt 10 times/season and harvest 40-50 ducks, plus a few geese. It slowly trickled down to about a dozen ducks. Not worth the effort when you only get one volley of shooting an entire morning.

And the other thing is, drought has definitely played a role here too lately. Many of the small puddles, flooded fields, and shallow ponds have completely dried up.
 
I hope you can ressurect your waterfowling passion Westksbowhunter - field hunting is not nearly as demanding (typically) as hunting over water can be - now I’m careful to select hunts over water we can physically handle
The beauty of field hunts is you don’t disturb the roost or loafing water (providing your set up is far enough away) - and this can lead to multiple hunts
Chest waders can be fatal - I’ve become much more cautious thru the years
 
BrdHntr said:
I hope you can ressurect your waterfowling passion Westksbowhunter - field hunting is not nearly as demanding (typically) as hunting over water can be - now I’m careful to select hunts over water we can physically handle
The beauty of field hunts is you don’t disturb the roost or loafing water (providing your set up is far enough away) - and this can lead to multiple hunts
Chest waders can be fatal - I’ve become much more cautious thru the years
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I did like hunting from my four rivers layout boat. There would be hundreds of hunters surrounding me hunting from the big boats and occasionally sky blasting while I would lay in my marsh boat with a dozen decoys shooting ducks at 10 yds. I was dragging my layout boat in the dark one morning walking through ice and fell in about 3-4 feet of water. Had a hard time getting up to my feet. Scared me. I just headed straight back to the truck and went home. Had a couple of other scares to in waders on the river. Even got shot at one time with a rifle during deer season. I don't know how they missed me. I jumped to the ground. They jumped in their truck and sped off.
 
gimruis said:
Wow, that is down right scary. That would make me not want to go again too.
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It was. I had shot a duck that glided up on a ridge and the dog had not found it. I walked up the hill and they shot when I was on top. They may have shot at my dog. Not sure. It was loud and could not tell where it hit. They were probably 300-400 yds away from me and it was just as the sun was going down.
 
I hunt Griffs. We get 10-12 wild pheasant hunts a year. Maybe 5 duck hunts. We suppliment with around 10 preserve hunts.
 
I hunted ducks a lot with my 1st wire. Mostly jump shooting woodies on the creeks. The creeks here have bluff banks. So, circle wide, sneaked over the bluff and look down the creek, for ducks/waves. My wire got pretty good at it. If I could get the wind right and keep him from running down the creek full blast, he would point them before he topped the bank. It was pretty sweet when it happened!!
 
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