pheasant farm...real hunt???

Hunting on a pen raised place is not that bad, we have had great fun and good dog training. And it sure beats a five hour trip to hunt in a wild place. BUT, and that is a "big butt" I do enjoy the getting out in the wild and seeing all that is out there. I now have a new challenge, I am losing my right foot, and will have to start training all over again. So a farm planted birds will be great for me till I can handle the terrain again.... Just my "two cents"
 
Of course wild birds would be my first preference, but they're scarce out here & I do envy you guys who live in great locations or can afford the time for trips to great locations. For me, the real pleasure is in watching my pup have fun, so when we go birdless too often, I'll opt for preserve birds. Hank doesn't care & I guess we're lucky in that I get a pretty good deal & the birds this guy raises are very much like hunting the real thing, plus there are a lot of holdovers that adapt well & thrive and I don't get charged for the extras. The released birds are planted ahead of time & we have no clue where, other than the general area we are hunting. When Plan A fails, I'll opt for Plan B and it works for us.
 
I am lucky to have had plenty of wild birds to develop a young dog with.
But this season has not been very good for developing a young dog. Mine pup has been coming along very well, but if I can't keep getting him into some birds, I would take him to a preserve for the exposure.

Wild birds are best, but if they are not available, go to the next best thing.
 
I just took a group of guys from my church on a game farm hunt. It did a few things for us.
1. It allowed us the opportunity to meet new guys who go to the same church.
2. It helped create new friendships.
3. It allowed guys who don't usually have time to spend hunting a half a day to feel like they are a hunter. (As we all know that is important to a man and his ego!)
4. I was able to have a few birds planted for young hunters and give them a chance to shoot at a flushed bird and learn the excitement, how to aim, watching a dog, safety managements, and a whole host of other things involved in hunting. This might not fit for everyone's enjoyment of hunting, but I think it is a great way to get people introduced into hunting and keep our sport alive!I will always support game farms and how they can help, but in the end I will always look to hunt in the wild.
 
birdshooter said:
That is what you call "scratch" hunting. Scratch hunting is usually reserved for members only and in most cases only during weekdays. IMO, scratch hunting can be somewhat like REAL hunting in that you have no idea what... if anything is in the field. These birds have probably had a day or two to acclimate themselves and will generally act more wild then if just recently released.

I don't think anyone here is arguing the fact that hunting a preserve is the same as a good wild bird hunt, even with good flying preserve birds. For some it will be more convenient, while others it will serve as a place to consistently put their dogs on birds, when exposure to enough wild birds is not possible.
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Very well put! My partner and I went to one during the week last year, we had 6 birds planted, and walked out with 18. Made the dogs happy, to say the least! In my situation, it provides me with the best bang for my buck when you consider 1) Iowa pheasant #s way down, 2) South Dakota 12 hours away, the cost of gas, and lack of time to travel, 3) Illinois...you think Iowa's bad?
I got 6 three bird hunts for about half the cost of this year's South Dakota hunt, only 50 miles away, and no charge for scratch birds. It's not what I prefer, but it is the best I can do for my dogs.
 
pheasant farms

don't kid yourself, there is a difference in how the birds react. still beats yard work and dishes. if you are on a good farm, the birds do kinda act like opening day pheasant hunting, if you want to watch your dog do a lot of things right, keep him off wild birds, let him play with the dumb one's you'll find on perserves but don't kid yourself. i actually never hunted one but did guide on one for a number of years and most of the clients were not much ahead of the birds either for that matter
 
Wow! :eek: Look, no one on here is suggesting that game farm hunts or stocked birds on PHGs is the same thing as chasing wild birds. But as has been noted in many other postings, game farm hunts and stocked PHG hunts is all that many of us have available to us.

I won't for one second apologize or say that I or my dogs don't have a great time on these outings. Would I rather be in the Dakota's chasing wild birds? Yep. Sure, there are a lot of easy dumb birds on game farms and PHGs, but then again in my own experiences hunting "wild" birds in the Dakotas, my dog has chased down and caught several wild birds in fencelines without me ever firing a shot.

You also say that you "guided" on a game farm for years? Why would anyone need a guide on such an easy "hunt" then anyway? Did you always, every time get 100% of the birds that were planted? If not, then maybe some of those birds and hunters you don't give much credit to actually were a little smarter than you and your dog.

I hate golf...so I don't golf. But if you like golf, then go enjoy yourself. If you don't like game farms, then don't go, but don't rip the whole operation and anyone that does like spending time in the field with their pups.
 
pheasant farms

wow!!! got your attention, not all people that use a pheasant farm have their own dogs or just might want to try a different style of dog, pointer vs. a flusher. never did see a group of guys get all the birds that were planted but then you have to hit a few of them to do that. they do have their place so do what ya have to do, just don't get confused

cheers
 
Once again a we embark upon a diminishing blog. So now we divide between saint and sinners to guys who use preserves and the guys who don't. I grew up in a time when we had wild birds, the land was available at no cost, and gas was a few cents a gallon. I went all over the from Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona,and Idaho, on wild upland bird hunts across a couple of weeks. For each of us, it was a $500.00 expense each, now it would be $2500.00, and you wouldn't have the availability, and maybe not the time. Anybody in areas remote from natural pheasant populations seeking to keep dogs, encourage kids into the sport, who uses a preserve is fine by me. I'm an old guy, I saw it in the glory of the past, I still look for it today, the clouds of pheasants, the 12 covey rise days, running herds of chuckars and blue quail from windmill to guzzlers. I am not senile enough to give it up. But guys who never saw that, year after year, only frustration, a preserve might be a solution. I am sure they would like, and are sympathetic to return bird numbers to there glory. So we are all on the same short page!
 
oldandnew said:
Once again a we embark upon a diminishing blog. So now we divide between saint and sinners to guys who use preserves and the guys who don't. I grew up in a time when we had wild birds, the land was available at no cost, and gas was a few cents a gallon. I went all over the from Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona,and Idaho, on wild upland bird hunts across a couple of weeks. For each of us, it was a $500.00 expense each, now it would be $2500.00, and you wouldn't have the availability, and maybe not the time. Anybody in areas remote from natural pheasant populations seeking to keep dogs, encourage kids into the sport, who uses a preserve is fine by me. I'm an old guy, I saw it in the glory of the past, I still look for it today, the clouds of pheasants, the 12 covey rise days, running herds of chuckars and blue quail from windmill to guzzlers. I am not senile enough to give it up. But guys who never saw that, year after year, only frustration, a preserve might be a solution. I am sure they would like, and are sympathetic to return bird numbers to there glory. So we are all on the same short page!
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Great post. Spot on. :thumbsup:
 
mustistuff said:
don't kid yourself, there is a difference in how the birds react. still beats yard work and dishes. if you are on a good farm, the birds do kinda act like opening day pheasant hunting, if you want to watch your dog do a lot of things right, keep him off wild birds, let him play with the dumb one's you'll find on perserves but don't kid yourself. i actually never hunted one but did guide on one for a number of years and most of the clients were not much ahead of the birds either for that matter
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A lot on how the birds react on a preserve is on how their put down. Put down hard and they are lethargic and will take a bit to recover and even then may not be themselves for awhile. Put them down soft (basically just set them down in a clump of cover and move away quickly and they will be a much different bird altogether. I've seen preserve birds that when put down soft will bust wild if pushed too hard just like a wild bird. Scratch birds that have been in the fields the better part of a day or two will very much act like their wild cousins, especially the roosters.
 
And I'm taking the pup on one tomorrow. Since it will be "The End of Days," I thought we'd ensure our place in Hades (where birds, abound, the dog is constantly on-point, and I can't hit a bleeming thing . . . why change my shooting percentage for all Eternity?).
 
Bird farms, hunting preserves, wild birds, its all the same to the dogs. I love watching the dogs work. With a game preserve, at least you know that there are birds. My preference is wild birds on walk in access, but some years, like this year in Colorado - the numbers are way down. Last year was a good year, I usually came home with a couple of birds on every outing, with ample opportunity to miss shots. ;-) This year, I have been out 5 times in Colorado and Nebraska and I haven't pulled the trigger once. We have a 16 month old Weim, and after a few unproductive trips, we went to a game preserve and later purchased/released pheasants in a SWA dog training area. I like a mix of everything preserves, private land, walk in, BLM. Hunting on a preserve is way more fun for me and the dogs than waking up at 4:30, driving 2 hours, walking for 6 hours and not finding a damn thing! :cheers:
 
mustistuff said:
wow!!! got your attention, not all people that use a pheasant farm have their own dogs or just might want to try a different style of dog, pointer vs. a flusher. never did see a group of guys get all the birds that were planted but then you have to hit a few of them to do that. they do have their place so do what ya have to do, just don't get confused

cheers
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My dogs appreciate these groups that go out and never get all their planted birds. It works to our advantage to go out during the week when my employer calls and tells me no work for tomorrow, you can guess where we are headed. Last club would let me hunt scratch birds, and not put any out. I would have the whole place to myself, no one to bother us. Always end up with at least a handful of birds. Two of the best memories were Thanksgiving last year when my daughter tagged along(spectator), had 4 points, 4 shots, 4 retrieves. The last point was a double and I missed the second bird with my fifth shot. Still a great day, so we put the gun away and headed for the clubhouse. On another occasion, went out on a beautiful autumn day, sunny, light breeze, about 40 degrees. Nice being out enjoying the peace and quiet, watching the dogs work. By noon we had 7, so we stopped and broke for lunch. We picked up 3 more after lunch, cleaned the birds, and were on on way home by 2. We harvested 3 chukar, 3 huns and 4 roosters, all on someone elses dime.:thumbsup:
Can't say I've ever had a bad day, the "boys", I never hear them complain. When we do put birds out, only once did we come up one shy in 4 years. I do make it a point to practice on clays 5 -6 times during the summer. I owe it to my dogs to try and stay on top of the game. Don't hit 'em all, just get our fair share.
 
cheap birds

if ya want to save money, don't go for wild birds, go to a preserve and use the left over cash to buy your queen something. i drive from colorado to kansas to hunt and do it about 3 days in every 10. my cost for wild birds are just about double that of a preserve and i could eat lobster for far less, however it still is not the same so kansas here i come. i am actually doing pretty well out there this year in spite of all the problems of cover, heat etc and am averaging one rooster per hour or less

cheers
 
mustistuff said:
if ya want to save money, don't go for wild birds, go to a preserve and use the left over cash to buy your queen something. i drive from colorado to kansas to hunt and do it about 3 days in every 10. my cost for wild birds are just about double that of a preserve and i could eat lobster for far less, however it still is not the same so kansas here i come. i am actually doing pretty well out there this year in spite of all the problems of cover, heat etc and am averaging one rooster per hour or less

cheers
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I don't believe it is about saving money. For me it is about the 1)decline in bird numbers within IL and IA, 2) losing accessable hunting ground because it was sold, or plowed under. Along with everyone else, I would prefer to hunt wild and have made the trip to S D. If I was concerned about saving money, I'd sell all my guns, gear and dogs. I could probably save $ 4000 to $5000 a year. Don't tell my queen that!
 
dogs and birds

it's true that the dogs don't give a damn whether they hunt preserves or whatever as long as they get to go and hunt something and if a dog hunts long enough without finding anything they will eventually revert to just about anything, stink birds, mice, you name it. it is the owner,(handler's) job to put the dog down in a field that has birds and the above won't happen, remember, the dogs go to hunt. while the dogs don't give a hoot about preserves or whatever, an owner with a good eye can tell a dog that has had too many planted birds to deal with, just ain't the same
 
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