Prairie chicken near KC

G

Gifters

New member
I'm new to Kansas and have never gone after prairie chickens. I'm trying to get my 8 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever out more often and was looking to see if anyone did any PC hunting and could offer some advice. Its been recommended that I just take him for walks but with the drive that he has I'm more interested in getting him on a bird or two.

Thanks
 
Lots of ways to hunt chicken but we generally hunted them like waterfowl. Learning their flight patterns and setting up on them. Not for sure how you can get a dog on a prairie chicken since we don't have very many anyway. This is a poor time of year to get a dog into wild birds as the adults are taking care of little chicks. Get some pigeons and plant for him. You can get them easy and work on marking, quartering, etc and reuse the birds each outing.
 
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have you had your dog flush/retrieve any upland game birds? Chessies are known for their love of water and waterfowl, cold conditions. A lot of them show little interest in upland, although some show some real versatility.
If this is a first go round with upland, consider the heat and conditions of early fall, tough scenting, you may want to just go for the conditioning and see what it is like. good luck.
 
Oh he loves Pheasant Hunting, doesn't have the patience for duck hunting, he'd rather chase down and catch a coot then sit and wait for ducks. It has been hot but he goes for jogs in the morning and evenings, not as spry as he used to be after tearing his CCL. I should try to get back into waterfowl since he's tamed settled down a little from his pup years but I'm a novice waterfowler at best although he'll mark birds just fine and loves the water. He's also got an unusually short coat for a chessie but that hasn't stopped him from retrieving in the fridged cold before, just keeps asking for more.
 
Gifters said:
Oh he loves Pheasant Hunting, doesn't have the patience for duck hunting, he'd rather chase down and catch a coot then sit and wait for ducks. It has been hot but he goes for jogs in the morning and evenings, not as spry as he used to be after tearing his CCL. I should try to get back into waterfowl since he's tamed settled down a little from his pup years but I'm a novice waterfowler at best although he'll mark birds just fine and loves the water. He's also got an unusually short coat for a chessie but that hasn't stopped him from retrieving in the fridged cold before, just keeps asking for more.
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Every retriever I have ever owned would rather chase a coot than wait for ducks, if they didn't I would not own them. It is your job to instill discipline and be the leader of the pack and that is what takes patience. Exposing your dog to birds won't do any good until he is obedient first.
 
Gifters said:
Oh he loves Pheasant Hunting, doesn't have the patience for duck hunting, he'd rather chase down and catch a coot then sit and wait for ducks. It has been hot but he goes for jogs in the morning and evenings, not as spry as he used to be after tearing his CCL. I should try to get back into waterfowl since he's tamed settled down a little from his pup years but I'm a novice waterfowler at best although he'll mark birds just fine and loves the water. He's also got an unusually short coat for a chessie but that hasn't stopped him from retrieving in the fridged cold before, just keeps asking for more.
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Walking up chickens in early Fall is not for the faint of heart. It's a lot of miles between bird contacts. And they often flush way before you get in gun range and fly to where you can't chase them. I look at it like I'm just going on a long hike with the dog, and have zero expectation of bagging anything, which makes it fun on the rare days when it works out...

I started out with a golden retriever, so I know they can be successfully walked up with a flushing dog. Still, it's not ideal. Personally, I probably wouldn't drive 2 hours to do it with a dog that is old and "not spry". But hey, to each his own. Get your wiha map out and get going! Look for pastures interspersed with farm fields, and few to no trees.

Good luck to you!
 
Depressing, but I haven't even had a chance to get out, never had allergies before but my wife and I got ear infections and the past few weeks I've been having cluster headaches. I'm hoping to get out soon but who knows how long this cycle will last.
 
Gifters said:
Depressing, but I haven't even had a chance to get out, never had allergies before but my wife and I got ear infections and the past few weeks I've been having cluster headaches. I'm hoping to get out soon but who knows how long this cycle will last.
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Til the first frost! Allergies are miserable in the fall. I sneezed all day today while I had the kids out for pe class.
 
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