where are the birds?

M

mustistuff

Banned
hi folks like it or not there are birds out there, i have been hunting n w kansas and have been doing pretty well. cause of the heat, only short days are possible, have been averaging 3 hour days and after 5 days have 15 roosters, great, no, but not bad, i hunt with a 14 ga. muzzle loader. cover is kinda scarce and young birds are about non existent. over a 35 year period this is about an average year for me, i hunt with 2 pretty top gsp. finding most of the birds in the wheat, headed out again on the 10th, good luck to ya all, report later, new at this but here i am
 
That's great to here! I'm headed up there next week, I'm not expecting much but plan on hunting my butt off.
 
quanah labs

kinda wrong dog for this year, you won't find many road kills either. i have been hunting big fields, one is that other than opening day, people won't go in them and if you have a lab, especially one that is not in really good shape, ya can't cover the ground and lots of the ditches and corner patches are pretty poor. also, a poor note, n. of atwood i have never seen so much posted land. time in the field will get you something, have a great trip
 
mustistuff said:
kinda wrong dog for this year, you won't find many road kills either. i have been hunting big fields, one is that other than opening day, people won't go in them and if you have a lab, especially one that is not in really good shape, ya can't cover the ground and lots of the ditches and corner patches are pretty poor. also, a poor note, n. of atwood i have never seen so much posted land. time in the field will get you something, have a great trip
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Well what we lack in experience we will make up in endurance!
 
where are the birds

glad, even if he does use a lab, that he is going to just go out and do it, good for him. anyway i own and hunt with a number of antique muzzle loader's, this one is by john blissett, london about 1840 and is in nearly new condition, with it and out to about 37 yards i can kill anything with it that you can with what ever you choose to use, they are cly. bore so can't shoot quite as far. as far as the gauage, they were actually made in just about all of them like 17, 13.11, you name it. this spring i shot 3 turkey with one of my 20 ga.'s
 
Don't any of you guys take this personal, but I agree a labs place is in the duck blind. I have hunted with a bunch of them, and have never seen one keep up with a good pointing dog, especially in hot weather. They are just to fat and out of shape. They do shine in the duck blind where the belong. Flame away!
 
fsentkilr said:
Don't any of you guys take this personal, but I agree a labs place is in the duck blind. I have hunted with a bunch of them, and have never seen one keep up with a good pointing dog, especially in hot weather. They are just to fat and out of shape. They do shine in the duck blind where the belong. Flame away!
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Man I agree
 
Well, that makes this the year to use a lab on upland birds in KS, nobody is finding many. ;)

But the labs are not built to cover 40 miles a day, and my setter would freeze to death in a duck blind.
 
SetterNut said:
Well, that makes this the year to use a lab on upland birds in KS, nobody is finding many. ;)

But the labs are not built to cover 40 miles a day, and my setter would freeze to death in a duck blind.
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Steve, that's why you won't see my dog wearing a Garmin......." honest, he must have ran 50 miles that day" " Really, I swear"
 
SetterNut said:
Well, that makes this the year to use a lab on upland birds in KS, nobody is finding many. ;)

But the labs are not built to cover 40 miles a day, and my setter would freeze to death in a duck blind.
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Not to mention drown. I saw the pictures with them on the life rafts this summer. That was cute:)
 
fsentkilr said:
Don't any of you guys take this personal, but I agree a labs place is in the duck blind. I have hunted with a bunch of them, and have never seen one keep up with a good pointing dog, especially in hot weather. They are just to fat and out of shape. They do shine in the duck blind where the belong. Flame away!
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They are too fat and out of shape?! Not my girl, she is 65lbs of nothing but muscle and built like a greyhound. I'm not bringing out some couch potato pet lab. There is a huge difference between a lab and a field breed lab with close to a dozen FC and AFC's and UH titles in their pedigree. Also a labs place is where I hunt her, which is not only in a duck blind. I don't want to start one of those ridiculous "my breed is better than your breed" threads but just ask yourself what breed is used more than any other by pheasant hunting clubs, lodges, and guides on both pen raised and wild birds.

You may be right though my lab might not be able to run as far as some of your pointers, but she is a flusher trained to hunt close, so its really comparing two different things, but I can promise you that a well bred lab can run and hunt all day.
 
To compare the hunting style of a retriever breed to that of a pointing breed such as an English Pointer or Setter is like comparing an ATV to a crotch rocket. Both will get you where your going with the same result, just in a different style.

Each has their place. And everyone has different hunting styles.
 
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quanah labs said:
They are too fat and out of shape?! Not my girl, she is 65lbs of nothing but muscle and built like a greyhound. I'm not bringing out some couch potato pet lab. There is a huge difference between a lab and a field breed lab with close to a dozen FC and AFC's and UH titles in their pedigree. Also a labs place is where I hunt her, which is not only in a duck blind. I don't want to start one of those ridiculous "my breed is better than your breed" threads but just ask yourself what breed is used more than any other by pheasant hunting clubs, lodges, and guides on both pen raised and wild birds.

You may be right though my lab might not be able to run as far as some of your pointers, but she is a flusher trained to hunt close, so its really comparing two different things, but I can promise you that a well bred lab can run and hunt all day.
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:10sign: :cheers:
 
quanah labs

there is no best breed but some dogs do a better job hunting than others. i started out with labs, 17 years worth, they were slim, trim and could make it through the weed-end, very few today get the conditioning to do that, most pointers don't either but they do run with less effort it seems. my two gsp will also sit a duck blind and cold water retrieve with their vest, they are not however a chessie, dogs usually make the hunt, enjoy them whatever you are putting up with, life is short, i also like your attitude bucko
 
mustistuff said:
there is no best breed but some dogs do a better job hunting than others. i started out with labs, 17 years worth, they were slim, trim and could make it through the weed-end, very few today get the conditioning to do that, most pointers don't either but they do run with less effort it seems. my two gsp will also sit a duck blind and cold water retrieve with their vest, they are not however a chessie, dogs usually make the hunt, enjoy them whatever you are putting up with, life is short, i also like your attitude bucko
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I have both. My pointers are out in the kennel. My couch potato lab is here with me know. I have had two labs, both had noses that find birds the pointers went down the road right past. I like both, I have always had pointing bird dogs. If I want to bull through weeds, it's the 90# lab, if I want to get my limit it's the lab. If I want to marvel about ease of motion, and a dog on point way out on a limb find. I sure like the pointers. Lab maintence, there isn't any. He'll be here in the car, welcoming the kids, ready to hunt in the morning. The pointers might jump on the kids as they made there way to the road, or play with them after they went a 1/2 mile across the neighborhood when they come home. Why limit yourself to one or the other? Both are better! Do you have one gun?
 
quanah labs said:
I'm not bringing out some couch potato pet lab. There is a huge difference between a lab and a field breed lab with close to a dozen FC and AFC's and UH titles in their pedigree.
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This is exactly why I make fun of labs. All the folks who take their "Hunting Lab" out 2x a year. Then to try and make money have a litter and advertise in the paper, Labrador retriever puppies for sale - from great hunting lines. And the circle of fat out of shape "hunting labs" continues.

A great lab is something to see and a wonderful dog, one of the best out there. But the bastardization of the breed is painful to watch. I wish some group would step up and split the breed and save the great genetics of the hunting dogs, and let the family lab get even fatter and happier.

My 3 cents.
 
Jakeismydog2 said:
This is exactly why I make fun of labs. All the folks who take their "Hunting Lab" out 2x a year. Then to try and make money have a litter and advertise in the paper, Labrador retriever puppies for sale - from great hunting lines. And the circle of fat out of shape "hunting labs" continues.

A great lab is something to see and a wonderful dog, one of the best out there. But the bastardization of the breed is painful to watch. I wish some group would step up and split the breed and save the great genetics of the hunting dogs, and let the family lab get even fatter and happier.

My 3 cents.
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Well your 3 cents is a rip off, I have been out hunting about 40 times this year and leave this Sunday for a 10 day pheasant hunting trip, an have no plans on making money on my couch potato fat lab.

Although I agree they should split the breed, the gap between a field bred lab and a show dog line is insane and I hate seeing "hunting labs for sale" flyers all over the place but when you see a picture of the parents they look like jaba the huts yellow siblings with no health clearances. Crap maybe your right I make fun of lab owners too! Maybe your 3 cents isn't a rip off after all.

I would like to see that black powder shotgun too!
 
quanah labs said:
Well your 3 cents is a rip off, I have been out hunting about 40 times this year and leave this Sunday for a 10 day pheasant hunting trip, an have no plans on making money on my couch potato fat lab.

Although I agree they should split the breed, the gap between a field bred lab and a show dog line is insane and I hate seeing "hunting labs for sale" flyers all over the place but when you see a picture of the parents they look like jaba the huts yellow siblings with no health clearances. Crap maybe your right I make fun of lab owners too! Maybe your 3 cents isn't a rip off after all.

I would like to see that black powder shotgun too!
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Here, Here, I have a lab with a with a lot of show titles, all my duck hunting friends wonder if he's a lab. He sure is, With OFA excellent hips and a couch potato like me when we aren't hunting. I absolutely do not want a seperate breed. We have that with pointers and setters and the best of all Irish Setters. The bench show breeders are making strides to continue the field ability in labs, a hole lot of them are very good. The field trial dogs are just that a specialized lineage to work a specialized game, with no effort to make a household companion, or create a breed standard dog. i would opt toward the show quality dogs. No electronic collars, heck I don't even have a leash. Don't run varmints, deer, mess with snakes, get sprayed by a skunk, destroy your seats in the car, piss on your table leg at home, or get you divorced. I hunt quietly, hand motions to a dog that is aware that getting a bird is a team effort. I have had a lot of pointers and setters that were the same. But it is not as easy now. I have not found the european dogs to be my cup of tea. To much "fur". Short range, false pointing, pointing mice, rabbits, skunks, entranced by deer, because they were designed to do it. Yes, you can break 'em, but why? When I can do it easier with a different dog that was born to it.
 
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