Winged bird

A5 Sweet 16 said:
Interesting thread. I'm far from a dog expert. I've only owned 3. I haven't done anything special, but all 3 ended up being very good at recovering wounded pheasants. For what it's worth (right or wrong), I do have thoughts on the subject:

1. One dog will never teach another dog how to hunt pheasants, recover them, or retrieve them. In fact, if an experienced dog dominates in the field, it can be a detriment to a younger dog, or at least slow its progress.

2. Experience is everything. I hunt quite a bit, so my dogs get what I'd call a lot of experience with wild pheasants. When they're quite young, they have to learn that finding a wounded pheasant is their job (when you say fetch, dead, find it, or whatever) & that it makes you immensely happy when they DO find it. If you make a huge deal out of finding a bird, I think they'll grow to love it & work harder at it.

3. Even the best pheasant dog will lose a bird now & then, & it's rarely, if ever, their fault. But in the case of my 3 dogs, if I'm patient, he'll recovery the bird much more often than not. Patience isn't always easy. You're frustrated by a poor shot maybe. You hate losing birds. It's taking time. And allowing a dog to search 5-10 minutes can feel like 30 minutes. I've been there many times. My guess is some people & dogs would benefit from more patience. Just stand there as long as it takes to figure it out. Then lay on the praise ultra heavy when they find it.

Just yesterday I made a miserable shot & scratched down a rooster in some cattails. Cows had been in there, so there were tons of beaten paths for running. There'd also been other pheasants in there, so I'm guessing there was plenty of scent to contend with. Ace raced around for awhile, but eventually acted like he was starting to figure things out, exactly where the bird had fallen, & which path he took from there. He came up with the bird maybe 40-50 yards away on about the 3rd time he basically took the same route "over that direction". As I stood there, waiting, it felt like about a half hour, but probably was no more than 5 minutes. What I do know is I had zero clue where that bird had gone, so I was no help. And Ace looked awfully proud of himself bringing that rooster to me, so once again, I let him know beyond doubt that the magic he'd just performed made me EXTREMELY happy.
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My old dog trailed many running crippled pheasants 100, 200, 300 yds. I dropped one on the edge of cornfield once that he didn't see fall. When he came up out of the ditch he hit the trail running sniffing every step that bird made. He ran following that scent for 1/2 mile as we all stood on the road watching. My dad said he won't find that one, it has ran to the next county. He got closer to the half line he disappeared behind a hill and their was a thick slew of cattails. 10 minutes later we could see him come over the crest a 1/2 mile away. My son was 16 at the time and said I bet he found it. Has he got about 200 yds away we could see tail feathers. That bird was still alive and frisky when he delivered him to hand. I know that I could have tied a rope on dead pheasant and dragged that bird a mile through cover and then taken my dog to the scent and could trail it. Never saw anything like him.
 
Losing 12 birds/season is ridiculous. Unless you are shooting at 300 roosters/season, a dozen lost is a lot. Even a terrible shot wouldn't lose that many.

Something is not right about the ballistics here. Either the shotgun has the incorrect choke or the ammo sucks. Re-tool and use better options and stop leaving cripples in the fields.
 
gimruis said:
Losing 12 birds/season is ridiculous. Unless you are shooting at 300 roosters/season, a dozen lost is a lot. Even a terrible shot wouldn't lose that many.

Something is not right about the ballistics here. Either the shotgun has the incorrect choke or the ammo sucks. Re-tool and use better options and stop leaving cripples in the fields.
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It is a combination of choke, ammo, gun fit, and dog training.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Interesting thread. I'm far from a dog expert. I've only owned 3. I haven't done anything special, but all 3 ended up being very good at recovering wounded pheasants. For what it's worth (right or wrong), I do have thoughts on the subject:

1. One dog will never teach another dog how to hunt pheasants, recover them, or retrieve them. In fact, if an experienced dog dominates in the field, it can be a detriment to a younger dog, or at least slow its progress.

2. Experience is everything. I hunt quite a bit, so my dogs get what I'd call a lot of experience with wild pheasants. When they're quite young, they have to learn that finding a wounded pheasant is their job (when you say fetch, dead, find it, or whatever) & that it makes you immensely happy when they DO find it. If you make a huge deal out of finding a bird, I think they'll grow to love it & work harder at it.

3. Even the best pheasant dog will lose a bird now & then, & it's rarely, if ever, their fault. But in the case of my 3 dogs, if I'm patient, he'll recovery the bird much more often than not. Patience isn't always easy. You're frustrated by a poor shot maybe. You hate losing birds. It's taking time. And allowing a dog to search 5-10 minutes can feel like 30 minutes. I've been there many times. My guess is some people & dogs would benefit from more patience. Just stand there as long as it takes to figure it out. Then lay on the praise ultra heavy when they find it.

Just yesterday I made a miserable shot & scratched down a rooster in some cattails. Cows had been in there, so there were tons of beaten paths for running. There'd also been other pheasants in there, so I'm guessing there was plenty of scent to contend with. Ace raced around for awhile, but eventually acted like he was starting to figure things out, exactly where the bird had fallen, & which path he took from there. He came up with the bird maybe 40-50 yards away on about the 3rd time he basically took the same route "over that direction". As I stood there, waiting, it felt like about a half hour, but probably was no more than 5 minutes. What I do know is I had zero clue where that bird had gone, so I was no help. And Ace looked awfully proud of himself bringing that rooster to me, so once again, I let him know beyond doubt that the magic he'd just performed made me EXTREMELY happy.
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I had a very similar thing happen here on Saturday with my lab. I made a poor shot and the bird fell in the middle of very dense weeds. My dog had a perfect mark on it and worked her tail off searching for it. We had a little ice on the ground and because it was a steep bank and the weeds were over my head almost everywhere, I stood on top watching the weeds move and knew she was searching. After about 5 minutes or so, she gave up and came back to me empty handed. No bigger than the area was, and knowing that the fresh ice causing moisture was good scenting conditions I slid down the embankment, and went back to where it fell to aid in the search. She started tracking again but I couldn't see her. After several more minutes, I climbed higher to see the weeds moving to relocate her and she was 50 yards away from where it went down and popped up with a very lively bird in her mouth. Lots of praise was given and I was very proud to say the least. That night, as we were sharing the couch, I noticed that she had wore off all of the hair above her top lip to her nose...probably from sliding it on the ground chasing that bird!
 
westksbowhunter said:
It is a combination of choke, ammo, gun fit, and dog training.
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All of which can be controlled and improved on by the human!
To get one's dog to track (chase) a wounded bird you need to figure out it's prey drive, how to unlock the prey drive and then how to challenge the prey drive through training scenarios/challenges so that the dog wants it more.
 
I thought goose lost a bird or two this year because the bird fell or ran into a really dense thicket and it was an area a mountain line had been known to prowl so he was nervous about Mr. Jones and Rivers safety. I'm not positive on that so I'll wait for him to chime in.
 
hyresmack said:
Shouldn't be hunting????Bruh that just not how pheasant hunting works. Everyone can stone a roody at 30 yrads but doing it every time is not realistical. I seen your 1 & only phez video on you tube, you shot at 3 roosters, looked like all about 30 yds tops, last 1 maybe a tad longer. 1 clearly missed, other 2 you shot at AFTER your buddy already hit the bird & didn't look like you even hit them either. So maybe you ain't qualified to talk trash about nobody elses' shooting.
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Did you just say "bruh"? What are you 20?
 
I don’t think goose is being honest with us. No way is he losing 12 birds. Even if he was horrible at finding them he’d have to shoot at least 50 to get there. Hi’s dogs would be bird tracking machines.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
I don’t think goose is being honest with us. No way is he losing 12 birds. Even if he was horrible at finding them he’d have to shoot at least 50 to get there. Hi’s dogs would be bird tracking machines.
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Maybe when he made the original post he skipped hunting that day and drank the entire 6 pack of pbr for lunch(not judging).
 
Train for cripples at a game farm. Wing clip and release, keep increasing the time the dog is held back. Then increase the cover density.
You will know what that dog has for a motor. Goose is not trainable, no crate and all camo.
 
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hyresmack said:
Again your the worlds best shot, frickin obliterate everything you shoot at, or your full of dumped mud. If you hunted 10 years without dog & hardly lost any then you didn't drop many. Or they was pen birds that got up close & have no survival instincts after there shot.
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KEOutdoors said:
Or, and hear me out here... They flush at your damn feet when you dont have dogs running around so all the shots were sub 30 yards. If you cant kill a pheasant stone dead sub 30 yards you shouldn't be hunting. From there just watch it fall and walk up and grab it where all the feathers are. If you have a 15 foot mark on where it fell you will find it with enough time.

If you cant shoot worth a crap and ass shooting every bird and relying on dogs to chase them down you may not have a lot of success. From the sounds of it, gooses issue is birds are a long ways out.

I haven't hunted much this year, some family illness and other things have gotten in the way. But im 100% again. The last one wasnt very edible because i didn't let him get past 25 yards with the TSS in a 18-20mph wind. It will be a good one to fry, should be nice and crispy with all the holes for breading. Like ive said a million times, get in range and pheasants are about the easiest game bird to hit out of everything ive ever hunted. They look like flying blimps with long tails compared to ducks, snipe, doves, quail. Have a couple more days i should be able to hunt before the season is over Friday, then i will have to pay for birds or something because i definitely didnt get my fill this year.
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Today I got 3 in cattails,young Jones found all 3.lost 1
 
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