I've seen a number of comments from posts on this website and others where the writer says, "I don't shoot limits anymore". I'm interested to see what the opinions are from those of you who do shoot wild birds.
Here we tend to have a good population of wild chukars, and less hunters. If you get a 5 bird limit, You've hunted hard, had good dog work, shot fairly well, and had some good luck.
I don't have the opportunity to hunt daily, nor have I come to the point where I say at 10 AM after shooting 2 birds, lets go home.
Any thoughts? Thanks

The game department are supposed to be the experts. they are supposed to set the limits based on scientific evidence. Limits should sustain a population indefinately. So, load up and knock 'em dead!!
How was chuckar hunting this year? I didn't go. Do you hunt the North, or South side of the Lake? I hunt the South, but want to hunt the Hogup mountains on the Northwest side sometime.

The limit is a guide line and is set to sustain the species. The hunting or time afield is for pleasure...good friends and a good dog. When both dog and hunter have had enough exercise and hunting pleasure it is time to quit for the day and plan another. The end of a hunting day can be by a limit of game or just the end of a pleasant day afield. There will always be another day and hunting within the limits on game may leave another bird to flush on another day.
Best,
Ron

Here's my take on self-imposed limits. The first and only time I have taken less than my limit, when the opportunity was present was 16 years ago. I was hunting sage grouse and the numbers were down by half from the previous year in the area I was hunting. The game proclaimation stated that you could take two birds. I chose to take only one. The area has since been closed to hunting sage grouse. In this rare case I was ahead of the game warden in assessing the vulnerbility of that certian population.

But in most cases I think that people who use self-imposed limits are not looking out for the welfare of the game, but instead want the accolades of their fellow hunters. Some hunters I have met have introduced themselves like this, " Hi I'm Mr. Hunter, I don't take my limit because I'm morally superior to you, excuse me, I have to pat myself on the back."

If a game animal is rare, or threatened, I could see self- imposed limits. But when there are a billion chuckars, I think a self-imposed limit is just a way to put yourself above others.

I have to correst myself. Four weeks ago I only took seven rabbits when the limit was ten. I just got tired of gutting them and I had plenty for rabbit stew. Nothing wrong in calling it quits early as long as you don't turn it into a self righteous sermon.

With the benefit of age, I have come to believe that the drive required for bagging a limit of any kind of game is directly proportional to one's age for the majority of us. As a young man I expended a lot of time and energy while making every effort to bag "my" limit, or at least be "Top Gun" for the day. Nowadays I seem to have less time for some reason; but also, now being on the back side of 55, I don't have the same energy levels and drive either! Now if I were hunting for subsistence, things would be much different of course; but, as someone who has shot his share of limits and is now approaching the autumn years of his life (what a pathetic thought!), I find my greatest pleasures afield come from the friendship of my companions, watching a good dog work or a puppy grow up, watching the enthusiasm of kids just developing their shooting and hunting skills, admiring and fondling a fine double shotgun, and just being out in the great and wonderful outdoors. If my game bag is a little lighter, and my gun a little heavier than it used to be; so what, I am not the least bit discouraged. The scriptures advise us, as we go thru the daily grid of life, to pause long enough to smell the roses, something in my youthful haste I had little time for; but thankfully, I have now lived long enough to understand and appreciate this great advice.

I'm with topgun.

I like to shoot some birds, but killing them isn't what hunting is all about for me.

I like running my dog and watching her grow and develop. I like being outdoors and experiencing the seasons. I like finding new spots. I like walking up on a point and hearing the bird go.

I like to shoot some birds - especially ditch parrots - but most times I leave them alone so my dog can point them again.

I also run my dog a lot in the off season. Then I'm only firing a starter pistol and a camera.

OWD

BTW: last summer I talked to a guy who said he shot 60+ Ruffed Grouse a year. That's excessive. Who needs that many dead grouse?

BEWARE! rant ahead:

First let me say I see nothing wrong with shooting a "legal limit",BUT- if the hunter we are talking about is one that has a freezer full of pheasants, doves, ducks or what ever that he can't or won't cook and eat or worse yet is just throwing away! Well- I don't care how skilled he or she is their GREEDY! I even don't care if every time I visit this guy he offers me some cleaned and frozen birds to take home. He should find a clays game he likes, a regulated shooting grounds where the birds are paid for or take up bowling! When I am out for a day of bird hunting and run into a guy with birds in the bag and he offers them to me my blood starts to boil! I know he is most likely looking to unload birds so he can continue killing. I am actually to a point where when I'm told "oh I donate my game to food banks" I get angry! The way I see it sport hunting is the art in life. I know small numbers still subsistance hunt and I know what they do with their game. A limit is only for those who use it on the table. I have even quit hunting with friends who ask me to take their game so they don't have to haul it home; "the wife complains when I bring these in the house". Hey golf in the summer, ski in the winter. Heck! Take up knitting! Hunting is more than skillfully killing. If a person does not know how to use game after it is taken they should not have taken it!

Kurt

Wild birds are a short lived species. Doves for instance, 90% of them will be dead within one year if they're hunted. If they're not hunted 90% of them will be dead in one year. You can't stockpile wildlife.

There is nothing wrong with taking limits, nor is there anything wrong with self-imposed limits.

I'll bet I could eat 60 grouse in a year...I've only shot 3 in my life, but they were GREAT eats.

As far as my personal preference, more times than not I don't have an opportunity for a full limit (unless I were to hunt by myself). When I get the opportunity to take one, I do. There'll be enough 1 bird or no bird days to balance it out.

Todd

Topgun's sentiments reflect mine...well mostly. Except that part about trying to bag a limit and/or being top gun for the day. I try dang hard to do both, still being a snot nosed 50 yrs old. But, honestly, I rarely bag a limit. In SD's openning weeked, I bagged phez limits 2 days in a row then was oncie-twosie for the next 3 days. Locally, I limited only twice on quail this year out of about 10 days. But I'm always trying.

On local hunts, we rarely stay out in the field until last light. Most of the time we're headed home by 3-4:00 pm.

When I was younger, a limit meant something to me. Now that I'm a bit older (45) it seems I have forgotten exactly what was important to me about that heavy game bag. These days, I usually prefer to watch the dog work. Since I do the great majority of the cooking at my house, none of the birds go to waste. My wife is from South America, and could probably be a vegatarian if it weren't for my beef vegatable barley soup, or the smoker and the grilles on the deck. So the bird cooking is mostly for me, and I tend to use the birds fresh, not frozen.

I haven't shot a woodcock in several years. There is something afoot with the little guys, as I see few where I used to see hundreds. Further, my English setter is a bumbling idiot with them for some reason, and seldom handles one with finesse.

I don't believe I have ever mentioned my little self imposed limit to anybody in the woods, and don't call into question what their practices are on same. Truthfully, I do my best to avoid other folks when hunting, so as to allow each of us to enjoy the solitude of the woods. Wednesday is my typical hunting day in the fall.


I can't use more than a couple birds, pheasants or grouse, a week. As I look back over the years, I can also conclude that it doesn't hurt me to just enjoy the flush a time or two on a trip. Not every encounter with a gamebird needs to end with a gunshot for me to call it a successful trip. Not too righteous, I hope. Just the way I enjoy my sport.
Best,
Ted

Yup, every pilgrim has his own path. This seems to sum it up for me as well, no dog however.

I'm no saint, having grown up in a fishing village of subsistence living, but the rule then is what I and my buddies follow now: when black numbers are down, we give them a break and often a pass, and when there are lots of birds, we're always out of the blind with whatever we've shot (within the limit) on our schedule before 8:30a or 9 because we'll be gunning tomorrow. This year, in our area, blacks were at an all-time high. Never seen the likes of it---clouds of blacks.

Hunting is a banquet - some feel compelled to load up their plate, some take only enough to satisfy their needs. Neither should be subjected to criticism, Imp. Mod.

Personally, I don't give a rat's patoot about "the accolades" of my fellow hunters. I hunt for the pleasure of myself and my dog, and call it a day when I feel like it.

Some shooters use a bag limit as a measure of success of a hunt. I call them shooters not hunters. To them, less than a full limit is a failure. They miss 99% of the reason to hunt. Not to keep score or prove you are the best killer but to live for a short time in a world that is outside your normal existance. Not so much back to nature but more to me trying to see the world from another viewpoint or try to do what does not come easy.

We all have some type of self imposed limits. Some only shoot drakes. Some only shoot one species or will never shoot at one species. Some shoot only one or two birds. Some only hunt one ot two days a year. What ever make you feel that you are getting more out of the huint by limiting the hunt is fine with me.

Luring a lone Black Duck into a spread of decoys, getting a family of Canadian Geese to lock up wings and glide for half a mile just to land less than a hundred feet from where you are hiding, or just getting a fish to bite your fly, when it really could care less about it, that is the challenge. That and getting your son or daughter to understand why you do it the hard way and then get them to try to pass it along to their kids.

Some of the best hunts that I have had, never had a shot fired. I limited out on life's memories. You keep score your way and I will do it mine. But if you have never seen the look on a Black Duck, when he has landed into your decoys and then realises that he has screwed up and is dead meat, then make a desperate flight to get away, never knowing that you would rather let him live another day with just the hope to do it again, you have never limited out in my book.

Nice post, KY Jon. But having been young once, I can understand those to whom a limit is still important.

Is there a limit on feral cats?

Don't put undue confidence in your Game and Fish department when it comes to setting limits in the interest of the game birds. These guys are bureaucrats with other motives burning them too. AZ quail hunters had to raise a real stink to get Game and Fish to drop the bag limit on Mearn's Quail to 8 from 15 when it became apparent the drought and the hunting pressure were just too much together. Game and Fish didn't want to drop the limit from 15 because they thought it was a draw to out of state hunters to be able to come and be able to shoot 15 birds a day assisted by guides with trailer loads of dogs in a mild climate during the late season from Nov through Mid Feb - a plus for the tourism dollar. Mearns are a very tight holding bird which makes them especially vulnerable to good dogs. Game and Fish sells out on elk too if the cattlemen raise too much stink about elk taking too much of the public land graze.

A box of shells goes a long ways with me. Knowing my area, I've not shot a quail, or woodcock in years. Missouri tried for years to relocate grouse - we do have a season - but I've not shot 'em.
...but I've found 16g hulls on my property, no doubt they've made-up, for what I passed on.

Some go to the fields to reminice about the days they hunted hard and in plentiful times. Others go to the fields to create those memories so they can reminice later in life. I'm still in the creating stage. If there is an absence of game, I'm disappointed. I may find a way to have a good time anyway, but I'll sure as heck have a better time if game is plentiful. And I don't have to take a limit to have a great time, but it helps. One of the best hunts I had this year was last weekend with my 410 and new pup.

I'm going out tomorrow with my dog and 2 other hunters. I hope we do well on filling the bag. If we just get half a dozen quail each, I'll consider that a great take. Frankly, if I were a better shot, I'd take a limit much more often as I certainly can get a limit's worth of shots a day fairly easily. But I don't have a pointer and I'm not sure I'd trade the excitement of an unexpected flush.

Chuck, it was the lack of game that changed my shooting interest.
The quail population was just not shootable.
My area, and my property I hunt has an abundance of lakes and ponds - and just 10 miles from the Missouri River as the crow flys. So, I'm right in the middle of the Alantic and Mississippi flyways.
The ducks and geese are in and out all season long.
I became a fowler(I leave the little birdguns to others) with three Labs and a cabinet with only 12s - I found this to be a new page in my book, and the best yet.

The only upland bird limit I don't like is KS on pheasants. 4 roosters is too many to carry. Since pheasant hunters shoot only roosters and since one rooster will mate with multiple hens, I feel that by taking as many as I feel like, the survivors will thank me, come mating season. And of course if you're hunting pheasants, you never have to worry about birds for your dog to work. You can't shoot the hens anyhow.

I'm glad that many Iowa deer hunters take more game than they can use, and that there's an active program of donating to food kitchens, etc. I don't hunt deer, but every one of those critters someone else shoots is one less I have to avoid on the roads.

Woodcock . . . Ted, where I do most of my woodcock hunting (Michigan's UP), I've been seeing more birds in recent years--as have most of the other hunters with whom I've spoken up there. Good thing too, because the grouse cycle is still down. I know quite a few people who don't shoot woodcock because they don't like to eat them, which is certainly an ethical stand. On the other hand, I do like to eat woodcock, and have even been known to trade grouse for woodcock. That may be one reason I never have any trouble finding grouse and woodcock hunting partners . . .

When I lived in Morocco, the daily limit on quail was 50. I thought that had to be a misprint until I really got into the quail one day and killed 15 in something under 2 hours. Ran out of shells, but it was pretty much immaterial anyhow. Don't think I ever could've brought myself to shoot 50.

When I was younger, shooting limits of chukars was important to me. I would shoot 7 birds and spend a couple of hours trying to find that elusive last bird to "fill out".

I frequently hunt areas where there are both huns and chukars available. That makes for a 16 bird limit. Even in those days when I was bloodthirsty, I couldn't fill both limits, except rarely. Having that kind of opportunity put limits largely out of reach.

Now, I am 20 years older and other things matter more than packing out a full gamebag. Don't get me wrong, because in 70+ days of hunting this season, I shot plenty of limits, but I often quit with 4 or 5 or 6 birds and didn't push to find those last birds.

I now spend more time sitting for a few minutes looking around, watching the dogs work and generally being greatful for being there than putting my head down and madly searching for the next bird.

I think that for me the years have been kind and have made me appreciative.

Marty

Larry,
Good news, if you are an Uper. When I bought my home, circa 1988 or so, the road had yet to be paved (or, the city water run out to it, and a few other modern things, but that was then and this is now) and I would wait for the first hard rain of September to see perhaps several thousand woodcock feasting on worms on the side of the road in front of my home-you couldn't hunt them, but, it did my heart good to see them. I haven't seen a woodcock, save a few that persist in nesting in the slews around the perimeter of Jane's field (the Anoka airport) in my neighborhood, for most of a decade.

I had a secret spot on the Red Lake WMA where, just behind a hill, I would post with my Gordon in the hour before sunset, and lots would fly over the hill to get to the edge of a damp slew right up to twilight. At the time, I could hunt the Red Lake and not see anybody for most of a week, it is pretty far out into nowhere. When I say lots, I mean thousands. I didn't feel too guilty about taking five out of the mass, but, the last time I tried it (1999 or 2000, I don't remember) zip, nada, zilch. I have shot perhaps three since then, that the new dog has handled well. She usually doesn't. But, it is irrelevant if I don't find them these days, anyway.
My self imposed limit is imposed by more than me, in this case.
Best,
Ted

When I started hunting, my Dad told me this: Hunting is like eating your favorite meal. Sometimes you eat so much you don't have room for dessert, killing a bird is dessert. My Dad was a bird hunter first and foremost. I've followed that advice and taught my children and grandchildren the same. Right now I'm hungry and grouse season closes the 31st.

Ted, couldn't have been any more recently than 96 if you were shooting 5. That was the last year before the feds dropped the limit to 3. I remember it well, because I ran into a bunch of doodles on my last Iowa woodcock hunt before pheasant season opened, went 5 for 5 with a newly-acquired Brit 12 (which, of course, I no longer have). I don't mind being limited to 3 these days, especially if there are some grouse around as well. But I would like to see more than a 6 bird possession limit. I go out of state to hunt and I have to find some way to cook up a bunch of birds at least once--and I'd just as soon take them home.

The last time I tried the spot was 1999 or 2000, Larry. And the limit 'coulda been zero, as there were NO birds. Woodcock, anyway.

I didn't make the Red Lake yearly, but was there a lot in the 1980s-early 1990s-it is about 5 hours drive one way from Mpls. I haven't been there in recent years, too much good hunting much closer to home to drive that far. At the time, I would ask for permission to camp on the WMA (don't know if they will allow that, anymore, but, they used to) for three or four days, and rent a shack in Waskish for one or two days to get cleaned up. Life was good. My then boss was sympathetic to my wanderings in the fall.

Five bird limits are a thing from my paying customer past, and I didn't do that after 1992, or so. Two grouse, two pheasants (the limit here all my hunting life) or two woodcock had been the norm for a LONG time, but, now I don't see the woodcock. It is a bummer.
Best,
Ted

I have most often seen limits abused in waterfowling. Let's face it, duck hunting attracts a lot more of the techno gadget budweiser shoot 'em up crowd. Worse yet, I have known guys who won't eat ducks but love shooting them, so they try to give them away. I think a lot of the duck hunting shows promulgate this attitude as well. It's all about killing lots of ducks, and I have never seen them hold back voluntarily, let alone focus on the romance of the sport, as opposed to the shooting end of it.

As for limits on upland birds, I think they are harder to get even if you wanted to, so I don't think that is as much of a problem. Besides, when I think of a limit of quail in my gamebag, I think of two words: quail fettucine. Yum.

Improved modified, check your PM. I sent you some info on 2006-07 Utah chukars and my phone number. Don't want to bore the audience with local details.
Fred

Lowell,
I can understand your reasons. I haven't had to worry about quail populations except year to year fluctuations which are dependant on rainfall and predators mainly. My goal is to get water out on the property and maintain these tanks for the quail. Their feed is plentiful. We're in a bit of a drought this year, even though it rained a bit today out there on us.

BTW, the 3 of us took 4 birds total. I took 2 with the 410 including a really long crosser in an open field. I also took a cottontail with the 410. That's it. We were cold and wet, but had a good time trying like heck to shoot a limit. It took serval miles of walking to just find birds in the rain and cold. We were disappointed not seeing any birds for the first few hours, but once we got into them, it was on. We were really having a good time shooting the junipers up and only getting 4 birds

Fred I don't see a PM. maybe the system isn't working.
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