doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Wild Birds vs. Game Preserves

I hunt both, I help train new dogs and preserves are a great start.. but 95% of all preserves are not very good, with wimpy birds etc..but, I hunt a orvis endorsed logde in Kentucky once a year, who mix wild and planted birds and I can honestly say the coveys are large, fast and can make you miss just like a real one..and the food and lodging is nice as well (deer creek lodge)

Dick, The percentage now would be all totally stocked birds. Years ago growing up in N.J. Hunted public grounds, which is like preserves, stocked birds. Years ago wasn't bad hunting during the week, with not many people there. Now it is like taking your life in your hands, or the equivilent of being blind and walking the streets of NYC. There were some wild pheasants and quail in some parts of Hunderton County, and it was always fun to hunt them 35 years ago with our bird dogs.
Now live in Pa., used to be a lot of wild pheasants and some quail 25 years ago. Now if you see a pheasant it is a left over stocked one, and I think it is probably on the endangered species list here.
I agree with everyone else about the preserve shooting, not much fun, but if you want to keep a dog and let it get into birds, that is the only way to go.
They still stock some pheasants on game lands here in Pa., and if you get lucky you might pick up a few. Years ago the state of Pa. would stock pheasants when they were 5-6 weeks old, if you didn't post your land, they would let them go in the summer, by hunting season, the ones that lived, were like wild birds. You could hunt all day and have good dog work on birds. Most of the time it was hens, which you can't shoot, but it was good for the dogs.
I like the way Dig said they do it in England. By the time hunting season comes in the birds are wild.
We will see what this season brings here in Pa. I have a English Setter puppy, today he is 4 months old, have him pointing quail that I let loose in the backyard and neighbors field. Hopefully by Jan and Feb I will be hunting over him some preserve pheasants.
:p

I agree with RocDoc. Easy to knock preserves when you live where there is plenty of open ground, free hunting, and wild birds. Alas, 40 years ago my brother-in-law and I hunted the environs of Naperville and have never had it so good. My dear brother-in-law has passed on thanks to Vietnam, and so have the open lands we once knew. I belong to a club that releases pen raised birds, quail, chukars, and pheasants, and at least the doves we shoot are wild. Do I prefer wild birds? Hell yes! And did I love those great days with Herbie in the great farms we hunted. Hell yes! It's a shame we can't have both of them back. I'm with ya, RocDoc! Chopper

Dick,
I've never hunted a "preserve" or the UK style of driven hunts. I thought I'd hunted only true "wild" birds until last year when the landowner of the place I hunt in SD told me that the state raises and releases thousands of birds just before every season to supplement/maintain the numbers. Who'da thunk? I've never been thrilled with the idea of "preserve" hunting and after seeing Shotgun Journal, where Bruce and his sidekick shot "driven" birds in the UK, I have no desire to stand in a field and have someone load my gun and others beat the brush so I could kill without working up a sweat. I'd prefer to eat a clay disk first.

The US version of the "preserve" seems to make more sense in the off season to me for the purposes Steve mentioned, now that I have a pup to train.

Shooting preserves are good for training a young dog. I might consider taking a new hunter to one to help him gain some confidence in his shooting.

Apart from that, no thank you.

I have used preserves ocassionally for dog work, and for training my grandsons to work with pointing dogs and shoot over them.

I am lucky to live where there are still good numbers of wild birds, and that is what I hunt. I also have the time and the means to travel around the West and hunt where there are good populations of game birds. I am thankful for this.

If I lived where opportunities were fewer, and I could not get away, I would probably do some shooting on preserves. I do not enjoy it nearly as much as I do true wild bird hunting.

Less than 5% of my 'hunting' is on preserves.

C Man

Answer to the question of "%" spent: Wild -80% with a "success" rate OF SEEING 3-4 covey's/YEAR. (NC has few if any wild quail anymore and the NC Wildlife "professionals" just dither about and say you need xxxxx land to do any good-yet they do nothing to the millions of acres under there control!) Success on a preserve is only a matter of getting the birds to fly and account for 20% of my field time and is most useful in working youn/new dogs. Best, Dr. BILL

I like them both. If given the opportunity I will hunt wild birds but at the same time I would never say no to an invite on a preserve hunt. I have had a fantastic time doing both. For me it's more about getting out of the city (Los Angeles) smelling the dew on the hay or the pungent sage filing my breath. I like watching dogs work and I like being with friends afield.

I don't live where I know all the farmers that can let me hunt their land. Access to private land is a real problem for most people that have to travel to hunt.

This is why I like chukar hunting. Where chukar call their home no farmer or rancher would ever want. For the most part the desert is still free.

I see very little difference from preserve birds and a South Dakota "drive and block".

My answer is I hunt wild birds 70% and 30% preserve birds. I prefer wild birds but I also enjoy being out in a well run preserve.

90% wild. I shoot some planted birds for dog training but I must admit, early season bobwhites can get up and scoot. If the preserve has good habitat, it isn't far from the real thing.

It would be really nice if there were wild birds for all to shoot. But here in NJ we do not have wild birds any longer with the exception of a grouse (which I can't remember the last time I saw one) or a woodcock and waterfoul. We have a stocking program run by the state fish and game where they liberate pheasants and quail on management areas. Some of these areas are as beautiful as any place you could think of to hunt birds. And unless you have a dog and do a bit of walking you are not going to get your birds. We also hunt semi-wilds which are private put and take programs on private parcels of land. Some of those are run well and present a fair hunting situation and others do not. Some pen raised birds are a challange to shoot and some are not. I don't feel that preserves are all bad though I will agree that some are awful. I dont want to go to a preserve and watch birds get planted in a field and then go out and shoot them especially if they are poorly raised birds that have not been flight conditioned and don't get off the ground untill you kick it in the ass. So since I don't live in SD or Iowa, if a fair hunting situation is created I am OK with a preserve.