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

Wow there is some condesending attitudes!! I live to hunt wild birds, but.... When training a dog, let me put them out, let the dog work, let me work the dog.. its a great training tool(i get the feeling the ones that are against this are the ones that buy started dogs....A nice old (78) year old dog guy once told me to get a great bird dog, he needs birds, birds, birds...I have been on a few orvis endorsed preserve hunting that have been very very nice... but that said, I still like the wild birds...

Bob, the worst day, in the worst conditions, hunting wild birds beats the hell out of both!

...as does a good day on a good horse, Don, as you well know.

As I have said before I see the purpose of hunting a preserve and do not look down on it. But is their anyone here who would rather hunt on a preserve than wild birds? I have only been to a preserve once in my life with some church buddies, I would rather hunt all day and get into one covey of wild birds myself, and thankfully it is a lot easier and cheaper for me to chase wild birds.

Now I am off to find someone to impress!

+1

Chuck: Did Builder ever come and and shoot some rockets NOE in Cali with you........?....



In my lifetime, I've only hunted Wild critters, feathered and otherwise...............No interest in the other kind..........

There are no "wild" pheasants in Southern Illinois, and probably never were, due to climate.

However the State of illinois has a pheasant release program, where they release farm-raised pheasants in several state parks. Illinois hunters pay $25 per day for the ability to take two birds, (either sex)out-of-staters pay $35. Birds are released at 6 a.m. and hunting starts at 9 a.m. The hunts run for about 70 days, beginning in November.

On weekends the program fills, and one needs reservations. The weekdays almost never fill up, and one can just show-up. (An advantage of being retired.)

After I fill my two bird limit, I can put my shotgun back in the vehicle, and become a "free guide" for other dog-less hunters -- which provides me and my dogs additional action.

Its a decent program, and a great place to work one's dogs. Given that Illinois is not considered a pro-gun state, these pheasant release hunts are surprising. I hunt these park hunts about 20 days each fall.

We used to have a lot of wild quail in both Southern Illinois and Southern Missouri, but those numbers are way down. This Illinois pheasant program is a partial substitute.

Jerry Goldstein
St. Louis, MO

That is a great program Jerry. I am impressed with the Illinois Game Department.

I love hunting with people that don't have dogs. Usually they don't know anything about hunting dogs and so they think mine are great! Their enthusiasm makes me smile and love my dogs more.

Best,

Mike

Ditto on what Jerry said, I used to live close to Silver Springs SP in IL where there was a release program. By late November early December it was alot like early season first week wild bird hunting with alot of seasoned birds as well as quite a few just-released not so wary birds. Also the hunters tended to hunt the areas near the release sites, I'd hunt the outlying areas and literally have the field to myself. After hunting season closed I'd spend the rest of the year walking my dog through the area on weekends so that she could flush pheasants left over from hunting season. She'd always get frustrated with me when I didn't shoot them, so I brought a blank pistol. Then she'd get mad that I always seemed to miss. There was just no pleasing her!
Steve

Mike,

It makes up for our lack of public land, especially in the northern part of the state. It allows blue collar hunters to get out and spend some time in the field. Some guys bring their house dog. I have seen everything from fox terriers to great danes. For the youth, it provides some place to begin to gain experience.

The preserves (hunt clubs) in the northern part of the state can be expensive for a young guy trying to raise a family. When I was young, it was possible to go for a drive, find a farmer and ask permission to hunt pheasant and quail. Today, you will rarely find a farmer at home, because they are working a job off the farm. When you do, they hardly ever give permission.

I prefer wild birds. I go every year to Wisconsin to hunt grouse. I have hunted wild quail in southern Illinois and Missouri. But I also belong to a hunt club. At times it is the only way to get out and spend the day hunting with out a road trip. Not the best, but the dog has never complained.

By the way, our last governor almost got rid of the put and take pheasant program. Soon, we will putting him away...

Pete

You might like to read the great article the late Ted Williams wrote about preserve hunting in Mass- Grey's SJ-- Fall 1977 issue-

We will always have predators and poachers- same thing as far as the game birds are concerned. 20 years ago we had some fair pheasant hunting, if you had a good dog and plenty of shoe leather-- The nature of farming has changed a great deal-

MI once had a "Put-and-Take' pheasant release program, two birds a day either sex, and they had to have leg tags- sold with your permit-didn't take long for the 'sharpies" to get the dump-off am routes of the DNR's "chicken wagons' and they'd figure a way (with scotch tape) to re-use the leg adhesive tags- 4 guys are hunting- they take 8 birds and the birds were tagged, as the DNR did check the areas, especially on week-ends- then a phone call to a "wheel-man" who picks up the birds and drives away, and the 4, unless checked by the DNR that day, are "good to go" for 8 more- and the tags were carefully removed from the dead ones and "recycled" I know of at least two guys who shot over 50 birds on one set of 8 tags- and never got caught-

As the late Aldo Leopold once said-- "Man is not equipped to managed wildlife by 'assembly line" methods- Nature always holds the trump cards!!"

Later on, still non detered, the DNR wasted a fortune on a Sichuan pheasant program, the tough breed from that China province was supposed to inter-breed with the native hens- Sichuan gets winter weather in Asia- and the surviving birds may well be a hardy breed- over there- Problem was, the Sichuan Rooster pheasant does NOT have the white neck collar band our birds do (or did), and the DNR in its infernal stupidity wrote the regs only allowing for one of the two daily Roosters only limit to NOT have a white neck collar--

You walk in over Old Rufus, glued into a rock-solid point and a red cackling rocket goes up from the swale and duff grass right into the blinding October sun- you know its a Rooster, but even with Superman's X-ray vision, you can't see the neck for dust!!

Today, shifting from pheasants to deer "management?"--just to make a point about the "out of touch with reality of our DNR" in MI-- read the BS regs about deer baiting- recalls the great story "The Dove" by Nash Buckingham, and the fat-headed ideas that were un-inforceable regarding baiting for those speedsters, back in the 1930's!! And the beat goes on.

I hunt two area preserves for pheasants, one has occasional Tower release shoots-and the birds can really move, especially the hens. Being a die-hard 12 gauge windy day pass shooter for waterfowl, I like this- and the pick-up hunt with good retrievers later- This is, no doubt, a poor substitute for the real thing in Europe and England- high driven native birds on a private estate shoot- but it is local and affordable. Also my hunts there for released or "left-over birds" are local, no long drive to SD or NE or MT--

What is the answer? There really isn't one. I grew up hunting in the late 1940's and well into the CRP land 1950's--vandalism and theft from farmers for either materials to make Meth or crack or pipe bombs were not known then, neither did the unemployed and desperate steal copper electrical wire and or pipe to sell for scrap from farmer's irrigation units, as we see all to often today-

Farmers were neighbors, and damn good ones- seldom locked up, and if you approached them properly and if they knew their neighbors let you on their lands, they usually gave you the same open invite- We helped fix fences, put up hay, rebuild barns and buildings, and in my case, weld and re-machine their broken farm equipment- especially important at harvest time.

Today, some of the guys I used to hunt with will only stop to chat with a farmer when its near opening of bird season. Time spent over coffee, or a lunch at the local cafe across from the feed and seed store, and taking time to learn what crops and commodities are trading for, the price of seed and fertilizer, and that milk is sold and prices per 100 lbs. and not gallons-priceless. You make a farmer, and his family your friends and you have friends for life--The farmer gains nothing from your being on his lands, even if you are killing the woodchucks that bore holes in his cattle pasture land-so what incentive does a farmer who can keep his head above water in today's tough economy have to allow a PF or a Ted Turner Quail restoration program--