There is a lot of wisdom in what Riprap is saying. Good strong flight pen raised birds can be quite challenging and finding them once released earlier is but a part of the deal. Having a good flusher makes all the dif in the world, assuming the dogs doing the pointing can hunt and are steady and able to honor one another.
Get up in the TX panhandle where the winds never quit blowing; Joe Wood's and others' country and good healthy flight pen raised birds are every bit as tough as any wild birds known to man. I've seen some fly an eighth of a mile on the flush like a wild pheasant using the winds to every possible advantage.
You want wild birds? Increase the bug populations, quit using deer corn & feeders in open places & on the farming side, insecticides and shoot every feral hog seen. Used to be that chicken hawks and skunks got the kabosh whenever possible too. Those were dif times.
Today, healthy flight pen raised birds can provide good sport w/o putting added pressure on what few wild birds exist. Wild birds need bugs, period. And so do the pen raised birds that are released to suppliment them, if they are to survive. Wanna feed 'em? Throw the grain in the thickest prickly pear cactus patch you can find, the birds can find it just fine and the hawks can't kill & eat them like they do around deer feeders.
The above just my unsolicited 2 cents worth, but it stikes a nerve. Carried a 20 ga. model 31 most of last season w/a Poly Choke on it's snout. It's very effective set on mod w/ 7/8 oz. of 8's for quail or 1 & 1/16 oz. of 5's for pheasant set one step tighter. So damn me for it; when the emphasis is on the dogs, it's not about the gun, aside from it's effectiveness and when you are working multiple dogs the gun takes some licking ... and needs to keep ticking.
