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

Same thread's in progress on SS BB http://bbs.shootingsportsman.com/viewtopic.php?t=30811
I'd remind us all that hunting preserves are a MAJOR focus of the PETA folks. We might choose our words carefully lest we give them more ammunition.

Hunters are like cowboys - everybody likes to call themselves one, but it's hard to be either living in the suburbs and driving a Suburban. If you have a 401K or an MP3 player it's even tougher.

I would just as soon hunt on a preserve, where at least you know you'll see something to shoot. It's better than wandering around a field all day and seeing one bird 200 yards away. After the shooting is done, the birds are given to someone, anyone, who wants to go through the trouble of cleaning them, and it's off to the nearest Cracker Barrel for some real home cooking. No Cracker Barrel, McDonald's Chicken sandwich will do. McDonald's works for fishing trips as well, if you order the Filet O' Fish.

Your missing the point of it all, if you need "something to shoot."

JDW,
I plan to be in Mitchell, SD in a few weeks for the openner. Actually, I'll be in Huron, up the road 40 miles, but we hit the Cabelas in Mitchell. We hunt a friend's farm. The best time I ever had on this hunt was last year when a few of us stayed longer than the corn row crowd and hunted the weed patches and slews.

I have two RSAs, regulated shooting areas. One is 600 + acres that is managed for max. dove, quail and angus beef production. Three years ago we peaked with over 20 coveys of quail. Had a down turn last two years due to greatly increased hawk predation. Looks like we may have a dozen coveys this year. When I started there were no covies on the farm. Doves number into the hundreds up to maybe a thousand on the roost.

Second area is managed for ducks and crawfish. Strange combination I know. In fact the crawfish seem to be about a break even proposition but the ducks are worth the effort. Last year we shot over 200 ducks on a limited hunting basis. I also suspect another 100 plus were poached by people I grew up with. If we really wanted to max the duck harvest it might go 500, but I do not need to hunt that hard anymore and many of my old friends have no other place to hunt and easily get a few birds. So I pay to release enough birds to give us all a place to go.

But I am the only person I know who has been lucky enough to have this setup. No doubt we all would love to have land of our own to manage and hunt. Unless you started buying land back when Johnson was President it just cost too much to do these days. A few will get land from family but most will have to rely on goodwill and a kind farmer.

To many, both of these areas are preserves. In fact they are tightly controlled hunting areas that allow me to harvest far more birds than I would ever be able of harvesting otherwise. They are safe to hunt and have plenty of fairly wild birds.

When my sons started hunting quail I did not have enough birds for them to hunt so we went to a preserve. We shot 30+ birds in a few hours. Some were very easy and some are still flying. The boys loved it. We will return once each year as longs as I am alive if I can manage it. Success is vital to keeping a young sons interest. I want my sons to be hunters and will put them in as many postive places to hunt as I can. They will come to understand fair chase and the thrill of the outing in time. Right now I want them to enjoy seeing game and seeing their game bags with a few birds in them.

So call it 10% true preserve and 90% RSA.

100% wild.

I'd rather hunt my ass off on wild birds and get nothing than fill up at a preserve, but that's just me. Don't anyone take that personally.

What a shame that hunters are being forced to hunt on preserves due to lack of wild birds. If you haven't seen a setter on point high on a rocky ridge, its upright tail backlit in the sun, as a thirty bird covey of chukars rockets up and then down canyon at 200 mph, you haven't lived.

Here's to living well.

No Dave, it's not just you. I'll be standing right there beside you on this issue.

KY Jon - I have the possibility of a similar situation when I retire and move back to the farm. Question - what can be done about the hawk situation? My imiganition says that as long as you are providing free meals, the hawk population will expand without limit. Is there some mechanism withing hawk populations to limit the population size? Like, are they sufficintly territorial that new-comes will be booted out?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Where'd wild the quail go ?

In the late 1960's the Hawks were protected because of DDT. I'm no biologist but I would guess 10 years would be long enough for the Hawks to rebound in abundance.

Quail were abundant in the south untill about 1980.
Read the 1950 book "Hunting with a Twenty Two" by Charles Landis espescially the chapter by Henry Davis and you will have a different out look on Hawks.

We land scaped this place and it's our duty to protect all wildlife for future generations to enjoy....be it hunting or watching.

Can we afford to protect one specie and let it decimate another ?

I believe that's exactly what's happened to the quail.
L.F.