doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shooting pen raised birds

A buddy has good piney woods with extensive food plots on 1500 acres. Every year he'll put out 50 coveys of 25 birds a covey, six to eight weeks before the season. Once a week, milo is broadcast on food trails. The birds arrive from Alabama in a climate controlled trailer and are raised in an isolation environment where the birds don't see people. By the time the season rolls around, the birds become strong fliers and aren't "kick'em" ups. I won't say they are equal to wild birds, but there are so few wild coveys to compare them to, it's a comparison based mostly on memory. My friend has been a quail hunter for over 50 years and I recall when he would harvest 350 wild quail a year on public land. He doesn't mind spending a buck on quail hunting and swears by the birds delivered by:
http://www.blackcreekquailfarm.com/ The are more costly than other suppliers, but he feels the quality is worth it.

better off shooting clay birds, or go to northern maine or minn and chase after old ruff...

There is a danger with pen raised birds. Once a few years ago, while training our pups we had some birds left over, so I took them home planning to use them the next week end. I took them out of their card board box and put them into a cage. My wife then named the birds, Lovey, Dovey, Covey and I forget what else, wanting to make them pets. I told my wife they would be dying the following week end so she should not get attached.

That following weekend I took the birds out to train the pups. I took a look at Lovey, Dovey, Covey and company, then told my hunting partner. "I'll put them out but you gotta shoot them. I can't shoot a bird that I know his name."

I'm old and my dogs are old. If I went to field again I would probably shoot a Meadow Lark or a song bird and my dogs would probably point it.

I'm too old to get a pup as I would surely die before the dog. It's not right to leave a dog.

I hate saying goodbye to a dog. I have yet to find a good way of doing it.

I think I'll get a single shot 410.

I've shot a bunch of planted bobwhites and pheasants to help train young bird dogs. Can't think of a better way to get them in on a lot of action in a controlled way. I never thought of it as murder and not really as sport either. I always wanted to anchor the bird right now for the pup when everything was working out right during training, so it didn't bother me if I smoked a close bird with a 12 ga. I never mistreated the birds, but they were what they were.

Pen raised birds as training tools are only a training tool. Until a dog learns to hunts wild birds he is not a hunting dog. Don't kid yourself to thinking otherwise.

Pooch,

I do not think it is ever too late to get a dog. They just bring a lot of happiness and companionship to a persons life. If the dog has a good chance that he might out live you, that's OK. Just make sure you have someone that can appreciate the dog is lined up to take it.
Now for the pen raised birds. I am lucky to live in an area where I get some great bird hunting in. Some years better than others. I am also luck to have a hunting partner that raise 15,000 plus Bobwhites and Chukers each year. It is all in the way these birds are raised and cared for. If you raise them in good flight pens you stand a good chance of having some great flying birds. Nothing takes the place of wild birds, but nothing else substitutes for the experience a young dog gets from training on these pen raised birds, along with some pigeons. These young dogs have a great foundation the first time they go out for wild birds. Just like in sports you need to practice before, and even during the season. We normally train with a 20 or a 28 gauge with light loads. I will also admit to have missed a few birds. I would be hard pressed to shoot these birds with a pistol with bird shot.
We have had a great time taking some friends out with us for a shoot on planted pen raised birds, and nothing is much more enjoyable than taking out some young hunters out for the first time, shooting these birds over the dogs. Lots of opportunity for them, they get to see the dogs work, and you can help mentor these kids on safety and with the guns around the dogs and the other hunters.

Boy o Boy you guys are som pretty tough characters!!

I shoot (hunt?) at game preserves every year. Some are better than others. When I was growing up you could hunt wild phesants on the San Joaquin Valley's west side in the skip row cotton. Farming and irrigation practices have made phesants extinct around here except there are a few in some of the duck country.

I enjoy a good "pen raised hunt". It get me out. It give me a chance to take out my older dbl guns. It gives me a chance to work my dog, take my wife or a kid hunting. I have hunted some clubs that you really had to work to find the birds. Is it So Dakota? Hell no, but it is fun and if it is a good club, it IS hunting.

I try to go to So, Dakota or Kansas or some where once a year, but I can't always do it... but staying home and "scorning planted birds" isn't hunting either.

Jerry

Pooch, I'll agree that dogs get into bad habits if they only hunt preserve birds. Turn loose a dog that's hunted mostly wild birds and one that's only hunted preserve birds at the same time, on a preserve, and you'll see a significant difference. The wild bird dog will likely head to the edges of the fields. The preserve dog will work the trails, because he knows that most of the birds won't be far from them.