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

Pooch,
I shoot some pen raised birds several times a year. Like you said, it's better'n golf...especially for the dogs.

I don't wanna stop you from buying your next dream gun in .410, but I do have a neat little solution to your desire to reduce the howitzer effect. There's a neat little 12ga round made by Aguilla that's about 1 3/4" long and holds 5/8 oz of 7 1/2 shot. They have a full column shotcup type wad and pattern like a summer cloudburst. They ain't cheap, but they're not as much as a 3" .410 either. Besides, you can shoot em in your vintage 12ga, no matter what the warning on the box says...these little shells don't put out much pressure to get 5/8 oz to move 1200 fps. Try a few boxes, they're as much smallbore fun as you can have with a 12ga.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/255579/...-shot-box-of-20

I don't understand why so many of us feel the need to make it harder to kill released birds. I usually shoot my 16ga Parker with RST or Polywad vintager shells which is just what I use for wild birds or doves. My "go-to" alternative bird gun is a 12ga E.M. Riley with tighter chokes and Polywad spreader loads. It doesn't matter to the bird except to the extent of unnecessary suffering from a less than lethal shot. Why the need to handicap?...Geo

That's a good point, George. If all your shots are coming within .410 range and you can kill your birds with a .410, fine and dandy. (And if you can hold your fire if they get up beyond .410 range.) When I shot the pheasants I mentioned earlier with a 28ga--which I would not use for wild birds--I was counting on consistently close flushes. Which I got. After flat missing the first bird (and feeling like a real idiot), I then killed the next 27 straight, including a couple doubles. 2 or 3 of the singles did require a 2nd barrel, and the dogs had to help me with 2 or 3 that didn't come down either dead or totally immobile. But I also had a 12ga along, and if I'd been crippling regularly with the 28, I would've switched in a heartbeat.

Some of the prior comments are unrealistic...

80%+ of us live in urban areas. Most of us work 40 hours per week. There NO nearby wild birds -- one has to drive many miles to find any wild birds. If one wants to train and maintain a bird dog, pen-raised birds are the only choice.

Even those living on farms or in villages probably use pen raised birds for their dog training.

ALL field trials use pen-raised birds.

We live in 2013, not 1940. The Missouri quail population is down 90% from the 1960's. Most of the upland birds we shoot are pen-raised, except for doves. Get over it !!!

George,
I think it was Mike that said something to the effect that once you passed the KFC on the way to shoot a bird, you threw out all rational reasoning.

ROFL! Carve that in granite. Gil

Bill D, I don't know how far off this reply will land but a resounding AMEN to your post.

Then I suggest you read the late Gene Hills' story- Old Tom-- same scenario. I always use a 12 bore for preserve pheasants, as I like to see them drop dead in a cloud of feathers, and make it easier for the dogs to retrive, then to cripple one with a "midget gauge" and watch a $25 bill go sailing away to later feed the coyotes, feral cats and foxes too!!

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.

I agree, when the emphasis is on the dogs...



Ah crap. How'd that get in there?

I meant...these pics of the two girls on pen raised birds.