Who are our wild bird hunters in the NEFF world?

[Rusty Spinner]

For some reason, I have found that fly fishing and wild bird hunting often go hand in hand. I find my parallels between appreciating a fine shotgun and a fine fly rod and the challenge that fly fishing and hunting wild birds brings. I can never get enough grouse and woodcock hunting and, when I lived in the Midwest, wild pheasants and quail as well. There is just no comparison to stocked birds. Half the fun for me is watching good dog work in the field. Even if I don't find birds or get a successful shot, just knowing my dog worked hard and listened is a successful day in the fields and woods.

So who else likes to chase woodcock, grouse, or other wild birds in other states? Feel free to post up pix of your hunt, you dog(s), your kills, etc.

 

[BRK TRT]

For years I hunted with some fine Brits, and although grouse were scarce here in CT we did hunt woodcock.
My last Brittany "Blazer" left me several years ago and I have not been able to bring myself to getting another.
Blazer was a master at the woodcock game, and every hunt was a successful one.
I still hunt woodcock solo and do OK but I miss that staunch point of a Brit.

Brk Trt

 

[WBDluver]

Love to Grouse hunt and pheasant hunt. My favorite grouse shotgun is my Browning Citori over and under both barrels choked to skeet.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Love to Grouse hunt and pheasant hunt. My favorite grouse shotgun is my Browning Citori over and under both barrels choked to skeet.

I shoot the same gun in 20 gauge. I typically shoot it Skeet 1 and Skeet 2 or Skeet 1 and Improved Cylinder. Sweet gun for the price.

 

[trico mike]

When I was young I remember my father hunting quail right across the street from the house. The pine barrens used to have a good quail and grouse population. Mybrother would take me for grouse and we would aalways flush a few birds just walking. The woods were we hunted remains the same but all of the wild birds slowly disappeared. I don't understand why. It is all wma and part of the pinelands reserve,so there has not been development. I guess increased predation by coyotes and foxes is to blame. The sad part is no-one seems to care.

 

[Trout Nazi]

When I was young I remember my father hunting quail right across the street from the house. The pine barrens used to have a good quail and grouse population. Mybrother would take me for grouse and we would aalways flush a few birds just walking. The woods were we hunted remains the same but all of the wild birds slowly disappeared. I don't understand why. It is all wma and part of the pinelands reserve,so there has not been development. I guess increased predation by coyotes and foxes is to blame. The sad part is no-one seems to care.

Someone does care, which why there is a coyote hunting season now, with rifles. So all of the range queens out there with their 5.56's adorned with fancy rail systems and what not can do something useful with them.

 

[NJpatbee]

Since my dog died a number of years ago I have done very little bird hunting, but had a great run for about 20 years. The area where I live in Sussex County used to be loaded with grouse with good flights of woodcock as well as some locals. I started by jump shooting, but when I had my own champion English Setter, it was great. I did belong to a pheasant club for a couple of years and hunted quail with my setter, but he excelled with the local wild birds. Once the dog died and we moved to a larger house because of additional children and the travelling softball teams and girl scouts and saving for college tuition, plus an obsession with both fly fishing and golf, I have not participated in years. I do miss it, and with health in a few years when I retire, I do hope to be and avid bird hunter again. My favorite gun - A Winchester Pidgeon Grade 20 gauge. It is a beautiful shotgun but does show signs of briars and branches that bring back some great memories.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

When I was young I remember my father hunting quail right across the street from the house. The pine barrens used to have a good quail and grouse population. Mybrother would take me for grouse and we would aalways flush a few birds just walking. The woods were we hunted remains the same but all of the wild birds slowly disappeared. I don't understand why. It is all wma and part of the pinelands reserve,so there has not been development. I guess increased predation by coyotes and foxes is to blame. The sad part is no-one seems to care.

I hear that same story often on some of the hunting forums I visit. I know less than zero about grouse in the Pine Barrens, but it does seem odd to lose an entire population with the woods changing very little. But up north where I've always lived in NJ, there is no mystery. We still have some grouse, but we've lost nearly all of our early successional forest habitat which is where most of our grouse live. Our forests are too old now, and only modest scale logging will change that. But I can still fly birds in mountain laurel and rhododendron thickets up here. I've been giving the grouse a break in NJ for quite a few years, but we have lots of woodcock still. I hunt my grouse in PA and some in upstate NY where numbers remain excellent.

 

[tomfly]

When I was younger my father had us in a Pheasant hunting preserve. I know it was very expensive for the 3 of us. We hunted for stocked Pheasants. It was fun watching the dog work. I got to be a good shot. I started with a 12 gage then a 20 and finally I became good with a 410. One season I got a little too cocky. I told my father that I would back him up; I would wait for him to miss before I took a shot at the bird. My brother said “I would not do that if I were you.” Arrogantly I waved him off. We would go to the Flat brook Grouse and Woodcock hunting before the Pheasant season opened on the WMAs. We did not hunt the WMAs during Pheasant season. We were afraid for the dog’s safety. If you have ever hunted a WMA during Pheasant season, you know what I am talking about. We hunted the gun club during Pheasant season. So my father said ok you can back me up. To say the least from the first Woodcock to the last Pheasant of the season I did not get a shot off. But I did get my first Buck that year