Another in the bag.

[coloradoclyde]

Best rabbit dog I've ever seen in my entire life has been a Golden retriever....trained as a Pheasant dog...a pointer. Far better than any Beagle... That dog was so good you really couldn't call it "hunting"...it was shopping.

 

[R.C.BINGAMAN]

Driven birds in the U.K. tartan kilts and fine double barrel shot guns with gun handlers always been on my bucket list but all so out of reach. I have a fond respect for the old country hunting customs and traditions. We hunt in February for set birds on a preserve.I go mostly to watch the dogs German short hairs great hunters. Sadly most of the wild birds of my youth have all but vanished, now when rabbit hunting if a flush should rise I watch them and whish them good luck. AN APPLICHIAN HUNTER

 

[CapPopper]

The ruffed grouse here like terrain so thick you are lucky to walk through it... Woods with tangles of green briar, dense pine thickets, new growth hardwood thickets. More or less if you look at it and think it doesn't look like fun to hunt in that's where the birds are lol

 

[azmntman]

LOL...thats exactly where a good hunter out here looks for big bull elk or mulie. Ya really gotta want that animal as once ya hike straight up a mile through blow downs at 10K feet and kill it ya got several trips back and forth and by the time ya reach the truck with the first load yer wondering where yer Bass Pro fishing magazine got to! :haha:

 

[azmntman]

Best rabbit dog I've ever seen in my entire life has been a Golden retriever....trained as a Pheasant dog...a pointer. Far better than any Beagle... That dog was so good you really couldn't call it "hunting"...it was shopping.

Well I guess ya cant say best hunting dog (if ya wanna eat it) but I had a German Shepherd that was a straight 50% on rabbits. He was so fast he caught em half the time before the could circle :shocked2: He ALWAYS brought me my half though :haha: He would get right on em and the guess if they were gonna jag right of left (he always jagged rt) and he was correct 50% of the time! I never seemed to eat my half :idunno: :surrender:

 

[coloradoclyde]

The retriever was better trained...he'd disappear into a thicket and reappear a couple minutes later and drop a rabbit at your feet...relatively unharmed except for being dead....

 

[Ron LaClair]

The enjoyment of hunting rabbits with a beagle is the beagle music. The baying of a hound on a track is a beautiful sound.

If you think a beagle can't retrieve, watch the ending on this video.

Link

 

[BrownBear]

The enjoyment of hunting rabbits with a beagle is the beagle music. The baying of a hound on a track is a beautiful sound.

Oh yeah. We used to raise and train them. I probably made more rabbit "hunts" without a gun than with a gun. Just whistle up the little hounds and take them out for a walk in rabbitland. No gun needed for a full day of fun and excitement. Meanwhile the dogs just kept getting better and better at their job with all that extra experience.

 

[Feltwad]

The enjoyment of hunting rabbits with a beagle is the beagle music. The baying of a hound on a track is a beautiful sound.

If you think a beagle can't retrieve, watch the ending on this video.

Link

Here in the UK the beagle was used for hunting brown hares in a pack which averaged about 15-20 hounds before it was banned along with fox hunting .
For shooting over pointers there is a video just out called Aytee German Shorthaired Pointers and Muzzle loaders which can be seen on the internet .
Feltwad

 

[George]

I was only trying to point out how bird hunting in the old days may be different then it is today and how those that hunted back then might look at it differently than some do today.

Yes, it was, and I do. For all hunting, not just birds. I grew up in a hunting family, and learned the rules of the game field...never shoot birds on the ground, don't shoot it unless you intend to eat it, obey the game laws when you are hunting alone just as you would if the game warden were hunting with you...automatically, along with gun safety, courtesy to other hunters, and a hundred others, mostly unwritten. Lessons learned when you are young stick with you, and they have with me. Old fashioned in many ways in today's world, but that matters not a whit to me, I hunt for my own satisfaction and pleasure, doing it by the rules left over from bygone days is part of it, for me. If I did otherwise I wouldn't feel that warm satisfaction after a good hunt, and that's really what it's all about, for me.

Your milage may vary, and that's alright by me, as long as it's legal.

Spence

 

[BigBoreBLR]

Nice shots Brit!

I only shoot flushed pheasants. I have tapped several with my barrel before they flew. I remember one farm raised pheasant I tapped 3 times before moving. Farm raised pheasants are just stupid. My dog has retrieved a few of them too.

Ruffed grouse hunting in NY. Anything is fair game. The most successful hunter in our club would sit and wait for them. He knew the place well and knew what they were eating that time.

For me ruffed grouse anything is game. They're a tough game to hunt. Very aware of their surroundings, but somewhat predictable in flushing too.

I have raised bobwhite quail for 4 years on a 3 acre parcel. Great for training my wirehaired pointing griffon.

I only hunt grouse a few times a year. I gave up with October pheasant hunting. Too easy, too many ticks, too much time cleaning briars off my dog. I go in the forest for grouse. More fun.

IF you want wild game on your property look up a quail tower. A few sheets of plywood and your prised game brids are protected from night time coyote hunting.

In NY, coyotes do get released pheasants. But, it's the hawks that actually get them. Easily 2 or 3 hawks kills to one 4 legged critter. Mostly coyote, but I have seen a fox or two with them.

 

[Ron LaClair]

Here in the UK the beagle was used for hunting brown hares in a pack which averaged about 15-20 hounds before it was banned along with fox hunting

That's what happens when ignorant people gain power, hundreds of years of hunting tradition gone because of shear stupidity.