Hopefully you followed Pheasants Forever’s (PF) recent and 2nd annual Rooster Road Trip. It’s a cool idea, where several of the walk-it-like-they-talk-it PF guys hit the road to hunt pheasants on public land in five different states – in five days. Since the states are pretty dang big west of Ol’ Miss, that’s no small […]
Regardless of whose theory you buy or what label you want to put on it, weather patterns are changing. Don’t think anyone can say how long that’ll last, but in the short term one effect of it – which also happens to be a symptom of a generally warmer climate – is more precipitation. For […]
Have to admit one reason we bird-hunt is to get our butts kicked – and not just by the birds! Being wiped-out tired after a day of hunting is part of the fun, and that’s one reason we really, really want to go out West after the wily ol’ chukar birds. A little daydreaming about […]
Well how ’bout that? Minnesota just released a draft long-term management plan for ruffies and wants your comments on it. Pretty cool considering Minnesota is one of the top grouse states in the country…meaning they want to keep it that way. Here are some things that stood out for us: Plan/Goals > Among the goals […]
[Update: As of 12/9/11 this giveaway is officially over!] We got an A in alliteration class…. Anyhow, with all this talk of Black Fridays and Cyber Whateverdays, the folks at Wood and Metal have decided to make it easier than that: They’re giving one free pair two free pairs (!) of Geier Glove Co. goatskin […]
You’d expect that with continued habitat declines plus a severe drought, Texas’ quail wouldn’t be doing so well. No surprise, but that combination of factors is bringing on the double whammy: less hunter opportunity. That’s the double whammy because less opportunity means less hunting, and if that continues it means fewer hunters, thus fewer hunters […]
Did you happen to catch this movie on PBS? If not, you can probably still DVR/TiVo it, or you can watch it below. Definitely do it. Amazing stuff. Jay watched it the other night after his kids told him to, here’s what he said about it: Honestly, it was incredible – meaning whatever I was […]
Not too long ago, seemed like anytime anyone said “stem cells” they’d either get a microphone shoved in their face or something thrown at ’em. But outside of that realm of political football, things have advanced – apparently to the point of a 1-day procedure that sounds like it’ll give old hunting dogs a few […]
Kansas has endured a Texas-like drought in some parts of the state this year, prompting it to go from being “the other South Dakota” to “where did all the birds go?” in just a year. But judging by early reports, seems like pheasants (and quail) are still there…as long as you can find some habitat. […]
Our last review of the week is of the Geier leather gloves made for and sold by Wood and Metal. As we said in a post about 1.5 months ago, we were introduced to these gloves by C.H. Judson, owner of Wood and Metal, a retail site we hadn’t heard of at the time. Since […]
Along with the Irish Setter Wingshooters, another piece of gear Sean tested on the Maine trip was the L.L. Bean Technical Upland Soft-Shell Jacket. No secret Jay and Brendan are big fans of L.L. Bean’s upland gear – because Bean continues to push the envelope in upland gear, one of only a few companies that […]
Here’s the first of a few posts we’re doing about gear we’re using this year. Really it’s gear we’re “testing” because if the gear flakes out, we don’t use it anymore. Few notes before diving in: > At this point we pretty much know what we like and need – meaning we’ve bought and run […]
The always reliable (meaning good) Chad Love of Field & Stream blog and Quail Unlimited blog fame semi-recently raised a similar question in a brief post. Riffing on it here because we think it’s an interesting, appropriate but possibly unrealistic topic. Meaning: 1. We’ve actually talked about this in the field, wishing we had a […]
Competition is all over the place in the outdoors – all fishing (even fly), deer hunting, turkeys, etc. – but not so much in bird-dom. Could that change? We expect most everyone is familiar with local longest tailfeather contests among pheasant hunters. Slap your $5 or $10 or whatever it is down, measure the longest […]
That’s the title of a recent blog post by Don McKenzie, who has the tough position of being director of the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI). Tough because bobwhite quail are arguably facing the toughest road of any game animal, and it turns out that bird hunters aren’t helping enough. To see what we mean, […]
Here’s a brief report to all from Tim Brandt, a fellow Serious bird hunter. Tim lives in Minnesota, is a ruffed grouse fiend and actually gets paid to hunt (!) since he’s the PR guy at Federal Premium Ammunition. (In fact, if you ever watch the Duck Commander show, you might have seen him on […]
When you see a headline like “9 Upland Shotguns You Should Know About” from one of the magazines, you know it means “9 Upland Guns Our Advertisers Want You To Know About.” And since we all go into it knowing that, that’s okay. So are the nine guns worth knowing about? Eh, sorta. Below are […]
by Dan Craven [This starts with a continuation of Dan and company’s Saturday hunt. If you missed it, part 1 is here.] Farmers/ranchers out this way are moving towards “stripping headers†on their combines, which changes the game a bit in the agricultural fields. Strippers simply strip only the head off wheat or sorghum which […]
by Dan Craven [Dan is a Serious bird hunter who’s co-authoring our forthcoming book, Serious Pheasant Hunting, Book 1. He lives in Minnesota and goes to South Dakota every year to hunt birds, not just pheasants. Here’s the rundown of his recent trip. One word for it: awesome.] Thursday 4:00 pm – Depart for Bismarck, […]
Seems like these bird forecasts are like media coverage of the economy: self-fulfilling, and rarely good. A recent article in MN’s Star Tribune newspaper noted that: “The predicted decline in Minnesota’s pheasant population this season has caused some hunters to skip ringneck hunting. The Department of Natural Resources sold 66,747 pheasant stamps through [Oct. 17], […]
Just read this article on hunting ruffies in MN this year. So much of it, while well-intentioned, is wrong. Here goes: > The good news is, counts were up 34 percent this spring in parts of northern Minnesota. Counts remained stable in southern Minnesota. This COULD mean that there’s more easy birds (young ones) early […]
Lessons from 2012 Maine-NH Hunt
Don’t know if we’ve fully recovered yet from our not-quite-a-week of hunting Maine and New Hampshire for ruffies and woodies. We all actually bailed 2 days early, having put in 5 consecutive days instead of our usual 7. Felt like wimps about it, but hey, we were BEAT…from 5 days of the most brutal hunting […]
No Grouse Comeback in SW Penn?
Sounds like ruffed grouse will never be as much a part of the landscape of southern Pennsylvania as they once will. “Never” sounds ominous. Permanent. But that’s the conclusion of an article by Bob Frye in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Why should you care if you don’t live or hunt in PA? Reasons: > Pennsylvania is […]
Hey: All Ruffies Drum Differently!
Did you know that? Not until now…. This info won’t help us hunting, but it’s interesting – and makes sense. Here’s more, from newscientist.com: Male ruffed grouse are the first animals known to make unique non-vocal sounds. Humans and many other animals, particularly birds, can be identified by their voices. But no one had looked […]
Ran across this quote from an article about Iowa’s pheasant count: > “I haven’t even gone pheasant hunting the last couple of years because the birds just weren’t there,†said Tim Wolf, a 61-year-old bank president who lives in Waukee. YES THEY WERE! They most definitely were there. Maybe not like this… > “But I’ve […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Across the Pond Bird Follies, Vids
Ah the UK, the land that gave the world 17 pieces of silverware on the table, animal rights and other questionable stuff. Okay, it wasn’t all bad – that’s where our bird hunting came from too. But it’s different here…or there, depending on your perspective. Here’s some recent bird news plus some interesting vids. Katie […]
Do Congress, Tea Party Hate Pheasants?
We make it a point to try not to get suckered by political hoo-ha, so that’s not what this is about. We ran across a blog post on the Discovery-owned treehugger.com titled “Why Does Congress Hate Pheasants?” and a related one, “Do Tea Party, Heritage Foundation Oppose Hunting?” Interesting stuff, written by the same gent, […]
Quail, the most beleaguered of our beloved gamebirds, is getting a helping hand in Kansas. Or rather, a bigger helping hand. The state just announced that it’s “launching a new quail restoration initiative aimed at making a difference in declining bobwhite quail populations at a landscape level.” Here’s more: > Includes the designation of two […]
Worms and Birds: What Else Don’t We Know?
Believe we’ve talked about this at least once, but a recent Wall Street Journal article on the plight of Texas quail got us thinking about it again. Here’s the applicable stuff: …Rolling Hills Quail Research Ranch, a 4,700-acre spread an hour west of Abilene. Last month, researchers there found that the levels of parasitic worms […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Lone Star Outdoor news recently carried an article on a speech given by Dr. Dale Rollins of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch near Rotan, Texas. Seems that a major threat to quail, at least in the Lone Star state, may be an eyeball worm. News to us! Highlights: > Especially mysterious were the continued […]
