doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Most amazing Pheasant Pictures

I hate to say that, but I care about killed and wounded people in Iraq and in Chechnja much more, than about wounded pen raised chickens released from towers.
Shooting and hunting is national policy of every seroius country, because hunters and good shooters will be the first who could protect successfully your country from terrorism.
The main target of hunting and shooting is to bring up not gays, but men.
I'm not ready to discuss it anymore, I got strong position about these stuff and suggest to anybody to think twice, before say something strange.

I had never thought about it like that - shooting things as a barrier to the otherwise inevitable onset of homosexuality!

Poor choice of language in some of the foregoing posts if I may say so. Nobody has been pontificating, in my opinion. The topic drifted from the lovely photos to how they were taken and then a query on the birds being “launched” from a high tower.
As I see it, there are many types of shooting, such as shooting for the pot, shooting for sport (clays or game) and trophy shooting.

The object of shooting for the pot derives from an economic need to put as much food as possible on the table at the lowest possible cost i.e. cartridge count. Nothing wrong with that, but it means periodically shooting game in a way that would be frowned upon by a sporting shooter, whose needs/objectives are different, e.g. most driven shoots forbid ground game.

The object of shooting game for sport is to have an exemplary day in the field, achieving some challenging shots, enjoying how well a dog works or how a team of beaters puts birds over a line of Guns.

The object of shooting clays is to break as many targets as possible and have the highest possible score (kill ratio.)

The object of trophy shooting is to take an animal in its prime, with specific attributes.

There inevitably is some crossover, for example a pot shooter often will give a bird a sporting chance. Correspondingly, shooting birds released from a high tower is not in my view giving them a sporting chance.
Where the problem lies – and I believe that this is going to be a bigger issue on this side of the pond than in the US – is where the cheque-book rules the shooting ethic. On a driven shoot the body count can be at a level that is, in my opinion, unacceptably high. This occurs when someone with a big bank account buys the right to kill a huge number of birds. Yes, it can be argued that the birds are being harvested, but at that quantity they could be processed like free-range chickens. Trophy hunting is somewhat similar, particularly when the prizes are “bought” by the licence to kill rules in Third World countries. To me it is a little like comparing the guy who goes out and buys a classic car in concours condition with the guy who has restored his own. One has no idea what a distributor cap is, the other can, by feel, turn it the right amount when the timing needs to be advanced. Both are quite entitled to their enjoyment, but I know the one whose company I would most enjoy and for whom I would have more respect.

Km

Well ... I didn't know the outdoor TV shows featuring commercial hunting have come to define what "modern" pheasant hunting is about. I've heard opening day in South Dakota can be something like that too, but haven't experienced it. In fact, I've not had a pheasant hunting experience like that in 40+ years of chasing roosters. I'm in the field chasing wild birds between 20 and 25 days a season, alone with my spaniels, or with up to 2 or 3 friends. And most of the other pheasant hunters I see in MN, IA, ND, and yes, SD too, do it like me - all unaware that we're a retro minority.

Jay

Hello Stephen/Baron23,

The photos are really fantastic! Thanks for sharing.
Could we know about the equipment Jeff used?

JC

P.S.: On another note,I recommend "Meditations on Hunting" by José Ortega y Gasset
Very clarifying. Meditations JC

Geno, Does this mean that my slightly pink shooting vest is a bad thing? Jake

What about Pondoro Taylor?

JC

I have shot at a tower shoot and "driven" birds. In both cases the birds were flight conditioned. The birds few fast and tall in both cases.


My impression was the tower shoot is were no one hunts, and the driven hunt is where the gamekeepers hunt and the aristocratic "shooters" pick off birds in the air. To the shooter in both cases I found very little difference.

Pigeons in a ring are released, and Columbaire birds are thrown, I have found both of these disciplines more challenging than driven birds.

On a less political note I would love to have that photographer "shoot" some of my hunts in order to see some real world pattern results out of various chokes, gauges, loads and distances.

Let me throw my backside in since opinions are as such. Again, I believe the pics to be just fantastic. From someone who has used his spaniels as "picker ups" at these tower shoots and has also participated. I can assure you that at the distance, height, and flight of the birds these shoots are anything but easy. Sporting? Yes. At the end of the hunt birds are cleaned, packaged, and distibuted to the shooters. Nothing goes to waste.

JayCee - I don't know what equipment he used, but I believe if you follow the link and read the message chain that his company is mentioned. Google it and you will find Jeff's web site and can contact him about photography issues...sorry, that's all I can offer.

Cheers