doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Wild Birds vs. Game Preserves

In 1970, the census reported 4,589,000 people in Georgia. The 2010 census reported 9,683,000 or more than double that of 1970. The national population has not doubled, but there was a 50% increase. People have to live somewhere and habitat is sacrificed. In the mid 1960s, one of my old friends attended college at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College �ABAC� in Tifton, Georgia. A lifelong bird hunter with birddogs, but while at ABAC, the dogs stayed at the family home 180 miles away. BW and his roommate would ride the Tift County roads, stopping at farmhouses that had birddogs on the porch. The dogs would get in his car and off they�d go, returning the dogs at hunt�s end. The good dogs would wait for them the next week at the mailbox. One day when bringing a dog back, the farmer ran out and asked if they�d been using his dog. They sheepishly admitted they had. �Good. He�s a great dog. Just bring him back. By the way, you are welcome to hunt my land. Two coveys are located around the big field. Help yourself.� In our current world, do you think that would happen today? I�ve read where some forum members feel that turkeys have wiped out the quail. One of the best public places we used to hunt quail is a large military reservation with hundreds of thousands of woodlands, mostly piney woods, which are burned almost yearly and have been for decades. It was off limits to turkey hunting until 1977, but not because of low populations. To the contrary, some of the reservation's birds where cannon netted for rebuilding populations else where. The turkeys have always been there. The military was and still is a good steward of the property. Food plots were planted and quail thrived. The amount planted depended if the base commander was a bird hunter, or so it seemed. When Schwarzkopf was there, it was heaven. There are still fields and food plots, but the quail hunting isn�t what it used to be. What happened? Well, less considerate hunters (more people) showed up with wide ranging dogs and would shoot the coveys down to a few survivors or wipe them out entirely. Coyotes showed up and the area is riddled with hogs, but always has been. Quail need numbers for survival and the protection that a covey affords its members. During the spring turkey season, I still hear the calls of quail all over the place. I haven�t quail hunted there in many years. Now that I have my own dog, that will change. However, I have hunted pre-season released quail at other places. I won�t turn down the invitation. They don�t fly like wild birds, but some aren�t half bad and it is not like shooting fish in a barrel, at least for my skill level. For wild birds, I hunt woodcock and snipe. I shoot dove, which are wild, but that�s not hunting. The best hunting game in town for me is the wild turkey. The good old days for Mr. Bob are in the past. The good old days for Mr. Tom are right now. Times have changed and so have I.

I leave in about 19 hrs. I vac packed about 8 lbs of pulled pork I smoked the other night. I'll grab a case of CA cabernet and some tri-tip to grill there. Should be a great feast.

Chuck, If Mike eats all that peanut brittle on the way up here, cut him off from the meat courses...Daryl is already here, and plans to kill most of the birds before the rest of you guys have a chance..Mr. Wood will be here midday Sunday...

Chuck,
If Daryl wants to go out in that cold, he can kill em all. I was thinkin I'd sleep in every morning and have scrambled eggs and pulled pork anyways. Mike will have a lot of gruntin later if he eats all that brittle. He probably wouldnt want any meats after that. Maybe just some Metamucil.

My maxim is "Hunt all day, gas all night!" So who am I rooming with?

The turd hounds

I can tell you miscreants are going to have a great time! Be safe and have fun...Geo

And 2 cats...

Back on the original topic, Dad and I hunted a "preserve" near Gettysburg a couple of times. All stocked birds, but flight pen raised..Pretty nice. I have hunted a couple, as a guest, where you had to kick the birds to to make em fly, not so nice. There is place about 130 miles from here, where the week before she closes up, she puts all the birds left out in the fields, and invites us (me and Flash) to come down and shoot em...mostly Chukars, thats fun...and its free..But being spoiled now, with so many wild birds, I would have a tough time paying to do it. But if thats all you can do, it beats sitting in front of the TV.Hard to spoil a day in the field, with a dog and agun..

The guy that has the "preserve" up in the central CA valley has a "all in" hunt at the end of his season. He reserves it for his favorite customers. Somehow our bunch got in on it a few yrs ago. He put out around 300 flight pen raised pheasant over a 6 sq mile area. there were 3 groups of 6-8 hunters. My friend shooting a 28g had high bag at 18 pheasant. I had second high bag at 17 shooting my 410. Seemed like fun then. Since then, I've been there a few times a year, usually after the wild bird season closes. We were invited again to this event last April. I just couldn't work up the enthusiasm since my Lab was dealing with a CCL tendon problem and I'd have to go without her.