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Snipe must be thrown in with the other upland gamebirds just because they couldn't figure out what else to call them. They're nearly always found here in low, wet, boggy places. Woodcock, too, but in the woods.

More upland hunting.





SRH

[quote=Chuck H]Upland in my mind...














The individual states commonly list "upland" game as most of these species and sometimes more: quail, dove, chukar (partridge), pheasant, grouse, pigeon (bandtailed), snipe, grouse, etc..

Lovely fotos indeed, the one with the white Pointer in the distance, and the two Labs closer to the hunters-?? How do you work a pointing dog with a Flushing dog afield without conflicts--ie: Your well trained Elhew bloodlined Pointer jacks up tighter than a nun's pursestrings, you heart beats a mile a minute as you walk in on the point- off to the side so the dog can see you, gun raised, eyes out to where the nose tells you from experience the bird(s) will flush, and then- Blam-o-- here come Butch and Sundance bustin' in, the bird(s) scatter like gangbusters, and the Pointer is throughly confused--

A.B. Frost's painting on the cover of "New England Grouse Shooting" by William Harnden Foster



The Upland Gunner's Book: An Anthology edited by George Bird Evans is available as an e-book
http://archive.org/details/uplandgunnersboo00evan

I would think a 12 bore British game gun perfect for "upland game"

Indeed it is, Mike--including pheasants.

I've often hunted pheasants with a European double equipped with a sling, but the only time I sling arms is after I've shot my last bird, or if I'm getting the gun out of the way to snap a picture. Hunting pheasants--or any other relatively open country bird--while carrying at sling arms can work, if you have a pointing dog and shoot only pointed birds. But I've found that pheasants flush in range, quite frequently, when the dog's nowhere around them. I'm not above shooting unpointed birds under those circumstances.

Snipe (and rail), in my view, fall into a sort of in between category. They're found in or near water, and many states require that hunters use nontoxic shot. For me, that makes them not quite upland, not quite waterfowl.

Ducks, Geese, and shoreline hunting of rail are waterfowl hunting. All other game birds to me are upland hunting. Turkeys are too special to categorize .

One aspect of REAL upland guns that some times goes over head of owner is the gun should actually have value commensurate with being taken out in the uplands, briars, thickets, rain snow etc. Particularly guns intended for partridge hunting. Guy wants to get a custom double gun made up, he gets fancy engraving by some master, uses spectacular grained wood, worries for nights over theory like having another 3/1000 inch of choke in left barrel, gets ridiculously long target type length of pull, etc etc etc. Then he usually ends up with high cost vanity gun that lives in safe and comes out for for pictures or to show off to friends , or may be for skeet or while walking very carefully on open roads in blue bird weather. To further confuse upland hunters, some magazine does more pictures and artical on the ultimate upland gun. Readers who are mostly clue less get lost in the engraving and wood, and offer hearty agreement. Big time joke. Give me a well worn honest upland gun that's really been in the coverts. Every thing here is IMHO.

OK, there's a list of birds generally considred by many to constitute "upland" birds.

But where does the descriptor "upland" come from? Why is it applied to these birds. Surely it wasn't just an arbitrary choice of word.

Gnomon, it's good to see your handle here again. I was afraid the Tea Party know-nothings from Misfires had put out a contract on you. A part of me hopes that Romney wins the polular vote but loses in the Electoral College. The crazies would probably declare war though rather than concede. I do surely hope they have to ride out another four years with Obama. I don't think the country would stand for another four years of Congressional obstructionism. We'll see. Oh, I wonder if the term upland isn't meant to distiguish waterfowl habitate from " higher" ground.Regards, Bill

rocky, I tend to agree with you that the "upland" refers to "higher" ground than that where waterfowl are found. And yes, it's our equivalent to "rough" shooting in Britain as opposed to driven shoots.

But when I see those wonderful open expanses out West and the wide spaces between trees in the Georgia pine woods I get jealous. Just hunted grouse in Maine and the cover was too thick for me this year - age getting to me. I think it's gonna be Georgia hereafter!

Don't sweat the crazies. They will always be amongst us. I'm enjoying my doubles while I still can and that's good enough for me.

All the best