Gun Dog Forum

What is your favorite Game Bird to hunt? If you choose other, tell what and why.

I vote for pheasants..........

I chose quail, just because I'm in GA, but I would like to venture outside GA this year at least once to hunt pheasant.

The quail hunting on my grandfather's farm is awesome. Pheasants are sparse in southern Illinois, but now that I'm residing in the central to northern part, I do see a few alongside the backroads now. Maybe if I can talk to a few farmers around here I can get permission to hunt some phesants....

We choose pheasants also! Just made some pheasant in cream tonight for supper, mmmm good!

I like grouse because except for game farms thats the only upland bird them and woodcock

I love quail hunting! I live in pheasant country so to getting to hunt quail is hard. But, when I was a kid I got to all the time.

I know we should have more than 13 votes. Lets see some more voter turnout.

I chose grouse because those no good rotten flyin' between tree pine tree perchin' blasted birds get the best of me the majority of time....................................and I love em for it. The most challenging bird, (around here) that I can chase. Also a true test for my Weim Dusty.

I voted for pheasants. We have a lot of rice and sugar beets field here and when I started hunting that's where we hunted. But now I hunt at a private preserve.

Everything else is just a bird

I indicated Pheasant, but if it flys I will hunt it!

just because only species to hunt other than occasional woodcock
here in florida. anyone intersted in some quail hunting , contact me
ill put you on some birds. im really ready for season to start this year.
i bought a broke GSP last month

Our favorite birds to hunt are sharptails and prarie chickens. At least they have the decency to hold still for pointing dog. Them no good track star. ditch parrots. Hard to keep a gun dog broke on those foreign imports.SDGORD

I vote quail, tough flying little things and they offer a surprise even when you are expecting them to get up.

I vote pheasants but I also love to hunt quail they both are great and always scare the crap outa me when they get up!

Voted for quail because it's hard to beat the feel of a big covey flushing around you. At times it's almost sensory over load with birds flying in all directions & not sure which to shoot.

It's hard to beat a fat,late season mallard !! of course,if we're talking upland, I tear the roads up looking for pheasants.

The pheasant has my nod with the Ruff Grouse a close second.
We don't have quail around here but I was invited to hunt them in upper Texas. The OLN network filmed the hunt. Yes Folks, my dogs have been seen on National TV. What a thrill and honor. Never having hunted quail before that show I did not realize what fun quail hunting is. Wish we had them to hunt here and I might move them to # 1.
Janet

I vote for any thing my dog can point and I can kill on the wing. If it flies it dies. My GWP was pointing rabbits in NODAK last fall so it doesn't have to fly. If it runs it must die.

Not me! If I don't eat it, I don't kill it.
Janet

Good call Janet.

Ezzy

Ya'll don't eat rabbits. Man I love them. I just found it strange the first time Gunner went on point and a rabbit took off. Thats multi tasking. You know she has to be a female because males can't multi task. ( as per my wife ).

Fur drive and bird drive are one in the same. If your dog see's the neighbors cat when your taking them for a walk around the neighborhood. Don't say, "leave it".

gundogguru'

My dog won't point bunnies. It's wierd. If a rooster or covey of huns or the rare quail will hold, he locks up like a statue, and (usually) won't move till I release him or shoot. If he smells a rabbit he is on it like stink on you know what! He has to find it, root around in the grass or the brush pile till that thing comes out running so he can get right on it's a$$, tongueing the whole time, till I stop him so I can take a shot. Does the same with squirrels.

We winged a few pheasants last season that he chased down for quite a ways through corn fields and CRP with no yipping or tongueing (as the call it). Only makes noise on the furrred creatures. I haven't figured out the why of that yet.

Pheasants are fun and so are Chuckar, Quail and Sharptails....but Huns now theres a real good time!!! A covy bird that's twice the size of a Quail and just a darn fast!!

Quail, huns, pheasants, shapie in that order for their aptitude to hold for the pointing dogs.

I have to say Huns, Sharptail, then quail.....

Sharptails on the Dakota prairie, before the snow falls. They can't be beat. Isn't it a good thing we all don't like the same bird...

The rest are minor league. Gambel's quail are the pros. Any dog that can handle Gambel's quail can handle any other bird. Not that many can.

Anyone else noting regional preferences?

Grouse - Pa state bird! Tons of Fun!

I put pheasant. Nothing funner than running one of them down.

ryan when you are done with school and have that new GSP you are planning on and would like to travel somewhere to hunt give me a hollar cause when I put you in chukar country and they leave you in shame you will think those running pesant are a walk in the park

I got chukar 30 min from me. I cannot comment on them yet because I havent hunted them yet. If u wanna come here I will show you what it is like to put up 4 different species of birds in 1 field all wild game.
Besides look at the polls i think pheasant is number 2 way above chukar.

dont know what the terain is like there but here when chasing chukar you will likley ascend and descend 12,000 +/- ft in one day and you can easily where out a $200 pair of boots in a season!

chukar is what we have the largest numbers of. putting up 4 species in one field thats great but putting up 3 in one day is good enough for me. limits on all (6 chukar, 6 huns, 10 quail). I havent got those limits yet but a good friend has. he has just been trying to limit out on chukar in one jump. he came close this year with 5. then he worries about the rest

We got em here on the prairie. Dont know what the terrain is like but apparently they are South of Coaldale. I plan on lookinf when the weather getts better. Jobird u in on this after our pheasant hunt.

ourhunters wrote:We choose pheasants also! Just made some pheasant in cream tonight for supper, mmmm good!

Would love to see that recipe!!!!

We like it in stir fry.

Woodcock, then whatever else is second for me.

My preference lately has been for chukar/huns - but I haven't hunted them much due to being in TX the last two winters.

far and away it has to be chukars, they are a covey bird which I like the most and the country is rugged and beautiful. A brace of chukars is wondeful thing considering how hard they are to earn. Desert quail come in a close second with mearns being my favorite bird. I just wish I could get away to hunt them more often than once a year.

Never met a Gamebird that I didn't like or enjoy the challenge, but to me, everything other than a Ruffed Grouse is just a Gamebird! I would think that Chukars in their native lands would be pretty cool, they seem to inhabit lands that pose as much of a challenge as those places Ol' King Ruff lives. If the land you hunt doesn't beat you, then the bird most often will! From the many pix I've seen of "true" Chukar habitat, if you were to cover those areas with Grapevine, Greenbriar, young growth and just general tangles, you would be hunting the same areas where my best Grouse hunting is found in Appalachia!

Bruce, sorry to not have gotten back with you about those keys, things have been a circus around here, hence my lack of posting. hope everything worked out in the end I know what you mean about grouse, I spent my childhood and teenage years chasing old ruff in the hills of western maryland and pennsylvania. they pose their challenges as you mentioned and chukars........well, lets just say I could do with out the 90 degree drop off's and terrible rocks that tear up dogs feet. but I guess that is what i love about it. minus my dogs feet.

To hunt ... here in Central KS, pheasant is good hunting & what we find most often. Have to travel further for quail, but those are wonderful fun too.
We've hunted chukar in northern NV--our friends there say the first time it's for fun, after that it's for revenge!!

I have to say that chukar is absolutely my favorite to cook & eat--it beats everything hands down! Chukar tetrazini, OMG, talk about delicious!

Overall, the chukar is my favorite game bird -- non native here in KS, so I try to raise some every year to have on hand for training (and eating.)

Living in one of the best pheasant states I voted pheasant, but I do love a good quail hunt also.

I'd have to say Grouse and woodcock. I love the challenge of shooting through trees and finding a shot...

Fred, that is a spectacular picture of a gray phase. And I am going to guess it was a fall bird. We see them strutting in the fall some.

Having relatives farming in Iowa I was introduced to pheasnat hunting there in the late 70's. Remember some great hunting back then. Since then I've continued to hunt pheasants in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North & South Dakota.

A close second is sharptails. Just find them a neat bird to hunt and I think I might like eating them better than pheasant.

I'm all for the grouse! They test both the man and the dog...what more could you ask for