Bird season starts October 1st here. Can't wait. I have two new sxs to try out on birds, mostly woodcock. A 410, and a 28.

I just hope it's a little cooler than last year. Chasing setters in 60 degree temps isn't as much fun as chasing them in 30-40 degree temps. Considering how hot it's been this summer I'm not holding out much hope.

I'll suffer.

painter,

I agree working my Ryman Setters and my Gordon Setter is much nicer when the weather is cold and the Grouse set better also. Unfortunately we usually have 50's & 60 degree whether the 1st week and then for some crazy reason the 2nd week ends up in the 70's and even the 80's which really stinks, especially for the dogs. About the 3rd week it starts to cool off into the 40's at night, and we have some really fine Grouse and Woodcock hunting. Wet cold weather makes for Great Grouse & Woodcock hunting, behind some great Setter dogs.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Only 18 days till bird season opens ( in Georgia ).

I'm jealous.

How long is your season?

3 splits:
Sept. 5-30
Nov. 21-29
Dec. 8- Jan. 31

Bird season (doves) should start everywhere on September 1st.

My kids’ trap season was was ended by the Chinese, so we’re still sitting on 32 flats of 7 1/2 shot. Hopefully we can burn some of that up on doves.

Good luck! If you like to shoot ( a lot, potentially ) it`s the funnest time you can have when it comes to hunting, IMHO, of course.

We don't even have a dove season. We have very few doves, and not many grouse. We do OK with woodcock

Upland bird season starts here Oct 1. Woodcock ends Nov 14. All other species run till
Dec 31.

painter,

I have been Grouse hunting northern NH for many years, 2 years ago before my open heart surgery, we moved 12 Grouse before lunch time and about 15 after lunch until about 3:30. Granted we have some very serious Grouse Dogs. If this is low Grouse numbers to you, and it maybe if you live in NH, and really know the Grouse population locations real well, it could be low to you personally as an avid NH Grouse hunter. I do not think this would qualify as low Grouse numbers most any where else in the USA. Now Dove hunting in NH is like here in Pa many sportsman participate very little, because the numbers have been down the past 6 or even 7 years. It's not a Texas type Dove shoot for sure.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Dave,

Those are great numbers. Whereabouts in the north woods were you?

We hunt in the central part of the state, and concentrate on woodcock cover. My friend that has the dogs prefers woodcock hunting, and we typically see numbers similar to what you report for northern grouse, and this is day in and day out until the flights end. In central NH we see very few grouse these days. It used to be that we'd see them in the same cover. Last year we saw one.

Some close friends spent several days in the north woods last season, granted without dogs, and saw nothing in areas that used to be productive even without dogs.

painter,

I really do not want to give any further location information on the forum, drop me some private email at [email protected] and we will talk further. I do not think the Grouse population has changed that much in the past year and a half. Without good Grouse dogs you can walk past a lot of these birds, and the older birds have become spooky similar to Pa birds and reset their safety zones which have become fairly large.

No insult intended

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

None taken.

We have three zones here in Texas for Dove, the North and Central zones open September 1 and the South zone (where I live) opens September 14th. There is a split for dove November 1 to mid December for the White Tail overlap but then it resumes December 18th and runs through to January 24th here in the South Zone.

Quail doesn't start until October 31 and runs through to the end of February and most game preserves (pin raised ranches) start mid October and run through to the middle or end of March or whenever it becomes too warm to run the dogs safely.

Last season was very warm so I am looking forward to this year and hoping for cooler temps for both the birds and the dogs. I've got a new 28ga on deck this year and I am excited to start dropping some Bob White's with it.

Tex,
Have fun hunting both the Doves and the Quail, having spent more than a few years in Texas I understand the hot weather. My buddy Don Moody had a Quail lease in Texas and it was some kin of nice, Don hunts upstairs now, I do miss him badly. We have very few wild Quail here in Pa now, thank God for Texas.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Having spent the majority of my life here in Texas I am more than accustom to the heat, but it doesn't mean that I like it lol. I am very much looking forward to this season, I am starting to see more dove in the area in recent weeks so that's a good sign, now let's just hope that we don't get hammered with one of these hurricanes here in the next few days.

Getting good dove reports here in Georgia as well. Opening day can be an endurance test ( bring plenty of water ) but it can also be lots of fun.

6 days and a wake up til the Sept. 1 dove opener here in AZ. The white wing dove are thick at my chosen spot. Should be a great two weeks!

Dove season opens here in September. This was once part of the Bobwhite capitol of the world but no more. We have a few birds & the numbers seem to be increasing. There are some grouse upstate in the more mountainous part of the state but none in the coastal counties. The only ruffled grouse I ever saw were two Pop shot in West Virginia when I was a kid. Rails don't have the class of grouse or quail but they have provided me with much pleasure over the years. They have a split season starting in September. I usually kill 45 or more a year. We have woodcock & snipe but the hunting is hit & miss. Dove hunting can be pretty good at times. I guess what I need to do is beat the bushes. I am not going to get much shooting beating the keyboard!

Well...season opener today, and my buddy with the dogs severed/ruptured/tore (whatever the correct term may be) his quadriceps tendon going down a banking to retrieve a bird. He needs immediate surgery, so we're done for the year.

It's a terrible injury, with a long recovery. There's always next year.

That's a bummer. You can always hunt with others, without the dogs, or get on some pen raised sanctuary stuff just to scratch the itch until next season.