Gentlemen,
I agree with springhill 100%, never measure a good hunt by the number of birds you kill, you can be assured that most all Grouse & Woodcock hunters never use bird kill numbers to judge whether they had a good hunt to not. Most ethical Quail hunters are the same way. In fact as traditional Grouse hunters we judge our great Grouse & Woodcock hunting days, on bird contact numbers, whether we have a chance to gun the birds or not.
There is a lot more to bird hunting than just killing birds. In fact most Grouse & Woodcock hunters would not even hunt if the beautiful dog work were taken away from the hunt. The actual gunning of the wild birds is only part of a great hunt. In fact many young Grouse & Woodcock hunters go several seasons before they are good enough in the woods to kill a wild Grouse. Even when hunting released Pheasant and Chukar, the number of birds killed should never be how the hunt is judged.
IMO an ethical sportsman should never worry about shooting his limit, unfortunately some young sportsman seem to be afflicted with this aspect of hunting, with experience most upland hunters grow out it, and some never do.
In our family as young boys the ethics of hunting was a big part of learning how to respect Gods gifts to us as human beings, and we were taught never to abuse the Lords gifts. Our incredible mountains, the wild life in them and the dogs we are granted ownership of, are all part of our traditional Grouse & Woodcock hunting, and all part of our upland shooting life.
all the best,
Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man
A good book for learning some of the Upland Shooting Life, by GBE
